Coming on the heels of students receiving tablets to facilitate students’ access to online education, the Ministry of Education here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines launched its GoCyberSmart campaign on March 16, 2021.
The promotion which will see activities running from March to June, 2021, is intended to ensure the safety of students, teachers and parents as they access programmes and information across the worldwide web (internet).
According to Coordinator of the campaign, Mrs. Marla Nanton-James, towards the above end, the Ministry will utilize a number of outlets/platforms, e.g. www.svgcdu.org – the Curriculum Unit’s website where a veritable storehouse of educational materials may be accessed; Facebook – SVG Education Media Unit and Instagram – SVG Edu Media Unit and NTRC GetSafeOnline at https://www.getsafeonline.vc/.
Nanton-James said that the Ministry of Education will be engaged in media activities during the campaign.
“We are basically using media activities to spread the awareness,” she said. “We have activities planned for radio, television and activities geared towards social media.
Alongside that, we have also prepared a manual/publication that gives simple information and we are reminding the principals, as was outlined in a communique which was sent to schools, that the information is to be creatively used and integrated into teaching and learning.”
The principal expectation, she elaborated, is that the information about online safety could be disseminated to students in exciting and creative ways by teachers, who are prepared to craft their own activity form the varied resources on the media outlets where the information will be stored.
Once this campaign is taken on board by all stakeholders and students learn how to ‘GoCyberSmart’, the atmosphere for learning will be well enhanced, the Ministry anticipates.
