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Professor Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School and founder/co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, is spearheading the development of software to make it easier for GSAT students to study.

Speaking at Tuesday's launch of the Students Expressing Truth (SET)-Jamaica's Promise Foundation, Nesson said Jamaica needed an education revolution that will enlighten and empower everyone.

"Education can be a strategy, if you grasp it, and with my centre coming together with SET-Jamaica's Promise Foundation, through this well-defined software, we can accomplish much," he added.

The foundation is the brainchild of Paymaster boss and new Jamaican ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks, who told the audience she wanted to accomplish the launch before her imminent departure to Washington. She expressed pleasure that the education and health ministries had given the initiative their blessing.

Free software

The software being developed will be ready in January 2011 and, because it is "open code", will be free of cost to students. However, the professor said Harvard University was committed to distributing the software through the Internet and hand-held devices. Its development will cost US$10,000-US$15,000.

"The software will make it easier and more enjoyable for children to study through a standardised practice test, designed for both computer and cellphone use," Marks explained.

She said that through a points system, scholarships would be offered to the highest-scoring students who not only "pass" but display a level of aptitude that would give them the opportunity to progress.

The SET-Jamaica's Promise Foundation will also, through its collaborative Healthy Start balanced-nutrition programme, establish soup kitchens in specific schools and communities islandwide. The third element in the initiative will involve mentorship, dispute resolution, skills training and an after-school homework and apprenticeship programmes.