“Ray and I promised in our campaign to give laptops to students. We’re keeping that promise with the money we prioritized to buy this second round of laptops for students. Our students are the future leaders of Guam. How can we expect them to take the reigns decades from now if we can’t prepare them to use today’s technology? These laptops will help students prepare for the job market of tomorrow. We will keep pursuing this initiative until every student in DOE has a laptop to use.” — Governor Eddie Baza Calvo
Compact-Impact funding for technology
Up to 3,000 laptops will be purchased, and will be given to every student in the 5th, 6th, 9th, and 11th, grades of the public schools. Technology training for teachers and students alike will also be funded through this initiative.
The Governor in January committed nearly $3 million in Compact Impact funds to pay for laptops for public school students. DOE late last week submitted its plans to use this money.
Laptops will be distributed to every public school
The proposal from DOE Superintendent Jon Fernandez states that the technology will be targeted at “gateway” grade levels. Teachers will be trained to integrate technology into classrooms.
“The expectation is that each child in these grade levels will have access to these devices through the course of the year and receive instruction from teachers equipped to utilize the devices in the course of their day-to-day instruction,” Superintendent Fernandez said in his proposal letter.
Students excited to maximize technology
Students joined Governor Calvo, Superintendent Jon Fernandez, and Education Board Chairman Dr. Jose Cruz at the announcement of the plan this morning. They expressed that these laptops will help them achieve their academic goals in their classes allowing them to research information and expand on the lessons they are learning in the classroom.
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