I give abun­dant thanks to Dr Noel Kalicha­ran for his very pro­fes­sion­al let­ter re free lap­tops�for SEA stu­dents ("Com­put­ers in schools, not free lap­tops," June 2) which should reach every par­ent, teacher, ed­u­ca­tor, politi­cian and Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry of­fi­cial.

The mes­sage? Be­ware�we don't kill the goose that lays the gold­en eggs. Con­grat­u­la­tions to the new min­is­ter, Dr Tim Gopeesingh, who is very ca­pa­ble in the field of ed­u­ca­tion. How­ev­er, where­as that promise might have been a counter to the PNM's promise, it could be mas­sive­ly counter-pro­duc­tive, as Kalicha­ran has�shown. �

I have been a teacher all my life and am still teach­ing at 79. I have grand­chil­dren whose fa­ther lim­its their time on the com­put­er at home. When they come to my home on week­ends, you should see ac­tion, even leav­ing aside their as­sign­ments, go­ing hours with­out sleep. I have to chase them to bed.

PM Per­sad-Bisses­sar, please don't kill our beau­ti­ful chil­dren�who are al­ready un­der so much so­cial and psy­cho­log­i­cal�pres­sures by this crazy mod­ern adult world. Dr Williams boast­ed that "the fu­ture is in their book bags." What are those�bags car­ry­ing to­day? I sug­gest the val­ue be giv­en in books, uni­forms, pay­ment for trav­el or a straight grant.

Pas­tor Al­lan Fur­longe

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