THE EDITOR: I write to refute the patently false, misleading allegations in an article by Theodore Lewis titled 'Constitutional rights of black children,' in which he states:

'When Samsung offered the People's Partnership the opportunity to convert two secondary schools into model technology-driven schools, then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar chose Lakshmi Hindu high school and Iere Presbyterian, her alma mater, as the models. No government schools. Just UNC-affiliated schools.'

By singling out these two top-performing denominational schools he has recklessly and dangerously attacked, undermined and maligned the independence and integrity of their affiliate Maha Sabha and Presbyterian boards, and their tremendous historical contributions to our country's education sector. For this he must be roundly condemned.

Lewis is referring to global technological giant Samsung Electronics's highly acclaimed 'Smart School Project,' which developed an integrated interactive learning platform for teachers and their students. It was launched in 2013 in 383 schools and more than 212,000 students in 72 countries, including TT.

As then minister of education under the PP government (2010-2015), it fell under my purview, and also included the non-profit organisation Glasswing International.

Under this TT Smart School Project, Samsung, at no cost, equipped 20 local schools (ten secondary and ten primary) with digital classrooms, inclusive of installation and maintenance, the latest electronic devices, teacher training, performance monitoring, and the use of the reading comprehension software Progrentis.

These and many more factual details of this programme are widely publicised in numerous media reports and various public archives, including the Parliament's Hansard record of my contribution to the budget debate on September 15, 2014, where I noted:

'We are one of the few countries in the world that has 21st-century smart classrooms. Twenty of our schools - ten primary and ten secondary - do now have 21st-century smart classrooms. There are only 600 schools throughout the world that we are aware of, because Samsung is the pioneer in it and Samsung has indicated that we are pioneers in this education process. That is where we have reached in ICT in education in our country.

'We have over 150 technicians servicing these schools, primary and secondary schools, and we have close to 300 ICT teachers in our schools and we are going to employ another 94 based on an assessment that we did.'

Lewis's questionable peddling of outright falsehoods in this matter can only be seen as devious. He has seriously compromised his integrity and lost every shred of credibility. He must immediately withdraw these false, dangerous allegations and apologise to all concerned parties, including the Presbyterian and Maha Sabha boards.

I stand very proud on the PP government's indisputable, impressive, unparalleled groundbreaking record of progressive, egalitarian, hu