Fife man puts old laptops in hands of pupils

A Fife man has eased the burden of home schooling for 150 families by refurbishing obsolete laptops.

Mike Saint made a public appeal for donations of old and unused computers a month ago in the hope he would get a handful that he could update and give to people who couldn’t afford their own.

However, in just four weeks, Mike has already refurbished more than 150 old laptops at his home in Limekilns, converting them into Chromebooks free of charge.

The initiative has proved so successful he is now working on the project full-time and has vowed to continue for as long as there is a demand.

The former commercial driver, who went back to study business psychology as a mature student at 51 and is now studying for a PHD, said he started the scheme to stop children who didn’t have access to a home computer from falling behind in their education during the pandemic.

“I put out an appeal for old PC donations on local social media hoping to get maybe half a dozen but the thing has just snowballed and now that word has got about, I’ve been inundated with machines,” Mike said.

Mike uses a programme which cleans the laptops and turns them into Chromebooks, which use open source software.

Despite licensing and other regulations preventing Fife Council from distributing the refurbished PCS, it has supported Mike’s initiative, liaising with families who may want to benefit.

To learn more about the initiative, or to make a donation, email Mike at tech4all.scot@ gmail.com