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Pilot launched for students to access courses on
Internet
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CLAUDIENNE EDWARDS, Observer staff reporter
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
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| MCBEAN... project can benefit
the island |
A pilot project through which Jamaican students will be able to
learn courses via the Internet, was launched Monday by a North
American company -- Click A Tutor Inc -- at the Tivoli Gardens
Comprehensive High School in Kingston.
A second project was expected to be launched yesterday at the
Penwood High School, also in Kingston, and the third is
scheduled for the Tacky High School in St Mary was being
considered for the third pilot, according to Ravi Thomas,
president and CEO of Click A Tutor Inc. As of next month,
individual parents will be able to have access to the service.
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MONTAQUE... Tivoli students are from a wide cross section of
economic backgrounds |
Click A Tutor, which offers complete high school online courses
to Grades four -12 public, private and home school students in
Canada and the United States, added the Jamaican high school
curriculum to its website a month ago, Thomas said.
Jamaican students will also be able to access the North American
curricula on Click A Tutor which has been approved by the
National Association of Private Schools in the US to give school
leaving certificates.
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THOMAS... website will offer to Jamaican children
world-class education resources |
In preparing subject courses taught in Jamaican high schools for
the website which has no advertising or chat room, Click A Tutor
was guided by the curriculum on the Ministry of Education
website, Thomas said.
A feature of the website is the availability of live tutors 24
hours a day to answer questions. The website also has a library
and questions asked by other children and the answers are also
stored in the system.
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BARNSWELL... motivated to participate after meeting
illiterate farmworker |
"The website will offer to Jamaican children, world-class
education resources that can narrow the digital divide and bring
them on the same level playing-field with children in any
developed country," Thomas told the Observer.
The annual membership fee for North American students to access
Click A Tutor is US$150 annually, but through the sponsorship of
two Jamaicans living in Canada and Jamaica Labour Party
councillor, Robert Montaque, the cost to children in the pilot
schools will be J$50 annually.
In the computer laboratory at the Tivoli Gardens Comprehensive
High School, the children will be able to access the website by
using the school's password.
Wayne McBean who resided in Tivoli Gardens before migrating to
Canada, was made aware of Click A Tutor, by Errol Barnswell, a
friend from Clarendon.
"Errol approached me about sponsoring a pilot project for
Jamaica, and I thought it could benefit the island," McBean
said.
Tivoli Gardens was chosen for the pilot because the inner-city
high school has a "good computer laboratory" and students from a
wide cross section of economic backgrounds, Montaque said.
Barnswell recalled that an illiterate farm worker he sat beside
on a flight to Jamaica from Canada, motivated him to participate
in a project that could make education more available to
Jamaican students.
"On a flight to Jamaica I sat beside a farmworker. He couldn't
fill out the immigration form or sign his name. I thought
something was wrong. When Ravi told me what he was doing, I
called Montaque, my college mate from the Passley Gardens
Agricultural School (now the College of Agricultural Science and
Education (CASE)," Barnswell said.
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