Education
JAM | May 11, 2022

More schools to benefit from high-speed internet access

Juanique Tennant

Juanique Tennant / Our Today

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Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Daryl Vaz (Photo: Facebook @Daryl Vaz)

More Jamaican schools will soon become beneficiaries of high-speed internet access due to work being carried out under the Government’s National Broadband Initiative.

The two-phase initiative has attempted to positively impact the lives and livelihoods of Jamaicans through technological improvements.

The first phase of the initiative represents a response to the connectivity needs that have resulted from measures implemented to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Making his contribution to the 2022-2023 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (May 10) Technology Minister Daryl Vaz informed: “Last year we were hampered, in part, by supply chain challenges, which saw only 30 schools with high bandwidth usage being connected to the Government’s WAN by the end of the fiscal year.

“However, by August this year, another 100 high bandwidth schools will be connected; as contracts to support the connection of these schools in the Kingston Metropolitan Area and the parishes of St Catherine, Clarendon and Manchester, have already been awarded.”

The minister further informed that the remaining 241 high bandwidth schools would be connected by the end of the financial year.

Vaz underscored the importance of connecting schools in this manner, noting that it opens “a new world
of possibilities in the delivery of services in the education sector, making more seamless, activities such as:
• Central monitoring and management of closed-circuit television cameras on school campus’;
• Central monitoring and management of schools’ WiFi system; and
• Reliable access to high bandwidth applications such as, video conferences.”

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