Rubis supports Ann Hill students as they reach for the stars

Marketing Manager of Rubis West Indies Limited, Andrea Gooding, through a donation of tablets, offered continued support for the students of the Ann Hill School as they reached for the stars.

After reaching out to the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Rubis West Indies made the move to donate 20 Apple iPad tablets to the Ann Hill School. Yesterday, Marketing Manager Gooding and other representatives of Rubis made the donation at the Ann Hill School to Principal Emelda Belle, along with teachers and students.

Gooding explained that Rubis had initially sought to meet some of the needs of the Eastern Caribbean countries by sourcing and providing Personal Protective Equipment to various ministries of health in the region. Donations so far are in excess of US$110,000, however in an effort to assist with other important social initiatives, Rubis answered the call of the Ministry of Education of Barbados, in providing devices for approximately 10,000 students who had no access to online learning.

“We saw this as an opportunity to support the long-time investment in our students and remote teaching, which we understand would become a more common feature in the school curriculum,” said Gooding.

Acknowledging the fact that iPad tablets were more expensive than regular tablets, Gooding explained that the Apple devices were better equipped to satisfy the requirements of the students at the special needs institution.

“Often special needs children are visual learners, so by using visual content to provide the learning to them, we are providing them with the option to learn by watching, listening or reading to help them develop their knowledge and skills,” explained Gooding.

The marketing manager thanked Digicel and The iShop for helping provide the devices and other online tools. Digicel played its part when Rubis sought to provide data for the students to connect to the teaching online. Twelve MiFi devices were presented, along with a package of 2 Gigabytes each for three months from Digicel.

Principal Belle thanked Rubis for their generous contribution to the school, along with all contributing corporate partners so far. She added that though the school had been working with the Ministry of Education to meet the needs of the students, there was still a lack in certain areas. One of those areas was the access to online learning for the students.

“This afternoon’s presentation will go a long way in helping to give our students the opportunity to gain the skills and practice in using this form of technology as we build and go forward in the new school year,” said Belle. (AS)