NASSAU, The Bahamas – The Hon. Jeffrey Lloyd, Minister of Education, in his mid-year Budget Report to Parliament, Monday, admonished parents and students to take education seriously.

Minister Lloyd recollected when encyclopedias were the source of information. Holding a cell phone to illustrate his point he said: “This is your education you must take it seriously. You don’t need encyclopedias anymore today. The world is in your hands. Anything you want to know you can know. You can learn anytime, anywhere whatever you need to learn right here. Not for the games, not to run gossip, sending foolish WhatsApp voice notes, and so on but to educate and train yourself.  Get serious about education.”

Minister Lloyd recalled the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) pledge at the beginning of the 2020/21 school year to ‘leave no child behind,’ and the commitment that through a public, private partnership all government school students who needed devices would receive them to assist in the facilitation of their learning.

He announced that over $500,000 in donations, including devices, and internet connectivity, has been raised through a partnership with Leno and Corporate Bahamas for tablets and internet connectivity.

“I am happy to report that the response to this initiative has been overwhelming. The corporate community has proven to be genuine partners in the advancement of education in our country.

“With their assistance, the Ministry has now been able to put a device in the hands of over 90 percent of our public school students. To date, the combined total of outstanding devices is 3,800.”

Minister Lloyd told Parliamentarians that the goal of the Ministry is to digitize the entire public educational system, linking, all districts, public schools, satellite offices with the MOE, thus creating a Wide Area Network.

“The 21st century demands of educational instruction, learning and management [require] it.  It is simply not an option. We have completed all schools and satellite offices on the islands of New Providence, Eleuthera, and Grand Bahama.

“The remaining islands will be upgraded shortly pending requisite approvals and the availability of funding. To date, 12 million dollars have been spent, with another 10.3 million dollars needed to complete the remaining islands. During October 2020, bandwith at all schools was doubled to accommodate all students and teachers. Additionally, the bandwidth to the network was increased to 10G to accommodate all users. In 2020, we engaged Cloud Carib in an Active Directory (at a cost of $93,977.36). The Active Directory helps organize the user and computers on the network.  It will be used to organize the Ministry’s hierarchy,” he added.