Global plea to fund One Tab In Schools
ONE THING that has kept Adrianna McKnight going is a solar-powered tablet received from the One Tab in School Initiative.
The testimony of Adrianna, a five-year-old who witnessed her stepfather being murdered, was delivered by her basic school’s principal, Gracie Moss-Solomon, as the child, who was extremely tired from her participation in Play Day 2024, slept in the arms of Kim Mair, chief executive officer, JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation , at the offices of Barita Foundation in New Kingston on Wednesday.
The occasion was the launch of the One Tab In Schools Initiative GoFundMe page, which is aimed at having persons across the world donate enough for at least 1,000 needy children in Jamaica to each be gifted with a solar-powered tablet.
“She would have witnessed the death of her stepfather right in front of her eyesight, and for a period, it was the use of the tablet that took away her mind. I’m not telling you just to mek yu feel sorry fi di pikni this morning. I’m sharing with you how magnificent one small gift can make in the life of a human being,”said Moss-Solomon, who leads Union Gardens Infant School.
“I wanted to show you how brilliant this little baby is, a child with five [other] young kids in the home, and there’s no attention specifically for her, and what she relies on is a safe tablet to use,” she said.
Adrianna is one of five children of a single mother living in the heart of the inner city of Kingston.
Moss-Solomon was one of the educators in the room pleading for persons globally to donate to the GoFundMe page of the One Tab In Schools Initiative.
“When we first got this tablet here from PACE (the Project for the Advancement of Childhood Education) Canada, and we usually get a donation every year from PACE Canada ... it was really and truly a good thing. There were a lot of children fighting over it, but Arianna at the time, it was [going to be a] holiday and we were going to make a special card on the tablet – she was two at the time – and she took the pencil and write her card,” Moss-Solomon explained.
“And the day we were there and her mommy was getting ready to go and she didn’t want to leave the tablet, and I said to myself that she was so fascinated by the tablet that we want some more,”she said.
Innately, after seeing how eager the child was to take the tablet home with her, which was against the rule, Moss-Solomon said she allowed her to do so.
“This tablet is something that is a little bit outside of what we are used to as educators. We are used to tablets connected to the Internet and you have to monitor them because it’s not safe, and also the child might not understand where next to go,” Moss-Solomon said.
AI-BEHAVIOURED
The educator also said the tablet is somewhat “AI-behavioured”, as it can predict if the user is a new child/user, and it has an integrated approach i n how it teaches children.
Marsha Smith, state minister in the Ministry of Education and Youth, expressed her joy at the child being in the room.
“I’m happy to see that numbered among us is a little child because it’s such an important thing to have the voice in the room for which we are doing so much,” Smith said.
She said one of the aspects of Transforming Education for National Development is the focus on the pillar related to early childhood education.
“When we allow for our young persons to get access to digital tools that they can utilise from that young age, the possibilities for creativity are just amazing,” Smith said.
“What they can do with that technology at three- to four- to five-years-old is amazing and creates that necessary building block of the different skills that they need to add as they go up in the different stages in education,” she said.
Smith commended the Barita Foundation, PACE Canada, the National Education Trust, and all the other partners who came together to launch the GoFundMe page calling on people globally to make donations.
She said she hoped people who continuously complain about the deficit in tablets for students islandwide will now go online and make their donations so that more needy children could get access to solar-powered tablets, which they can use even if they do not have electricity in their homes.
“Move from in-action to action in a real and positive way,” she said.