WITH technology as the driving force behind the development of modern-day economies, St George’s College for boys is eschewing chalk and talk in favour of computers and computer-aided learning.

The 159-year-old North Street institution has an expansive computer sciences programme, but as principal Margaret Campbell told FirstCaribbean International Bank (Jamaica) Limited managing director, Clovis Metcalfe, “We need to expand our computer facilities to serve a wider school population and the needs of today’s student.”

Metcalfe, himself a St George’s College past student, visited the school on May 5, to present his bank’s cheque of $150,000 to assist in the purchase of more computers.

Education and training and the development of skills for peak performance is a key focus of FirstCaribbean’s customer service relationship with Jamaican communities.

Head of the Computer & Business Technology Department at St George’s, Adina Davis noted that currently more than 700 students are utilising the school’s three computer laboratories with students from both upper and lower school preparing for a range of examinations, including the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate, the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exam and Computer Science Units one and two, administered by the Ministry of Education and the Caribbean Examination Council.

The school’s computer sciences programme spans the gamut of applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Word Processing, File Management, Programming, Design, Spreadsheets, Networking and Software Engineering.

But even those who are not studying computer sciences are impacted by the wide-ranging technology options at St George’s, including wireless connections in classrooms facilitating the use of individual laptops, and an audiovisual room which supports computer-aided learning in other subjects.