 view for comprehensive part of our mission speaks to preparing our students to be true 21st century leaders. And we understand that this can only happen when our children are equipped with the best tools possible. And while the devices are not all in and of themselves, we know that they are critical in helping our students to truly compete on a global stage. And so we are very, very happy and certainly feeling very warm, very fortunate that we are at this juncture that our students will be the recipients of these devices. Now I should stress our form two students, yes? And I imagine we will see this program continuing for years to come, Mr. Minister. Right, excellent. And so I just want to again express our welcome, express our appreciation for your presence here as well, parents. I know it was short notice for some of you. And so we are thankful that you made the time to be here. I think your presence speaks to your investment in your child, in your child's education, and this is something that we certainly would love to encourage. Finally, I know you are receiving these devices at what some might say is an odd time. It is the end of the term. However, I want to lean on this line that says to whom much is given, much is expected. And so students, I am going to implore you, I'm going to throw a challenge to you that when you receive these devices today, you are going to put everything possible into ensuring that we realize the returns, not just as a school, but as a country, because this is an investment in every single one of you. So we are asking you today to please make this investment count. On that note, let me say thanks again and welcome. The government of St. Lucia made a promise. And if I know the prime minister well, he always keeps his promise. And I can stand by him for that. So today we are here so that your students can receive the promised laptops. And let me assure your principal that the other children will get. Those of you who have children who are coming in September in form one, they will also receive their devices. And if you didn't know, I'm a product of you for comprehensive secondary school. I'm very proud to say that. Your principal has told you students that you take care of your devices. This is an investment. It is hard economic times, but the prime minister of St. Lucia has made the students of St. Lucia a priority. And you know very well that some parents received assistance at the beginning of the school term. And the form five students, the CXC Mathematics and English A, this was also paid for. And the facility fees as promised, the government has also paid it. And we are not going to pay it only once. We shall continue to pay it every year. And if the economy improves, if the economy improves and we can, we shall pay more CXC subjects for your children. This is a promise. And the government will keep the promise as long as we are able to. So I want you, you are not privileged. You are a priority. And this is why you are receiving your laptop today. And as your principal has said, cherish it, take care of it. Don't throw it around so that your parents have to spend money to repair them for you because the devices are expensive. The devices are expensive. It's more expensive to repair it than to buy a new one. So take very good care of it and use it to improve your education. We are in the 21st century and technology is part of education in the 21st century. So it's not only because COVID came that we are using technology. It is because the world over, if you are not on board, if you are not on top of things, you will be left behind. And we want to be able to compete on a global stage. And this is why we are equipping the children now so that you can perform, you can compete, you can operate anywhere in the world. So I want to wish all of you the very best. Make very good of the resource that you have received for your education today. Thank you very much. You will notice that today I'm decked out in my school uniform. Now for me, this is a mark of my pride, my respect and my admiration for my school. It is also a statement of honor for my school. Whenever I do have the opportunity, I do make use of this school uniform because it is a symbolic reminder of this school, how it helped to create who I am and what I became. But I can hardly believe it. 59 years ago, I became a student of this school sometime in 1963. And when you have 59, you must be saying, my goodness, this man is ancient. Because in another year, it will be 60 years. So it's a long time. And to hold the memory of a school so long throughout your life and who you are and what you are today is really the finest statement that one can make about the school that helped to shape you and to make you and to nurture you. It's not an opportunity for me to boast in front of Minister Sean Edwards, but rather it is an opportunity to say to all of you, who are here today, that you are not just students of any school, but you are students of a unique and very special school. And you need to be exceedingly proud because you have created and produced some of the best minds in this country and not incidentally this country, but indeed throughout the world because you're graduating so everywhere and institutions making us very proud. That being said, I listened to Dr. Prosper and said to myself, she's taken me back to the very first time that the laptop program became a reality. On that occasion, I did come to the school here to make a symbolic gift of the very first set of laptops. To the students in form three or form four, I think it was at the time they were prepared for the CXCs. I am exceedingly pleased now that this initiative that was started way back is being allowed to continue and that you now have a chance to own your own laptops and work with your laptops. When I addressed the students at the time, I said to them that laptops were a powerful tool. It was a great equalizer because what it did was to make sure that you are not disadvantaged but most importantly, you were in the same position as any child, any student anywhere in the world because you had the capacity with that laptop to source the very identical information that you were sourcing. Whether the students were in the UK, in France, in Holland, all for that matter, in the Middle East somewhere in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere or somewhere in Africa, but then you were joining them in access, getting access to information. But I never ever thought that the changes that have been so dramatic as they have been in the last couple of years. I remember trying to justify these laptops to parents and to teachers by saying to them that we are fast approaching the time when they wouldn't have to buy textbooks or all the textbooks would be in a thumb drive and they put in the thumb drive and voila, all the textbooks would be made available. We still need to accelerate that possibility but what has been dramatic has been the last two years with COVID because COVID despite the fact that it has brought us illness and death of loved ones, it also opened new windows of opportunity. The legal profession of which a part has changed too. The chances are even when COVID recedes we will no longer be appearing in court for all matters. Yes, for trials maybe because judges need to see your faces when you give evidence to determine if you're witness of truth or not. But procedural matters, case management, what we call case management matters, that is to say the preparation for trials will all be done virtually. So our lives have really changed and we'll continue to change. I want you to use those laptops very wisely but just a little caution. I use a word recently when I was addressing school principles I warned them against what I call deification, treating your laptops as if they were your only companion, treating your laptops with so much reverence that you forgot the interesting things of life and you no longer did pleasurable things. Now listen, I really want to discourage you from that. I want to discourage you from feeling that technology is the commencement and the end of the world and there's nothing else. And I want the parents to join me in encouraging you to develop strict hours and times when you use your laptops and urge you to enjoy the world around you, the environment around you. We are not enjoying each other as we used to do years ago. I don't see many of you on our playing fields enjoying track and field and sports. We have to change all of that because we have a life with each other. We have to learn how to love each other. We have to learn how to cooperate with each other. We have to learn how to hug each other all over again once we are given the green light to do so. And I want to say to the parents that many of you like to get your children away from you because you feel they're bothered. You tell them, go and watch television. Don't you have homework? Go and take your laptop. Please, please. Rather, say to your daughter or son, look, why don't you go outside and do X, Y, and Z? You can use your laptops from five o'clock to 7.30 or to eight o'clock, whatever the case is, but after eight, put them away because we have interesting things to do. Whether we sit together and have dinner together so we can have a good laugh, or whether we sit together and maybe just watch one program before you're ushered into bed. I just want to say to you, do not behave as if your whole life depends on these phones. Why am I telling you all of this? Because I have had to make adjustments in my life. There was a time when my mobile phones, two of them, one for cable and wireless and one for digital. They were next to me in bed. Then I would get up in the night and switch them on to see if I got any messages. Those were Prime Ministerial days, mind you. But I began to understand how dangerous that could be because one of the unspoken things is that science has not quite yet ascertained whether those devices are actually causing you ill health and particularly exciting the possibility of accelerating cancer and the rest of it. We don't know the jury is still out. So I want to say to you, don't make the mistakes that I did and make sure put away those phones and put away those laptops and enjoy your family, enjoy each other and remember that we still have to live with each other. So use your laptops very wisely. Use it to conquer the world, use it to conquer knowledge, use it to apply knowledge and use it by all means to communicate with each other but understand the daily limitations. At the end of the day, it's not what the laptop makes you, it's what others make you, your parents and your friends. And please, as much as you search for knowledge, at the same time, don't forget you have a life to live and so give yourself the opportunity to enjoy what is so beautiful around us. Thank you and I wish you the very best. Teachers, I don't understand them. My job is foster. Teachers, I don't understand them. They say, when you're handling your work, make sure it's neat and tidy. Then they mess it up by scribbling electrical comments all over it in red ink. They say, don't interrupt, interrupt, interrupt when I'm talking. Put your hand up and wait until I finish. But if they've got something to say, they've got their hands up and stop your discussions in new sentence. They say, always plan your writing. Take your time, think it through and do a rough draft. Then they sit you in an examination hall and ask you to write that essay on one of six topics, none of which interests you in an hour and a quarter. They say, it's you and the group. Make sure you allow yourself time off from your studies to relax and enjoy yourself. Then when you don't hand your homework in on time because you took that advice, they keep you in at lunchtime. Teachers, I don't understand them. I truly believe that the view for in all seriousness, Comprehensive Secondary School is a great school, a great institution. And you measure the greatness and effectiveness of a school, not by the colors that students wear or how neat the surroundings are. But over time, you look at the quality of citizens they put out there. And when that particular yardstick is employed, the view for Comprehensive Secondary School stands head and shoulders above quite a few institutions in Central Asia. And so over time, I mean, we can look at the various government departments and as Dr. Anthony said in his remarks, the former students of this institution, you will find them on almost every continent of the world doing well for themselves and being very good professional ambassadors, force and luscious. But it's not what you did 10, 15, 20 years ago. But you come to view for Comprehensive on a day like today or you would have been here last week. And I'm certain if you come next week, what you see happening here reminds you of what obtained before and it gives the assurance that the school is in very competent hands and that the teachers are delivering an education here that is in keeping with the mandate of our government and can only be a better place for it. And so, Madam Principal, your staff, students, your parents and all the other support personnel you have, I want you to convey my appreciation for the effort and the Ministry of Education stands ready to lend all the support we can within the confines of the resources available to us. Today is a very significant day for myself as Minister. It is for the parliamentary representative, the parliamentary sect and senior management personnel of the Ministry of Education. Today is also important for the parents but today really belongs to the students of Form 2. The spotlight is yours and we singled you out today for a special ceremony where we want to present you with the laptops and we are giving laptops today, as I would have said at ceremonies of a similar nature, not because we believe those are fashionable and it is a tool that a child must have in 2022. We are giving it to you because there's a conviction that the incorporation of technology in education is a must for us if we have to compete on a global stage. We can no longer prepare our children for work in Zanlushan. We can no longer prepare our children just to live in Zanlushan. The education that we deliver must produce what we call global citizens so that by the time you are finished at the view for comprehensive, you'd have been able to take your place in any society in the developed world and by so doing we have to align our education programming with what obtains in more developed countries. Today we are giving you a laptop because it is a promise that we made on the campaign trail as a party in opposition preparing for elections and today we have kept that promise and the government has procured that we've bought 3,800 laptops at a cost of $2,945,000, almost $3 million laptops to be distributed amongst the second formers. So here we are in the month of June. We are making the laptops available to the second formers, the children in form two. So as we speak today, the fifth formers who are currently engaged in CSEC exams, they are on their way out or as Dr. Anthony would say they are in the departure lounge of the secondary school system, they would have had e-books. The form fours in the school system have e-books. The third formers have e-books but the second formers, you students here today, you do not have devices or state issued devices and it is for this reason you have been singled out to be amongst the first to receive your laptops. The form ones whom we have at the default country and the other secondary schools, they do not have state issued devices, they do not have laptops. And so in September at the commencement of the new school year, they will be receiving their laptops. The students who are currently in grade six, who did the CPE exam a few weeks ago, they will be receiving their laptop computers upon entry into the secondary school in form one. So in September, we will be having two bites of the cherry in that we'll be providing to the current form ones who become second formers and the grade sixes who will become the first formers. And after that particular program is rolled out, every child in the secondary school system would have been accounted for. There's just one issue I need to touch on in relation to a debate that was started recently as to whether we should have stayed with the eBooks or by laptop computers. We are convinced at the Ministry of Education that reinstating the one laptop per child program is the better option. The eBooks that you've heard about, they're very flimsy, they're not very robust and I'm sure that parents here who have students in the upper forms, you can attest to what I am saying. With the eBooks, the government of St. Lucia has to find millions of dollars for the renewal of licenses for the contents or the work that they uploaded on those devices. We are saying that at the level of the OECS through the global partnership for education, we have the resources to develop our own content and I can assure you, instead of the millions that we pay, it will cost us less than $100,000. If at all it costs $50,000 to develop our own content, content that is culturally relevant to our Caribbean experience. So when you have people come and they tell you we should have stayed with the eBooks as opposed to reinstating the one laptop per child program, they have their motive, but today is not a day to get drawn into that, but I just needed to say it here this afternoon so that when you leave, you'll have a better appreciation for the position that we have taken as it relates to the issuance of devices to our students. Students, you heard what I said as it relates to the amount that the government has to spend, almost $3 million. That is money that could have been used to fix roots in view for it or maybe then Rinoff is a better example. Or that is an example, that is money sorry that could have been used to put more medicine in the hospitals. But we've taken a decision because we understand the value of educating our children and we have invested almost $3 million to buy the laptop computers. So you have a responsibility. Parents, you have a responsibility. We are going to put monitoring mechanisms in place. People who destroy the laptops and do not take care of them, you will be held to account. We cannot just buy laptops and just place in the hands of children. Parents don't care, children don't care. And then you see the laptops in all places where they ought not to be. As I said, this is not just fashionable. It is a very critical instructional tool in 2022. You cannot enter any school compound in this day and age where it is just a chalkboard and chalk and a teacher talking, no. Multimedia is critical to instruction delivery. And that is why we are going beyond the call of duty. And even things that are hard and the revenue streams are not performing as well as they ought to, we will find the money to make the laptops available. So we've done our part as a government, the parliamentary representative has done his part. He initiated the program sometime between 2011 and 2016. We have continued and we have reinstated the laptop program because we believe there's so much that we can derive from such an initiative. But it is not enough to just give it to you. What about connectivity? It makes no sense to give a child a laptop and then you go home, you cannot even log on to the internet. We are aware of that. So the island-wide Wi-Fi program that started during Dr. Anthony's premiership, it has continued, but we've realized that it does not meet everybody on the same level. And it is for this reason, our government, in the last few months, we have engaged the service providers, namely DigiSell and Flow, and they will be providing 5,000 bundle packages where 5,000 homes, you will be getting internet and other telecommunication services for $20 a month. It is not costing $20, but we have negotiated and the government will play its part. So the most you will be asked to pay or you will be asked to pay is $20 for internet and as I said, other services that come with that. So we've given you the laptop and we're going further to ensure there is connectivity. And as I said previously, content development is something that is ongoing and we're not going it alone, but we are partnering with the other OECS member territories to ensure that we put the information, the contents, what you need to learn on the laptops to make instruction even more rewarding than it probably is at the moment. So once again, please take good use, care, sorry, of the devices, make good use of them. We have to teach our children to be responsible users of technology. Our children can do a lot of things with those laptops. When you are sleeping and you think they are studying or they're researching, they can be engaging sites that are just not favorable, sites that are not in keeping with the well-being and the positive development of our young minds. So parents play a part. As I said, the government, we have gone out there, we've gotten the resources, but we need everybody to be singing from the same hymn sheet for us to deliver the results we want as a country. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be at the Viewport Comprehensive Secondary School. Yours is a stand-out school in more ways than one. And as I said, the ministry stands ready to partner the management of this institution to make you even greater than you already are. So thank you very much, and I'll send you a hand. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.