Govt’ re-affirms commitment to improving internet connectivity

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By Theresa Gordon
[email protected]
The government is making yet another commitment to improving the internet connectivity within all school plants on the island.
Poor bandwidth is said to be one of the major stumbling blocks that is preventing Antigua and Barbuda from successfully rolling out the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) electronic testing or e-testing platform.
According to the weekly Cabinet notes, the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) was directed to “move immediately to strengthen the internet services in schools.”
APUA is to absorb the cost which will then be added to the government’s account.
Melford Nicholas, information and broadcasting minister, made a similar commitment to improving internet access a year ago following the disappointing results of a simulation for online testing in secondary schools.
He said this would have been possible with the passage of the Telecommuni-cations Bill of 2016, which is yet to receive the nod from parliamentarians.
At the time of that exercise in 2016, Myrick Smith, CXC registrar, noted that virtually all of the schools had issues with bandwidth, citing that while they were able to connect to the internet, the connection was extremely slow.
During an interview with our newsroom yesterday, Smith said, Antigua and Barbuda has a long way to go before it can launch the e-testing platform.

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