On and off, fast and slow - Battling with a damaged phone and bad signal, girl appeals for laptop
Published:Monday | October 12, 2020 | 12:12 AM
Amanda Hines, a 14-year-old student of Annotto Bay High in St Mary, has not been able to participate effectively in online classes since school resumed on October 5.
A smartphone with a cracked screen and bleeding ink is the device she has been using to access classes in Google Suite.
Unable to see much, the diligent student still logs on, listens, and takes notes.
The grade nine student is appealing for assistance with a tablet or laptop to make the best of online school.
“My teacher helped me to log in. It was very difficult because the phone I’m using isn’t good, so I can’t see everything on it, but I’m trying,” she said, reflecting on week one.
Though she prefers face-to-face classes, the teen has been trying to adapt. With poor Internet connection in Epsom and no public Wi-Fi nearby, she depends on a hotspot connection from her mother’s phone.
“It’s on and off. Sometimes it fast, and sometimes it slow, and yuh haffi search fi di signal,” said Amanda’s mother, Veneta Lecky.
Lecky told The Gleaner that she has made several attempts to enrol her daughter in the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), the main vehicle of state welfare for poor families, since she had been attending Epsom Basic School, but the applications have been rejected.
PATH benefits are provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to children, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with disabilities.
Lecky added that her daughter lost her father at the tender age of one.
“They know everything, and dem turn me down same way. It rough,” lamented the mother of two.
She earns a livelihood from hosting round robins, which have been severely hampered by COVID-19 nightly curfews.
The teen shared that the social-protection programme would assist with fulfilling her educational needs.
“We live in a small community, and we don’t have all the privileges that other parents and their children have, and my mom is a single parent,” the teen appealed.