The Editor, Sir:

In response to your editorial of Wednesday, March 26, can anyone tell me why in Jamaica we constantly refuse to recycle? In the much wealthier United States and Europe, projects exist where computer equipment is refurbished and made available to schools free of cost.

The private and public sectors in Jamaica are constantly upgrading equipment as are private individuals. If you go into any bank, insurance company or other entity, I can guarantee you will be able to find a room in which surplus monitors, keyboards, printers, etc., are lying around.

Surplus equipment

Admittedly, in situations where sensitive information is contained on the hard drive, these may have to be replaced, but at a fraction of the cost of buying a new machine. Otherwise, where does the surplus equipment go? Into the landfill? Even that is a problem.

I recently spent a morning phoning around various agencies inquiring about the safe disposal of computer equipment and cellphone batteries, and nobody I spoke to could tell me anything meaningful.

Having a computer even without Internet connection can help to promote computer literacy among teachers and pupils alike. Having software programmes over which an educator has some control, may well be preferable to situations where students can simply download assignments from the Internet and pass them off as their own, and in the process learn nothing.

I am not for one minute suggesting that the Internet is not an amazing tool, but universal access brings with it its own problems for education, the need to monitor things with anti-plagiarism software, or to restrict access to adult sites, and certainly the need for people to realise that computers cannot ever replace good teachers.

I am, etc.,

BRIAN HEAP

brianheap@gmail.com

Staff tutor, UWI