Digital boost for Black River school

The Jamaica Technology and Digital Alliance (JTDA) has donated technology equipment to Black River Primary and Infant School in St Elizabeth to support the institution’s recovery from Hurricane Melissa and strengthen digital learning.

The handover took place at the school last Friday, in the presence of St Elizabeth South Western Member of Parliament and Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green; Principal Sharon Whyte; and Board Chairman Hartley Cawley.

The donation included a smart interactive whiteboard, an IdeaHub device, networking equipment and other educational tools to enhance the school’s computer lab and support its disaster recovery strategy. The equipment was contributed to the alliance by its international partners.

The initiative was started by JTDA Immediate Past President Almando Cox and carried through to delivery by the current executive, led by President Raquel Seville.

Black River Primary and Infant School was among the institutions hardest hit when Hurricane Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 system in October 2025. Nearly a year later, the school was still rebuilding, with repairs and furniture shortages delaying the start of classes for the 2026-2027 academic year. Unstable internet connectivity had also ruled out online classes as an alternative.

The school serves approximately 900 students.

Green thanked the alliance for supporting the school’s recovery, stressing that rebuilding should go beyond restoring damaged infrastructure to ensuring students have the tools needed to thrive in a technology-driven world.

“I want to thank the Jamaica Technology and Digital Alliance for remembering Black River Primary and for ensuring that we are recovering from Hurricane Melissa better than before,” he said.

“Black River Primary was one of the schools that was completely devastated by Hurricane Melissa and has been going through a building back process, but we don’t want to build back as we were. We want to ensure that these children have the digital tools they need to really excel in this modern world.”

Green said the donation would help transform the educational experience at the institution, adding: “On behalf of the residents of the constituency and the children, parents, teachers, everybody, thank you.”

Seville said the alliance wanted to ensure that students in the affected community had access to the same digital learning opportunities as their peers elsewhere.

“A child in Black River deserves the same access to digital learning as a child anywhere else in Jamaica or the world,” she said. “Hurricane Melissa took a great deal from this community. We are here to help put the tools of the future back into the hands of these students and their teachers.”

She described the donation as an example of the alliance’s theme, ‘Empower Locally, Lead Globally’, with international partners and Jamaica’s technology community working together to support education.

Whyte said the equipment had arrived at a critical time as the school worked to recover from the hurricane.

“We are starting all over after Hurricane Melissa, and this equipment comes at a time when we really need it. We are extremely grateful, and especially thankful for the IdeaHub device,” she said.

Cawley also welcomed the contribution, saying it would help expand the school’s capacity to support learning and impart knowledge.

“We are wholeheartedly grateful and thankful to the team for bringing these technological devices to help with the expansion of the learning capabilities of the school and imparting knowledge to the students here at Black River Primary and Infant School,” he said.

He thanked the JTDA delegation for making the presentation despite the rainy conditions.

Seville also acknowledged the alliance’s international partners, as well as the school’s administration and Green, for their collaboration in facilitating the handover.

The donation forms part of the JTDA’s commitment to the “Equip” pillar of its mandate, which focuses on building digital capacity in Jamaican communities, schools and workplaces to ensure that no community is left behind in the country’s digital transformation.