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By Carlena Knight
[email protected]
Since the October 4th deadline for the return of government-issued laptops has passed, those in possession of the devices are now facing possible legal action.
The deadline was set by the Board of Education (BOE) in a recent press release, where they advised “students who would have graduated or [are] no longer attending government secondary schools to immediately return the laptops which were issued for the academic year 2021/2022.
“Failure to comply will result in the Board of Education taking legal action”, the release added.
Whether or not that will be the course of action taken could not be confirmed by Observer media when we reached out to the BOE yesterday.
They did, however, commit to speaking on the matter at a later date.
However, while voicing his frustration over the matter earlier this week, Education Minister Daryll Matthew said that they would be taking any measures possible to retrieve the devices.
“At the expiration of this deadline, we will take any appropriate action that is required to have our devices returned because we cannot continue to think like ‘I don’t care about anybody else it is all about me’. We cannot as a society continue to think like this. We have to be our brother’s keeper and these first formers, they are entitled to this device and so, when you have students who would have passed through the education system and have a device in their possession and are just simply not returning it, what sort of citizens and residents are we raising?” Matthew asked.
“There must be some responsibility, some obligation, some recognition of the fact that it is not your device and it is to be used by someone else,” he added.
While Matthew didn’t go into details on what sort of measures would be taken, he is still advising persons to return the devices.
Matthew went on to say that some of the public criticism levied against the BOE regarding this matter is “unfair” as it is parents and past students who have neglected their duties.
“I listened to the scathing criticism levied at the Board of Education and the Ministry of Education and I find it so unfair, because some of the same persons who are complaining that a child that they have in first form has not received a laptop, they have a child in fifth form that did not return one and it cannot be right.
“When I see persons say ‘just buy a next one and let the children keep the laptops’, I say well this is your taxpayer’s money. If the government was to go and say ‘well let’s raise Education Levy then by 2 percent so that we can keep buying laptops every year’, you will open a different can of worms and so we cannot have it both ways.
“We cannot agree that we will look out for all our students, provide devices which we have done, you accept the device as a parent for your child, you sing to say yes, I have received this device and I will return it upon completion of the school year but at the end of the school year, you simply saying I am not taking it back,” Matthew said.
According to the press release, of the 973 laptops there were distributed, less than 50 percent were returned.
Three schools, Antigua Grammar School (AGS), Princess Margaret School (PMS) and the Antigua Girls’ High School (AGHS) were identified as the pilot schools for the initiative and the distribution of 1,485 devices which began in April of last year.
Another shipment of a little over 3,000 laptops were then distributed to other schools.
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