Many students attending No. 8 Primary School on the West Coast of Berbice (WCB), Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), are denied access to the internet services provided by the Ministry of Education at the institution while others, including the security, get the password.
The issue was raised at the last statutory meeting of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) by Councilor Carol Nurse, who noted that the children do not have access to internet services to complete their assignments.
The service has a password to access and is not given to students. However, a Nurse told the RDP that there are usually large numbers of people on the school stairs in the evenings accessing the internet.
“If you go to school in the evening, you would see the big people along with the security guards on the verandah and they are accessing the internet and the children can’t have the opportunity thing. The children are out of school but would come to the village office and around the compound; sometimes you would see them doing their homework there. I think if the internet system is in school, they should have access to it. Some of them, when they go there, you see that it would pop up on their slate, ‘Enter a password,’ and they don’t know the password so they can’t get the chance to use it, ”he told the RDC.
However, Regional Chair Vickchand Ramphal asked Regional Education Officer Dion Lewis-Clarke to provide some information about the allegations but failed to do so.