Volunteers sort through the laptops, prioritising ones that can be easily fixed while others are put to one side. — AFP picLONDON, Feb 21 — In a community centre in a deprived London suburb — surrounded by old computers and tangled leads — volunteers take their screwdrivers to the piles of donated equipment.
Since the lockdown introduced in January, the CatBytes group in Lewisham in southeast London has seen demand from local schools constantly outstrip supply. Throughout the pandemic, “food insecurity has been the main issue discussed but I think digital is really rising up the ranks”, says Griffiths. CatBytes usually runs workshops for adults, but during the pandemic, it has switched to helping children and has “a lot more volunteers”, Griffiths says.Volunteers sort through the laptops, prioritising ones that can be easily fixed while others are put to one side.The communications regulator Ofcom estimates that between 1.1 and 1.8 million children in the UK — or nine per cent — do not have access to a computer, laptop or tablet at home.
While the school received 74 laptops and tablets from the government, as well as some wireless routers, that is not enough, she says.The school has been providing children without devices with printed-out lesson packs but they “have been missing out on key learning from their teacher”, McIntosh says.
“Being able to give them the opportunity to get online to see their friends virtually in those little squares, well, it’s significant.”Vital as the computers are, some children face an additional struggle because their families cannot afford internet access, says Griffiths.“With a laptop, somebody can give it to you and you can refurbish it and redistribute it but data is an ongoing cost”.