BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AS the school year slowly winds to an end, the nation’s leading telecommunications company, LIME, has made the first move in marrying technology with foreign languages with its donation of a laptop to the Modern Languages Department at the Basseterre High School.
In a brief handing-over ceremony, VP Corporate Communications LIME Laverne Caines encouraged the student body to continue showing interest in foreign languages as they offer a number of benefits to the individual and nation at large. She stressed that there exists a number of career opportunities in foreign languages, especially now that globalisation is the order of the day.
“You need to understand the relevance of foreign languages in the context of what is happening in the world. We are very much a global society and language is going make communication easier to comprehend each other as global neighbours,” Caines told the students of the first-form French class.
Caines, who informed she has special passion for foreign languages, informed that the donation of the laptop is the first step in achieving the company’s mandate of providing internet education to schools in the region.
“When we launched LIME, we launched a manifesto as well. One of the things we have in our manifesto is that we are going to make internet education accessible to all students across the Caribbean. We want you [the students] to be on par with all the other children at your age across the globe. So, our giving you this laptop today is the first step in making this a reality,” Caines said.
The LIME official admonished the students to take good care of the new piece of technology and cautioned them not to misuse or abuse the information available through the internet.
Principal of the school Urlene Roberts and Head of the Foreign Languages Department Claudine Saunders thanked LIME for its timely and appropriate contribution to the department.
Roberts said LIME readily consented after being asked to make a donation to the language lab, and described the donation as a “testimony of LIME’s commitment to the school and the society as well to help students”.
Saunders was equally grateful for what she viewed to be a “noble gesture” and shared her vision of a fully computerised language lab to facilitate communication with foreign students and to increase the learning opportunities of the subject.
Following the donation, the excited French students returned a warm “Merci beaucoup!” with promise to take advantage of learning opportunities in foreign languages.
