Above: RIM’s headquarters in Canada

The Jamaican Ministry of Education is partnering with Research in Motion to provide some 20,000 teachers on the island with Blackberry smartphones.

“If we are ever to close the development divide, technology will be one of the areas in which we will have to lead from, so Jamaica is making that investment early,” said Portfolio Minister Andrew Holness.

Holness said that information would eventually be stored in electronic textbooks made available on mobile phones or tablet devies, and that it was important for Jamaican teachers to be aware of the technology.

Earlier this week, Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce said the country was planning to expand its information and communication technology sector.

Under the partnership with RIM, the company will make two of its newest technologies available to Jamaican teachers — the Blackberry Mobile Voice System, which allows one phone extension for multiple numbers, and Blackberry Pushcast, which enables distribution of content like PowerPoint presentations.

Mariano Sanchez, RIM’s director for the Caribbean Region, said the partnership would help create an improved environment for mobile information access to groups of teachers and administrators.

–Jamaica Information Service