The St Andrew-based Roman Catholic school had recently issued an appeal for assistance to a number of companies and among those responding were Cable and Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ), National Com-mercial Bank (NCB) and Jamaica National (JN).

C&WJ donated two state-of-the-art laptops and free Internet connection to the school. Grants from NCB and JN also enabled the school to secure five desktop computers for its computer lab.

Samantha Little, a computer teacher told The Gleaner that the lab is used by all grades on a class rotation basis. The lab, she said, facilitates students in augmenting their skills in literacy, reading and research.

"The new computers are equipped with the newest and fastest software, which allows the children to do more work". Little stressed how important computers have become in today's burgeoning global village.

"As we move from the chalk-and-talk technique, computers help to stimulate learning; students are communicating through the Internet; they are learning to read, write and draw," she said.

Exercising responsibility

Errol Miller, C&WJ's vice-president for corporate affairs and corporate communications, told The Gleaner that by providing free Internet access to a number of schools across the country, his organisation was exercising cor-porate responsibility to the nation's children.

"When we are approached, we usually try to the best of our ability to facilitate access to the super highway, which is an indispensable tool. It widens the horizons. And we thought we should respond", he said.

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