Jones: Use devices wisely
Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones is making a call for children not to misuse their cellphones and other electronic devices.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony over the weekend for the students who were part of the St. Philip Primary Schools Lessons Assistance Programme run by the Democratic Labour Party’s constituency branch, Minister Jones, pointing to the proliferation of such devices among young people nowadays, maintained that it is imperative that they utilise them for good and not for bad.
“These [devices] can be used to get on to the Internet to help you do your school work, to communicate with your teachers, your peers etc, they are not to be used out there taking pictures of students involved in bad behaviour or fighting. They are not to be used, as some adults use them now, to take accidents and place on Facebook or Instagram or things like that. They are to be used for positive development of yourselves and of your family,” he said.
Jones added, “And don’t show off either because your mummy may be able to afford a more sleek looking tablet or laptop than someone else. You have to be magnanimous, selfless in your approach to the vulnerabilities, the weaknesses, the imperfections of others. It is understanding the kind of circumstances that affect others and how you can demonstrate sympathy and empathy to those persons, that really tests who you are and what you are.”
His comments came as he reminded the students that to whom much is given, much is expected, and he therefore urged them to give of their best as they embark on their secondary school lives. Moreover, he told them to disabuse their minds of any ideas that they are to be undisciplined in secondary school, contending that nothing could be further from the truth.
“They somehow believe ‘man we grow up or we are going up, I am a big boy or a big girl now so we can do as we like’; that is not true. If you are a decent, well disciplined, mannerly, well behaved, learned student at the primary level, you should carry that right through your educational journey particularly at the secondary school level where you are now meeting so many different persons from all walks of life in the same classroom and the school,” he said.
With that in mind, Minister Jones encouraged those present to be leaders, not followers, and in those efforts to set high standards for others to emulate. (JRT)