Audit of Jamaican TIS Pilot Project - Why Minister of Technology, Phillip Paulwell extended to June 2016

Looks like September is not just the month that start the new School year 2015-2016.

It’s also the month that Education come under scrutiny with the announcement of a the release of preliminary findings of an assessment of the TIS (Tablets in Schools) Pilot Project as reported in the article “Tablets In Schools Audit Review Underway”, published Saturday September 12, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.

The results of the Audit of TIS (Tablets in Schools) Pilot Project, which was conducted by professors and senior lecturers from the University of Technology, were submitted to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science, Technology Energy and Mining on Tuesday September 2^nd 2015.

So far, Opposition spokespersons on Science and Technology, Dr. Andrew Wheatly, has welcomed the announcement of an audit TIS Project as reported in the article  “Wheatley welcomes audit of tablets in schools project”, published Friday, September 11, 2015, The Jamaica Observer.

However, he's not pleased with the review that was done of the audit of the TIS Project. So what exactly does the Audit of the TIS Pilot Project say?

Audit of the TIS Pilot Project by the numbers - The Good, the Bad and Defense Against the Dark Arts

e-Learning Jamaica Company Limited, who are in charge of the TIS Pilot Project, also got a copy to review.

They are the ones in charge of the four (4) contractors responsible for the deployment of the Tablets:

1.      Innovative Corporate Solutions

2.      Digicel Jamaica

3.      Productive Business Solutions

4.      GeoTech Vision Enterprises Limited

 A total of 27,000 Tablets were distributed under the TIS Project for distribution, with 25,000 already distributed up toll March  2015. The 25,000 Tablets as distributed by the four (4) contractors, reads as thus:

1.      10,500 Tablets from Innovative Corporate Solutions

2.      5,500 Tablets from Digicel Jamaica

3.      5,500 Tablets from Productive Business Solutions

4.      5,500 Tablets from GeoTech Vision Enterprises Limited

The distribution of the Tablets has been slow yet steady since the start of the 2014-2015 School Term as seen from the stats below:

1.      17,000 TIS Tablets distributed up until December 2014

2.      18,000 TIS Tablets distributed by the end of December 2014

3.      7000 Tablets distributed in early weeks of the Easter term in 2015

They too, must be at least pleased as the findings are as I'd predicted in my blog article entitled “TIS Project a Success with Boys - JA$9000 for Subsidized Tablets as TIS Project replaces 600,000 Students School Books with e-books come September 2015”:

1.      Improvements in students’ ability to learn independently

2.      Increased interest in schoolwork

3.      Increased interest in reading and writing skill

4.      Improvements in student engagement

5.      Improvements in enthusiasm by learners

6.      Improvements in classroom behaviour

The Audit, which is what this basically is, is the first bit of solid news about the TIS Pilot Project since it was discovered that the Tablets were hackable in October 2015 as reported in my blog article entitled “Male Student hacks TIS Project Tablet as Distribution Expands - Tablets Problems require Creative Jamaican solutions to deliver Lessons to the Learners We Teach”.

So what problems did the TIS Pilot Project face?

TIS Pilot Project Problems - Student access to inappropriate Website remedy coming

On that note the Audit also highlighted some of the challenges that the TIS Pilot Project also faced:

1.      Students’ ability to access non educational sites and adult content

2.      Students changing passwords and codes to avoid parental interference

3.      Restricted access to downloading Educational content and applications

To their credit, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy & Mining in June 2015 has put in place measures as reported in Tablet in “Schools security measures outlined”, published 2015-06-12 by Ernie Megginson, Go-Jamaica to reduce students ability to access inappropriate content on the TIS Pilot Project Tablets, as quoted verbatim:

1. Restrictions on browsing the Internet via Web filtering provided through Child Safe Browsers. These browsers block sites with inappropriate content such as pornographic and violent material
2. Restrictions on the type of apps that can be installed on the tablets by limiting access to only the approved apps on Playstore. All other apps are blocked until approved explicitly by the Ministry of Education
3. If the student found a way to bypass the security, the tablets can be marked as out of compliance and disabled.
4. Additional filters are also placed on the internet connection in each school, which prevent students or teachers from accessing inappropriate sites at the school
5. Where a student, often with help, is able to breach the Device Management Application, the tablet can still be disabled once it goes online
6. Any tablet not seen on-line for two or more weeks is flagged as a concern and the school is notified
7. Teacher tablets which are also controlled by the Device Management Application have less restriction than the students' tablets
8. Constant feedback is provided to the vendors resulting in the improvement of the Device Management configuration or the software application itself

Some of these measures were addressed in my blog article entitled “State Minister Julian Robinson hopes Tablets boost Innovation in ICT - How TIS Project Tablets are secured using GPS and IMEI Labeling”.

I'd also pointed out that parents need to take an interest in their children's education and enable the Content Management features on the tablets themselves which already come built into Tablets as explained in my blog article entitled “How to Lock down your Child’s Tablet or smartphone and Apps to Block, Protect and Notify you of your Child’s whereabouts Online - Defense Against the Dark Arts”. 

Still, these measures won't stop tech savvy students from building their own custom websites with links from Cloud drives to censored content or blog their use of VPN (Virtual Private Network) or Proxy Server websites as explained in my blog article entitled “GOJ can’t stop TIS Project Tablet Hacking – How to Access Blocked Websites using Browsers, VPN Apps and Custom Cloud Drives”.  

But at least they’re finally taking action. With time these measure will prove effective even against the most determined student!

Minister of Technology, Phillip Paulwell extends it to June 2016 - More time and more schools to be added

Despite these challenges, the Minister of Technology, Phillip Paulwell has extended the TIS Pilot Project to June 2016 to allow as many schools as possible to be a part of the program.

 Minister Phillip Paulwell believes the Security arrangement are adequate as reported in the article “School Tablets Have Adequate Security, Says Technology Ministry”, published Friday June 12, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.  

Based on the problems being faced with securing the CMS (Content Management System) and DMS (Device Management System), they also need to give pilot school time to really get the hand of using Tablet in a Classroom setting.

Already since the Start of December, Primary Schools in East Kingston and Port Royal have been given some seven hundred (700) tablets as reported in the article “700 Tablets for Schools in East Kingston and Port Royal”, published September 2, 2015 by Chris Patterson, The Jamaica Information Service. 

It's also good to note that I haven't heard anything more about the JA$114 million worth of content for the Tablet intended to replace books as reported in my blog article entitled “JA$114 million spent on Content for TIS Project Tablets - JA$76 million on Math, English and Science Content by January 2015 to stop Teachers Padding Book-lists for Commissions”.   

So more work lays ahead for the TIS Pilot Project, which, all in all, has done a world of good. It clearly has sparked the interest of Boys and Girls via the Application of Science and Technology and anything that can hold their interest in learning needs to be expanded.