ALIV mobile network officially launched a Schools Plus Program yesterday with St. Cecilia’s Catholic Primary School presenting the school with 40 virtual reality goggles (VRG).

Making the presentation to the Catholic Board of Education at St. Cecilia’s School, the ALIV team expressed its desire to help educate Bahamian youth through technology.

Chief ALIV Business Developer Gravette Brown told the students that education and innovation is important for their team as they seek to fulfill the goal of putting Bahamian students on par with students all over the world.

“We are so happy to kick off formally what we consider a very important program for AlIV, which is our Schools Plus initiative here with the Catholic Board of Education, who is in so many ways the backbone of education universally for The Bahamas,” Ms. Brown said.

“This program is very important to us as a company. It lines up very closely and very integrally with what we consider part of our pillars which is bringing innovation and technology to The Bahamas and to really ensuring that Bahamians and most importantly our youth, our students, have all access to all of the technology that students and people use everywhere else in the world.”

Ms. Brown further told the students that “technology is the great equalizer” and that having technology in the classroom would put them among students all over the world.

“We want to ensure that every student even our students right here in St. Cecilia’s has access to the same educational opportunities that any other child does anywhere else in the world, from the U.K to America to West Africa, and if you have access you can see the world,” Ms. Brown said.

Director of Catholic Education, Mrs. Claudette Rolle expressed gratitude to ALIV on behalf of the Catholic School Board, noting her excitement to the opportunities of integrating technology in the classroom.

“It is indeed a pleasure for me to express our gratitude to ALIV on behalf of the Catholic Board of Education for assisting us in our quest to integrate our curriculum with varying forms of technology.

“The VRG and the phone are perhaps two of the most inspiring ways and effective ways for us to be able to achieve this,” Mrs. Rolle said.

“I am more than excited about the VR Goggles because it essentially allows our teachers and our scholars to engage in experiences that goes beyond the classroom and this is exactly what 21st century teaching and learning is all about.

“We endeavor to always have interactive experiences in our classroom, but more importantly our experiences are only effective if we can take them outside of the classroom.

“They are only effective if our teachers and scholars can see connection between what they do in the classroom and what they do out there.”

Also present at the launch and presentation were Catholic Archbishop His Grace Rev Patrick Pinder who participated in the demonstration of the virtual device, Chief ALIV Officer Damian Blackburn, Principal of St. Cecilia Denise Louis, VP Marie Rodgers as well as computer technology teachers of St. Cecilia’s.