The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the United National Congress (UNC), Dr Kirk Meighoo, has criticised the government for its plan to distribute 7,000 laptops to pupils and teachers this week.
In a statement on Tuesday, Meighoo described the announcement which was made by Minister of Education Dr Nyaan Gadsby-Dolly as an insult to children.
He said: “This is PNM Pappyshow Politics of the very worst kind, and Trinidad and Tobago must vehemently and completely reject it.”
“This is a slap in the face to students and their parents who have had to face such severe challenges purposely imposed on them by Rowley and his Ministers. These 7,000 laptops will not at all fill the massive hole dug out by her Prime Minister, which has threatened the future of two generations of students and their families.”
The UNC PRO went on to note that the Dr Keith Rowley-led administration terminated the distribution of laptops to SEA students when it entered office in 2015.
“The reason, of course, is that the programme was instituted by Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Beginning in 2010, launching at the Success Laventille Secondary School, over her term of office, 95,000 laptops were provided to students, and 4,000 to teachers, principals and school supervisors. This was the backbone of a digital education programme which the UNC had built, and which was dismantled by the malicious and visionless Keith Rowley.”
However, back in 2020 Dr Rowley said the programme was scrapped following a report prepared by the UWI Faculty of Social Sciences. The report found that the previous government’s multi-million dollar laptop initiative failed to significantly assist students in their overall performance. Meighoo disagreed.
“This is clearly contradicted by the facts during Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s Government. When the UNC came to power in 2010, 14 per cent of the 18,000 students who wrote the SEA scored less than 30 per cent. In five years, due to the visionary policies of the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration, that figure came down to less than one per cent! That is an incredible achievement.”
“Despite these facts, even up to July 2020, campaigning for elections, Rowley continued the lies, still arguing that giving laptops to students was ‘a programme that has been deemed to be a failure’.”
Meighoo said the Prime Minister didn’t believe his own suggestions as in August 2020, days after the elections, his Education Minister called a press conference begging the private sector to donate laptops to students. It should be noted that this request was made months after the pandemic forced students into online learning.
Moreover, the UNC PRO urged Dr Rowley to explain why he changed his mind about the laptops.
“The PNM have no urgent drive to fix this generational mess that they have created. 7,000 laptops won’t do it.”
“Keith Rowley has set this country back decades with his disastrous education policy, long before covid. Tens of thousands of students have totally dropped out of the education system as a result of his cruel policies, and he does not seem to care.”
He ended by advising members of the public to vote for the UNC in hopes that the party “fixes” the education sector.
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