VISIONARY EDUCATOR
WHILE regional education ministries struggled with the challenge of responding to teaching children online there was already a Jamaican company doing just that for a few years, and the man behind the company left a high-level job in the private sector to convert his dream into reality.
Ricardo Allen’s vision was to make it easy for students and adults to take on any course of learning at their own pace, using online facilities.
“I firmly believe that our children’s access to information and education should not be a privilege. Narrowing the gap is a team effort, and One-on-one Educational Services is doing its part to ensure that our children’s future is secure by offering affordable e-learning solutions for every age and stage of learning,” says Allen.
Today, One-on-one for Classroom® boasts of meeting the personal development goals of more than one million students over the past seven years. The company has spread its online wings across the region and forged links with key educational institutions and Government ministries and agencies. Using world-class hardware and software, it has delivered on its promise.
Visionary Allen, armed with an actuarial mind honed at The University of the West Indies, entered the private sector at Sagicor, where he led the Structured Products division of Sagicor Investments. It was an opportunity to combine his strong background in actuarial mathematics with corporate finance and economics to conceptualise and develop derivative products for retail and corporate markets.
Allen would eventually give up the Sagicor job to follow his entrepreneurial spirit, fusing his innate passion for mathematics and love for technology and people to build a solution that enables thousands across the region to take their favourite courses online, at their convenience.
The creation of the One-on-one platform was prescient, since no one envisaged the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the world’s educational systems.
“If ever we were doubtful of the impact of technology on our daily lives, the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the need to change the way we live, work and learn,” says Allen.
Fortunately for Jamaica and the wider
Caribbean, One-on-one was ready to respond to the emergency. In Jamaica, the platform helped 44,025 students complete their school curriculum despite the pandemic’s classroom disruption. One-on-one for Classroom® reached a peak of 12,000 students in attendance on a single day and 235,520 in attendance throughout the entire period.
The Jamaican success led to a partnership with the Bahamas Department of Education, which offered more than 6,000 classes exclusively on the e-learning platform. The engagement kicked off with the first course in October 2020. Through a Continuing Education & Lifelong Learning (CELEARN) agreement with the University of the Bahamas, One-on-one will provide their complete curriculum online to the wider Caribbean market.
One-on-one’s commitment to delivering quality educational content and opportunities for students extends beyond the pandemic. For example, One-on-one for Classroom® will allow students to take the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), which assesses and certifies a student’s academic achievement when secondary school is complete.
Allen, a man who gracefully declined both a Rhodes and Fulbright scholarship to follow his dream, sees the technology drive affecting every sector of society.
“From Miss Maisie with the shop down the road who has to go online to register for her CARE benefits, to the student in Lawrence Tavern who has to tune in for virtual school each day, to the CEO in his office on Ocean Boulevard who is transitioning to a digitally focused business model, tech has become a centrepiece in our daily lives…and there is no going back,” says Allen.
The next chapter in his visionary path includes stepped-up online training for businesses which commit to upgrading the skills and knowledge of their teams. One-on-one micro courses will allow training on the job with access to some of the best universities and training institutions. In another innovation, blockchain technology will manage certification of a standard to share with the world.
Allen has already proven that online education can be easily available to all ages, and that the Caribbean is a worthy leader.