PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY 17TH 2020 UWP GOVERNMENT DEPRIVES 8000 YOUNG SAINT LUCIANS OF LAPTOPS

1. 1 | P a g e
PRESS RELEASE
FEBRUARY 17TH
2020
UWP GOVERNMENT DEPRIVES 8000 YOUNG SAINT LUCIANS OF LAPTOPS
The Saint Lucia Labour Party has been reliably advised that the Allen Chastanet UWP
Administration will finally be recommencing the One-Laptop-Per Child Programme which it
stopped without good reason nearly four years ago.
Between 2013 and 2016, the SLP Government provided to students, teachers and schools
nearly 15,000 computer devices for the benefit of enhanced learning environments through
ICT. This was achieved through the generous assistance of the Governments of the Republic
of Trinidad & Tobago, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of China
(Taiwan).
In just the last year of the programme alone – and more specifically in February 2016 – the
SLP Administration acquired over 3,840 laptops (with cases) and provided them to students
of Form III as well as teachers, and these were distributed to all secondary schools and other
educational institutions on island. Additionally, 525 PCs and 125 projectors were also
supplied to secondary schools to augment Information Technology (IT) Labs. Additionally,
through the Organisation of American States (OAS), hundreds of teachers received training
on how to integrate ICT in the classroom.
Prior to the 2016 General Election, former Prime Minister Stephenson King attempted to
ridicule and belittle the importance of education of our youth by stating that people cannot eat
laptops. After the June 2016 General Election, the UWP Government gave the impression
that they would continue the programme. However, in February, 2017, Prime Minister
Chastanet callously announced that the programme was cut for lack of funds. The following
year, at their second anniversary rally, UWP Minister for Education, Gale Rigobert declared
that:
“I hold steadfast in my position, and that with my colleagues in the Cabinet of the
United Workers Party that it is not enough to give a child a laptop. Ki gayn ni ki an
sa? So as of September last year, we have introduced courses in the schools so that
children can have the e-skills, the digital skills, the computer skills, so that they can
maximize the use of the computers that we will be putting in classrooms throughout
the schools, versus giving children in Form III a laptop. That is the philosophy of the
United Workers Party.”
Notwithstanding this incredulous and misleading statement by the Minister about the absence
of courses in schools, the laptop programme was again promised later in 2018, and again in
2019, but to no avail. In effect, nearly 8,000 Saint Lucian students from the graduating

2. 2 | P a g e
classes of 2019, 2020 and 2021 have been deprived by the Government as a result of their
general disregard for placing priority on education.
Whatever minor improvements that may come to the programme’s reintroduction do not
justify the lost opportunities for thousands of our youth over the past three and a half years.
What the UWP Administration is bringing forward now is too little, too late.
It appears that the Government fails to realise that ICT is the basis of the Digital Economy.
Spending on education and specifically ICT for Education, is not merely a social good but an
investment in the future human resource base of our country. It was through the deliberate
action of the SLP Government that telecommunications liberalisation and modernisation was
achieved. Today, smart phones are everywhere and internet penetration is impressive.
However, technology is always changing and Saint Lucia needs to keep up. We welcome the
actions by entities like the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank on Digital Transformation. The
SLP Government, once re-elected, will bring forth Education Revolution that will be one of
the pillars supporting a Youth Economy, driven by prioritising technology, innovation and
creativity.
We call on the Government to stop prioritising wasteful spending on Friends, Family and
undeserving Foreigners: stop the excessive and exorbitant spending on consultants, spending
for which this year has hit an unprecedented high of $46 million in one year – 4 times more
than what has ever been spent by any Government in any one year.
We urge the Government to put Saint Lucians first, especially its vibrant, innovative young
people.
END.
BREAD * JUSTICE * FREEDOM