To assist students living in areas that were heavily impacted by the recent tropical cyclones, Telecom has given free internet for 1 year to 20 schools in the Northern and Eastern Divisions.
The move has been welcomed by the Ministry of Education.
“The Ministry is working around the clock to ensure that the education of children is brought back on track as quickly as possible as they need to complete the curriculum that was set out at the beginning of the school year, and assistance like this from Telecom goes a long way to helping us,” said Minister for Education, Rosy Akbar.
“Climate change vulnerable countries, like Fiji, are badly impacted by natural disasters such as cyclones, which are going to be frequent and of higher intensity. People living in the areas that are worst hit by a natural disaster end up suffering from a number of things including a widening of the digital divide, which this move will hopefully lessen.”
The Minister also added that thousands of students would be sitting for external examinations in the later part of the year and having ready access to the internet can help a great deal in catching up with studies and research, which would allow them to keep up students from less affected areas.
Telecom CEO, Charles Goundar has reaffirmed Telecom’s commitment to helping Fijian communities.
“The recent cyclones affected the lives of thousands across the country, and those living in the North were hit the hardest. As a local company, we feel it is important to give back and to help our community during such times, especially the children whose lives and education have been disrupted,” said Telecom CEO, Charles Goundar.
“As such, we decided to provide schools in the most heavily affected areas with free internet for a year. School management would be more focused on trying to get their schools running at its pre-cyclone pace at this point so this service should provide some ease to their finances.”
The selected schools are already subscribed to Telecom services and will now get them completely free.
Source: https://fijisun.com.fj/2021/03/19/telecom-gives-free-internet-to-help-cyclone-affected-schools/