St. Silas Primary School added to tablet project

Another rural primary school has been added to The Aron & Christina Foundation Tablet Project.

The class three students at St. Silas Primary School have been included in the initiative, which since 2009 has ensured that primary school students are given the opportunity to own technology which will assist them with their studies.

Yesterday, the students joined fellow class three’s from Hillaby/Turner’s Hall Primary School to receive their tablets during a joint presentation ceremony.

Aron Truss, Founder of The Aron & Christina Foundation revealed that St. Silas now brings the total number of government primary schools involved in the tablet project to 16. However, he stressed that this would not be possible without generous donors like Richard and Marilyn Palarski who understand the importance of the project, and have this year donated 66 Kindle Fire Tablets.

“Christina and I could not afford to give all the tablets by ourselves. This year we are presenting 700 tablets and by adding St. Silas Primary School we now have 16 government primary schools. Therefore, we are very fortunate that there are many people that feel this is a worthwhile project and have donated funds to pay for the tablets. We must thank Mr and Mrs Palarski who paid for the 66 tablets, making this presentation possible.”

Member of Parliament for St. Andrew, George Payne, who made the case for St. Silas Primary School to be added, took the opportunity to once again thank the Aron and Christina Truss, as well as the Palarski’s for their continued commitment to the children of Barbados.

“Indeed, it is good moment for me to have St. Silas – the school which I attended – added to this tablet project. It is located in St. James and it seems as though anything in Orange Hill is normally treated as an “outside child,” Payne pointed out.

“The students are indeed fortunate, and I hope that they take good care of the devices and make good use of them,” he said.

Information Technology (IT) Coordinator at St. Silas Primary School, Sherice Rock, also expressed her appreciation to the Foundation, noting that they had always wanted to be included in the project.
“For years we watched other schools within the north receive tablets from the Aron and Christina Foundation and we received word from the Parliamentary Representation George Payne that we finally got on the list after he pleaded for us. It means a lot to our school,” she expressed.

“Since the tablets were given to the entire class it will be easy to do research with them and look at educational games. The way to children learning is often through play, so if we can get them to play games and the result is that they are going to learn something from it, I have no problem with the games,” she added.

Mr Palarski urged the students to use the tablets wisely, “The tablet you are receiving is probably the best toy you ever had, but if you use it as a toy you are cheating yourself. This tablet will allow you to be at an equal level of any major country; it will help you develop into very smart individuals”. (TL)