All Saints Secondary School to pilot e-textbooks

All Saints Secondary School will become the first school on island to pilot the new e-textbooks system, which will be rolled out in a matter of weeks.
Education Minister Michael Browne made the disclosure yesterday during a ceremony to mark the opening of a new wing at the school.
Browne said that in less than two weeks teachers will receive the e-textbooks which come in the form of computer tablets, and by February 20, they will be in the hands of students.
“All Saints Secondary School is ideally positioned to lead the charge in the roll- out of the e-books. When we think about distribution at each secondary school, every school gets what it needs,” Browne said.
The e-textbook system is government’s way of eliminating the cost associated with purchasing the hard copies through the Board of Education (BoE).
Browne said the overall aim of the project will be to convert all textbooks utilised by students within the primary and secondary schools into e-books.
The government will utilize the services of FortunaPix — a specialised software company from India; which studied the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) systems and the textbooks that support the class lessons.
In addition to theory, each book is supported with video tutorials for students who have different learning abilities.