Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 29, 2020 (The Cable): The Cable, FLOW and Digicel recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education to provide free broadband and other telecommunication services to all student households without internet in St. Kitts & Nevis. The agreement also includes free installation to the over 700 households in St. Kitts & Nevis that have been identified by the Ministry of Education.
“This is a major undertaking that will benefit our young people at a time when our country and the world is challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic. We applaud the Ministry of Education’s ‘no child left behind’ approach to ensure that all our students have access to learning, as the classroom setting of education has shifted to the home. That three competitors can answer the call to ensure ease of access to both students and teachers is testament to what collective endeavour can achieve,” observed Patricia Walters, Chief Executive Officer of The Cable.
In order to enable students to continue their studies at home, General Manager of Flow, Mr. David Lake said that Flow has provided FREE Flow Study access to all students in the Federation regardless of their telecoms provider. The award-winning Flow Study platform has been enhanced to include over 500 educational videos for students from Pre-K to CAPE.
“I am proud to report that to date, more than 12,000 students and their parents have registered in St Kitts and Nevis: the second-highest anywhere in the Caribbean. But there is room for more, so if you have not yet signed up for Flow Study, I encourage you to log on using the credentials provided by your school.”
Flow has also partnered with the Ministry of Education to facilitate virtual learning by working with Digicel and The Cable to source access devices for the Ministry, underscoring their joint commitment to the educational development of all students in the Federation.
Meanwhile, Dionne Emtage, General Manager of Digicel St. Kitts & Nevis said her company has always been passionate about children and about education. “Although an unexpected and unfortunate situation has created this opportunity to assist, we are no less excited to do whatever we can to ensure that learning continues comfortably,” she assured. Describing the internet as an essential utility to present creative, modern and adaptive ways of delivering educational material, she said her company felt a compelling need to assist. “To this end we have reduced our broadband and mobile rates while also zero-rating several educational sites,” she informed.
She said her company was pleased to collaborate with The Cable and FLOW to facilitate a smooth transition into this digital approach to education in St. Kitts and Nevis.
The 2 Mobile providers – Digicel and Flow have also agreed to provide zero-rated data to over 20 educational websites. The Ministry’s selected platforms for live lessons will also be zero-rated. This means that no charges will apply when these websites are visited.
The contract which governs this agreement will run for three months in the first instance and can be extended based on the ongoing assessment of Covid-19 in St. Kitts & Nevis.