Help the Mail get computers to kids – and change lives

THE Mail has launched a campaign to ensure all Britain’s schoolchildren are equipped with a laptop or computer tablet – so no child is prevented from learning during the lockdown.

With schools closed, up to a million pupils are struggling with accessing lessons from home because they don’t have essential equipment.

That is why our celebrated charity Mail Force – which gifted millions of items of PPE to the NHS last year – has launched a new fundraising drive called Mail Force’s Computers for Kids initiative.

Mail Force will help companies recycle old computers for school use – and is set to help fund new laptops and tablets. This newspaper is asking its famously generous readers to contribute whatever they can towards the costs. About £15 could pay to refurbish a laptop for a child in danger of missing vital weeks of education.

We are not asking for readers to send in old laptops or devices to us. However, we are keen to hear from companies with 50 or more computer devices available for donation.

The new initiative was hailed by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, all the main teaching unions, and the Children’s Commissioner for England yesterday.

Robert Halfon, chairman of the Education Select Committee, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The deepening divide between the haves and have-nots has been exposed all too clearly by coronavirus. I salute the Mail for all they are doing. Nothing can be more important than getting our children learning while the schools are closed.’

Unlike the first lockdown, schools are now mandated to provide three to five hours of lessons per pupil every day – yet lots of youngsters cannot access them because they don’t have laptops or tablet devices.

Ofcom estimated last year there were 1.78 million children in the UK without access to a device for online learning. Since then, the Government has ordered 1.3 million laptops. So far, 800,000 have been delivered, leaving almost one million children without a device.

Mail Force aims to speed things up. It is set to use our readers’ donations to help fund new kit and is appealing for firms willing to donate 50 or more of their old machines.

The charity’s expert partner, IT specialists Computacenter, will collect the machines for free, securely wipe content and install software to make them ready for a child to use.

Last year, Mail Force donated an incredible 42 million items of PPE to the NHS, care homes and charity sector front lines. The campaign won a public service award and the Mail was hailed for holding the Government to account at the same time as helping to solve the problem.

As with the PPE crisis, Mail Force is resolutely working with the Government to get our hands on devices. Families, head teachers, MPs and the teaching unions have been consulted. There have been long and productive meetings with civil servants from the Department for Education, and with IT experts.

Brand-new laptops or tablets from household- name manufacturers will be funded – in a purchasing scheme running parallel to the Government’s one. Companies’ old laptops will be repurposed to rescue a child’s education and help save the planet to boot. The benefits for companies are clear: recycle old laptops, save the environment and help out a great charity for schoolchildren.

Mail Force is a registered charity established and supported by the Daily Mail and General Trust, which owns The Mail on Sunday and Daily Mail newspapers. The money raised in this campaign will be used to get schoolchildren online. Laptops will be allocated to schools on a needs basis.

If more money is raised than needed for this mission, all extra funds will be applied in support of the work of UK schools in other ways.