The digital divide

Nedburn Thaffe, Gleaner Writer

It has been months since students of St George's All-Age School in the rural community of Blackstonedge in St Ann have seen a computer at work.

Growing up in a farming community, where most of their parents live off subsistence farming, a computer in the home is uncommon to many of them.

This means that, for many, getting a head start in information and communication technology (ICT), a field that is being widely touted as critical for entry into the 21st-century workforce, is highly dependent on whether the school is able to provide the early stimulation.

However, with nine computers available and not even one working, the 130 students at St George's All-Age are already at a disadvantage where tapping into the field of ICT is concerned.

"What we have had to be doing is teaching them about computer parts," said Sandra Summerbell, the school's acting principal.

"It's amazing to see the children going around the computers and playing with the keyboards. It tells me that they want to have technology to work with. We would do well with even one working computer," Summerbell said.

The obviously outdated computers at the school were donated years ago and have outlived their usefulness.

SCALING BACK

A stop at Staceyville Primary in Sandy River, Clarendon, showed a situation that was not much different.

Educators at the school reminisced on a time when the computer programme was so vibrant that it was extended to parents in the farming community, who would journey to the school for computer lessons.

Now, with just four functional computers of a total of 15, the school abandoned the programme.

But even with this, principal Nerissa May is remaining confident that all is not lost for the 304 students at the school because of the intervention of her teaching staff.

"We are not out of technology completely because the teachers bring their computers from time to time, depending on the course of their lessons," said May.

Adding that the school tries not to depend on the Ministry of Education for everything, she told The Gleaner that one of the options on the table to get the computers up and running was fundraising, but this could take some time.

"We are currently working to construct our perimeter fence as safety is one of our priorities. Also, we wouldn't want to invest more in this without having protection," she said.

Noting that schools have been coming under pressure from the education ministry to utilise technology in the classroom, information technology teacher at McGnie All-Age, Megan Fearon, said with just seven functioning computers to serve a population of 690 students, "it is not going to be possible or up to the level of where Government wants it".

Added Fearon: "Also, other resources such as a multimedia projector are very expensive for us to find."

She said an additional 20 computers would go a far way in helping the students.

DISADVANTAGED

In the meantime, pointing out that rural schools are at a disadvantage when it compares to the allocation of resources between urban and rural schools, Sumberbell said both the private and public sectors needs to look at correcting the imbalance in the system.

"We would have seen at (some schools) that are closer to the ministry, they have extra (resources). With the private sector, they tend to cater for schools that are within their proximity, and for us, who are way up in the bushes, we hardly get any attention," she said.

"The ministry needs to do an analysis of the schools in the rural areas and … try and grant the resources that are needed in order for us to improve the current rate of literacy that we have in our schools."

President of the Jamaica Computer Society (JCS), Dean Smith, while pointing out that he could not speak on whether there was an imbalance in the distribution of resources between rural and urban schools, agreed, however, that there needs to be a coordinated approach in how computers, in particular, are donated.

He said this was often done by companies replacing older computers with newer models.

"There needs to be a structured programme to move the computers that come out of the private sector … into these primary schools. There also needs to be a decision on who should drive the process, whether it will be the JCS or other bodies," Smith said.

"The high schools have gone a long way with the e-learning programme, and I think the primary schools are now suffering."

nedburn.thaffe@gleanerjm.com