Tuesday, June 7, 2011

What are the chances the net books will make it?

I am guilty of vacillating on this issue but I resist no longer.

It seems as if no official entity, rational individual, wise-thinking commenter wishes to offer up some well-deserved criticism of the decision of the Ministry of Education to hand out laptops to the kiddies.

So apart from the reporting of a view disgruntled and probably illiterate parents who have refused to sign the lending agreement - it seems as if there is some hesitation to point out the differences between the campaign promises of the ULP and the reality handed out by the Ministry of Education.

The students of our nation were promised laptops not net books;

"We giving you laptops" - now we hear it is a loan agreement similar to the book loan scheme;

Aren't exams going on now? - why are the 1/4 of the children in the chosen school for the day being taken from exam revision to sit in a room that looks crowded and stuffy to hear at least three speeches from persons who are speaking over their heads (literally and figuratively);

Why are we, as viewers of SVG TV evening news, being made subject to bi and sometimes tri-weekly displays of these 'ceremonies', only to be followed by some camera happy individual or exuberant child saying "tank you Dacta Gansalves fo de laptop, me real happy", "me real glad mi chile get dis yah lap...no net book."
Visions of "tank u Massa for giving mi ur chillun ole clothes...oh yes Massa, you de bes' Massa, you don' mistreat mi, jus' give the residue of the scraps of de food dat I cook, plant and rear fo' you" come to mind.

I mean seriously, do these people realise that taxpayers money pay for these things - it is not like the PM paid for it from his own pocket, and knowing this Government we probably in some hard debt because of it. But Dr. Gonsalves doesn't mind because he knows the power of perception - prepare yourselves for 2014/2015 election which will likely feature this series of "look what de Comrade gimme"...Lordie I know why I hate politics...the manipulation stinks.

On top of that is the already in existence reports of misuse (sorry VincyPatriot you fall into this group) of the lap...sorry net books by persons other than the children they are intended to benefit.

E.g.1 - the purported absence of web protection on the machines, allegations of porn being downloaded (hopefully by someone other the child) and saved - now being shared among your unsuspecting kiddies [thank God I have no children].

E.g.2 - the funniest story I heard came from a school in the Opposition Leader's constituency, where the child was asked where his net book was and after consistent nagging and possible threats, it was discovered that 'Mommy put on a password and not even she can remember it" LMAO ROTL, kill me dead....WTF?/!@#*#$..hehehe.

There is more people.... it is the end of the damn school term, so between Carnival, DVBS, camps, youth programmes, neighbourhood roaming and sneaking powdered milk, Milo, brown sugar and condensed milk (pick ur mix), too many students are going to have their net book stolen, dropped to the point of destruction, one may even find itself in police custody after some belligerent person uses it to bash someone else's head in or just lost or absconded by some older sibling or a Mommy ...lol, or the thing would just not turn on.

And this is it, the idiot NDP has practically ruined the ability of rationale minded Vincentians from criticising if one speaks out about the net books you are labelled as:

(1) being NDP and really not many people want to be grouped with that fascinatingly crumbling organisation;

(2) being anti-ULP, which is like a death sentence if you are in the Public Service or hope to make any progress within that party..maybe politics at all;

(3) being anti-progress, after all, isn't any form of IT good for our developing Caribbean Civilisation, regardless to the absence of safety nets or structure.

(4) jealous because after all that is the emotional space of the NDP because they didn't get a chance to implement the net books, cocoa and flood aid.

And where does that leave us, with unsupervised net books being handed out, accompanied by the prayer that they will return in the new term - we all now have a duty (because it is OUR damn money walking around there) to ensure that those net books that are around us are well cared for.

Oh and by the way, why didn't the Government build secure shelves in each classroom and LEAVE THE NETBOOKS THERE TO GUARANTEE PRESERVATION OF OUR MONEY and oh yeah, the IT education of our children.