5,200 laptops have been distributed to secondary private and public schools in the CNMI, but his 700 seventh grade students are still waiting for their units.
“I have just received word that the 700 laptops have just been shipped and will arrive around early January or the end of this month,” said Barcinas in an interview.
The laptops were purchased with the federal State Fiscal Stabilization Fund and are part of the Public School System One Laptop Per Child Project.
Barcinas said all his 8th grade students have already received their laptops and are making good use of them.
“However, there are restrictions we’ve implemented on the use of the laptop. If we constantly find that a student is not using his or her laptop for their educational benefit, we will confiscate it. These laptops were distributed to the children to open them up to the world and raise their awareness level of what goes on around them. In addition to that, it is a tool to do research for their homework and projects,” Barcinas told the Variety.
The laptop is a Dell Latitude 2100 and costs $399.
