SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine — By an overwhelming majority, councillors present at Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation voted in favour of asking Prime Minister Andrew Holness to intervene after the cancellation of a programme to provide digital tablets to needy students.

Norman Scott told the meeting that he had received a letter from the local government ministry informing him that the State’s Own Your Own Device programme has been discontinued.

He described the move as “shameful” and “sad”.⁣

It was not immediately clear if a reason was provided for the cessation of the programme, but Scott’s disdain for the move was echoed by his fellow member of the Opposition People’s National Party, Fenley Douglas.

“We are here to serve the people, and we must not talk along party lines; there is no doubt that what was done was absolutely wrong,” said Douglas, who represents the Waterford Division.

He pleaded with the Government to come to the assistance of the thousands of needy students that will be impacted.⁣

“A total of four ministries [finance; education, youth and information; science, energy and technology; and Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development] have cheated babies, who are the next generation of leaders, out of a device to learn,” Douglas said.⁣

The move, he argued, was a clear indication that the Government is not serious about education. He is also worried about having to break the bad news to those he represents.

“We are now faced with the difficult task of, after running around to get the required information from parents and students, to then turn around and tell them that they will no longer receive the promised tablets come September,” Douglas said.⁣⁣

His comments were supported by Leroy Dunn (JLP, Guys Hill Division), who expressed disappointment in the cancellation of the initiative.⁣

However, their counterpart for the Gregory Park Division, Joy Brown, (JLP) was not as supportive.⁣

“This reaction by the councillors is clearly political,” Brown told the Jamaica Observer after the meeting. “I can tell you that the Government has given out a lot of devices since the pandemic before we started to have face-to-face classes.”⁣

She theorised that the lengthy submission process could be the reason for the cancellation of the programme.⁣

The Own Your Own Device programme is one of several initiatives launched by the Government to provide 250,000 students with devices to help them connect online. The novel coronavirus pandemic, which brought a halt to face-to-face classes for almost two years, highlighted the need for devices as students struggled to gain access to online lessons.

Face-to-face classes resumed earlier this year.

— Nikel Innerarity