Educational Services
PROFILE
e-LEARNING JAMAICA COMPANY LIMITED
The e-Learning Jamaica Company Ltd (eLJam) was established in March 2005 as a limited liability company under the Ministry with portfolio responsibility for Telecommunications, initially to implement e-Learning projects in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MOE), and once this objective was met to the satisfaction of the MOE, to implement universal access projects funded by the Universal Access Fund. The Company presently is an agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining. The Company is managed by a Board of Directors appointed by the portfolio Minister.
Cabinet approval was obtained in June 2005 to implement the initial project targeted at the high schools, with the primary goal to utilize Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to contribute to an improvement in the quality of education in the high schools and in the level of passes in the school-leaving CXC CSEC examinations. This project was developed as a joint initiative with the MOE after much consultation with principals and teachers and other stakeholders.
Its components include:
- providing digitalised instructional materials for teachers and students;
- providing computer networks and multimedia equipment to the project institutions;
- training of teachers in basic ICT skills and the use of the technology in instructional delivery;
- enhancing existing remedial interventions through the use of ICT’s; and instituting standard diagnostic tests at the Grade 9 and 7 levels.
Since the commencement of the project in September 2006 several elements have been added or amended to more meaningfully reflect the MOE’s vision of a 21st century classroom and to better ensure sustainability. In addition, the scope of the project has widened from 150 educational institutions to 203, as follows:
- 165 public high schools,
- 6 public special schools,
- 16 independent high schools,
- 10 teachers colleges,
- 5 community colleges