LOCKDOWN LEADER: AESSEAL plc
Yorkshire business AESSEAL donates £400,000 to tackle the homeschooling digital divide
Homeschooling is proving a challenge for most families during the pandemic, but those without access to proper technology can find it impossible as schools switch from face-to-face teaching to online classrooms and Zoom lessons.
However, one generous Rotherham company, has decided to step in to help more disadvantaged families in South Yorkshire access digital resources with a £400,000 donation.
The money from AESSEAL plc, which manufactures mechanical seals, will provide 1500 refurbished laptops, equal to around half of the estimated need in the town, with £100,000 going to Sheffield-based Laptops for Kids to supply dongles to connect 10,000 households currently without digital access to the internet.
Across the country, the Government is targeting 1.3 million school children under the Get Help with Technology programme, which was launched back in May 2020, as the lack of vital equipment for remote learning for many means that the digital divide in UK homes continues to widen under the pandemic.
To-date, it has spent around £400 million on tablets, laptops and connectivity equipment, with telecoms providers such as Three, Smarty, Virgin Mobile, EE, Tesco Mobile and Sky Mobile also providing free internet data to those without a fixed connection at home under the Department for Education’s Help with Technology programme.
However, the DfE’s rollout has been criticised by teachers and parents for its slow delivery as some children still remain without means of connecting to lessons well into a third national lockdown — something AESSEAL is hoping its donation can help to tackle in South Yorkshire.
In Yorkshire and Humber alone, analysis from the Northern Powerhouse Partnership based on data from Ofcom and ONS shows there are at least 116,000 families are without access to a laptop, tablet or desktop computer, a figure that equates to roughly 10 per cent of the county’s population.
Chris Rea, managing director of AESSEAL said, ‘We believe in being a good neighbour, partner and useful member of the communities in which we live and work. Our donation is an investment in young people across Rotherham and South Yorkshire - we will need their ideas and energy to tackle the global challenges facing our planet.”
Technology entrepreneur David Richards, co-founder of the Laptops for Kids campaign, said: “This should be a clarion call to businesses everywhere to support our campaign and make sure every child has safe access to the internet so they can fulfil their potential.”