Digi, through its partnership with the Ministry of Education, Belize Catholic Association, Principal of Secondary Schools (BCPSS}, Belize Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (BAPSS}, and In the Gap Institute officially announced the next phase of its online educational project, Digilearn, on Thursday, July 4th. Digilearn is a cloud-based platform that facilitates digital teaching and online learning.
Since April 2019, nine high schools took part in the pilot phase of the project. Deputy Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Digi, Janine Salazar stated, “Digilearn allows students to gain the necessary skills they need to thrive in an increasingly digital world and prepare them for future opportunities. This program is transforming classrooms from traditional to a digital environment for both teachers and students; empowering them to collaborate more effectively and generating better learning outcomes.”
As a part of the company’s digital transformation plans and Go Beyond strategy, education in Belize remains one of Digi’s key priorities. For this reason, in April 2019, Digi provided Dell convertible laptops to students and teachers in all nine first form participating institutions. To facilitate this transition to digital learning, the company also upgraded the schools’ internet speeds to 500Mbps and a fully managed Wi-fi solution (DigiWiFi). Principal of Pallotti High School, Sr. Clara Teul stated, “When I heard about saving papers and ink, I thought Digilearn was the best thing to happen in schools.
The type of work that our students will have in the future will not be the same as we have today, so we need to be creative and innovative.” Teachers, administrators, and students from the various schools were provided with onsite training and webinars to acquaint them with the use of this new platform.
Digi’s Chief Executive Officer, Rochus Schreiber added, “Our Digilearn Project is the next step on the journey to close the digital divide between Belize and the world. We already have the best mobile network and the only country-wide fiber-to-the-home network in Central America. With Digilearn, our schools will provide students with the most advanced learning environment in the region. I want to thank all our partners and our staff for their hard work, dedication and belief in making Digilearn a reality.” Maria Zabaneh, President of In the Gap and member of St. Catherine’s Board of Directors said, “The vision is to take Belize from a third to a first world nation, and technology is one of the key components that can help us as a small nation make that leap. There is no limit to our nation building efforts once we have laid the solid foundation upon which our children can build.”
Minister of Education, Hon. Patrick Faber also expressed his appreciation to Digi for partnering with the Ministry by adding, “With such an exciting teaching and learning environment, the possibilities are indeed endless, and I would like to urge all Belizeans to get onboard this information super-highway to the future.”
Digi and the Ministry of Education are aiming to introduce Digilearn to all secondary schools across Belize by December 2021.
