Students of the Upton Gardens Girls’ Centre now have increased opportunities to benefit from the synchronization of education and information technology (IT). This is due to the recent purchase of technological devices via funding assistance from the Federal Republic of Germany.

Struggling to keep afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre was forced to seek more innovative methods of teaching, resulting in the creation of the Education through Technology Programme. Initiated and implemented in 2020, the programme is tailored to provide effective and strategic training in the use of various online platforms, not only to the girls but to educators as well. The programme will ultimately facilitate the delivery of the Upton Gardens Girls Centre’s regular instructional courses via online means.

To buttress the programme, a donation of equipment valued at over €12,500 was presented to Upton Gardens officials, at a ceremony on October 24. The equipment consisted of laptops, smart screen TVs, printers and other computer accessories.

Karolin Troubetskoy, Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany, underscored her passion to assist vulnerable.

“I am really happy that the German Government can help and contribute to your educational development by having donated these smart TVs and laptops. This I hope will make the work easier for teachers and students.”

Director of the Centre, Jacqueline Simeon, expressed gratitude for the much-needed assistance. She explained: “We recognized, during the COVID-19 pandemic, that going virtual required certain tools. We had some but discovered that a lot of the training content needed was on YouTube and therefore it was important to get smart devices in each class.”

Germany is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union (EU).

The Government of Germany allocates funding to develop small-scale projects initiated by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the field of education and technology.