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De­spite the coun­try’s fi­nan­cial con­straints, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlat has con­firmed that 18,000 lap­tops will be dis­trib­uted to all Form One stu­dents, re­gard­less of their par­ents’ in­come lev­el.

This an­nounce­ment came as the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee ap­proved a $455.1 mil­lion in­crease to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s bud­get on Mon­day.

For­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Colm Im­bert asked whether lap­tops would be dis­trib­uted to stu­dents “both rich and poor, re­gard­less of wealth”. In re­sponse, Dowlat and his gov­ern­ment col­leagues replied em­phat­i­cal­ly, “All stu­dents,” while thump­ing their desks in sup­port.