INTRODUCTORY & GENERAL

• It is a gratifying day for me as the Parliamentary Representative of St. John’s Rural West and this school.
• The Community (and its Children) deserve much better than the past has dealt with this community.
• For me as Chief Servant, the People’s purpose always will come first. The Grays Green Community today finds itself returning to a beginning of sorts because we are providing our young people with an opportunity to craft their own fate and to be successful.
• The UPP Government promised to make substantial investments in equipping our young people with the skills and competence necessary for them to successfully meet the challenges of the 21st century. We are delivering on this promise.
• The Government is committed to building a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting sustainable development and improving their quality of life.
• The Government is keeping its promise to ensure information technology skills are widely disseminated.
• As you know, ICTs have an extremely important role to play in the process of national development. Based on my observations, all progressive countries, whether developed or developing, are endeavouring to exploit the virtues of ICTs to add value to the quality of life of their citizens and generally to spur economic, social and cultural development such that persons at all strata of society can benefit in a positive manner.
• The Government is committed to developing its telecommunications and other ICT infrastructure so that it can take full advantage of the new technologies.
• This Government sees itself as a model user of new technologies. And so it continues to provide computers and Internet access in many, many Government offices, and beginning today with the Green Bay Primary School, in primary schools (in the form of Community Access Centers).

Community Access Centers

Through the Community Access Centers (CAC's), primary school students, teachers and principals in primary schools as well as the members of the surrounding communities are being provided with computer training right in their communities at very little or no cost at all

Persons of all ages are benefiting in this regard. It is a virtual revolution starting with the opening of Community Access Centres.

We strongly believe that none of our citizens should be denied access to computer technology, especially access to the Internet, that vast reservoir of knowledge, because of their particular circumstances.

Let me say too that it is Government's intention to provide access to computers and to the Internet at all the primary schools in order to help build strong communities. Government is committed to building a truly inclusive Information Society for all Antiguans and Barbudans.

Our Community Access Centers Programme will ensure that our children can access the new technologies at both the primary and secondary schools levels. It bears repetition that our Country's future depends in no small measure on enabling our young people to reach their full potential.

Features of the Grays Green Community Computer Access Center

• Modern laboratory type classroom, fully air-conditioned
• 20 high speed computers all equipped to a printer
• every computer has high speed Internet access
• users: teachers, students and the surrounding community

Commendation goes out to the IT Centre, Sams Engineering, SignCOM and Cable and Wireless.

It gives me great pleasure to launch this Community Computer Access Centre, the first in a long list of centres that will be established across this country.