Procurement is under way to equip an additional 300 schools across Jamaica with Internet.
Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, said 600 schools have, so far, benefited from broadband access under the National Broadband Initiative.
The Minister was addressing Friday’s (March 7) meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, whose members are reviewing the 2025/26 Estimates of Expenditure.
She shared that in some schools broadband access is limited to the administrative offices.
“What we are looking at during the course of this year is how we can do further procurements, so that we can extend the bandwidth in the schools, so that the students can actually use the tablets,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Dr. Morris Dixon said efforts are ongoing to eliminate the shift system in schools.
“Currently, we have 27 schools that are still on the shift programme. We expect that over the next two financial years, six additional ones will be taken off and the plan is that by 2028, there will be no schools on shift,” she added.