The National Data Management Authority (NDMA) has been steadfast in connecting a whopping 158 schools in the hinterland to the internet.
Students can conduct more research. It also promotes learning outside of school hours.
Textbooks are continually distributed to ensure students have the best possible education. From 2020 to 2024, 1,895,000 million textbooks were given to students in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.
This means the government has made a colossal investment of $1 billion in textbooks to ensure Amerindian youths have the same access to education as their counterparts on the coast.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand told Amerindian leaders on day four of the National Toshaos Council (NTC) Conference that each child is given $27,000 worth of textbooks.
This initiative, she said, has borne fruit since, “We have twin boys from Karaudarnau now attending Bishops. We have children from St Cuthbert’s attending The Bishops’ High School. We have a child from Region Seven going to Queen’s College, Ruth Larson. So, I could tell you the impact of these investments on your villages.”
About 70 per cent of all schools in the hinterland have libraries.
The education minister stated that by the start of the new school term, all of the schools will have library spaces.
“And these books, my friends, are the books that children are reading these days, Harry Potter and Dog Man and The Babysitter Club and Hardy Boys and Dr Seuss and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and your children are going to love them,” she stated. (Department of Public Information)
