In the area of education, Variety continues to support the Special Needs Units with stationery and other items for their everyday usage. One new initiative or this group is the Education ICT Committee. Ashish Uttamchandani, a results-driven professional with significant technical and managerial experience within the ICT industry, chairs the committee which in its short time has donated computers at a value of over $11,000.00 for use by over 100 students.
These numbers belie the real success of this programme. The students who benefit from the programme are all challenged with learning idiosyncrasies which teachers are bound to discover and relate to. Most of them are highly sensory children who are more visual and kinesthetic than auditory and will learn better with the use of computers and other technology devices.
This was proven without a doubt within days of the placing of the first set of computers. Variety received a call from the Erdiston Special Needs School stating that one student, who ordinarily was unresponsive and did not write answers to the mathematical problems given, suddenly was showing his mathematical and English skills on the computer! Success!!
The School reports that this student, and others, continue to interact more forcefully with teachers through the use of the computer programmes that generate bonus games and other interactions for work done correctly.
This programme could not be successful without the assistance of corporate Barbados who donates the computers.