Principal Ross Preece. Photo supplied.Principals nationwide have been voicing their frustrations at the poor roll-out of the Government’s $87 million plan to provide IT equipment to children during lockdown, and a local high school had similar issues.

Ashburton College principal Ross Preece said he appreciated the Government’s move to provide the IT equipment that helped to bridge a big equity gap among students, but was frustrated at how it worked out in the end.

“We put in a request to the ministry (of education) two weeks into Level 4 for 110 students who did not have suitable devices to support online learning,” he said.

“They arrived on the last Friday that we were in Level 3.”

Preece said the way that the computers arrived they would have required set-up at the school first with the students before they could even be taken home to be used for online learning.

The school also had 12 families that did not have internet access at home, but the school was sent more than 12 modems to get them connected online.

“We had over 12 modems arrive so we have mixed and matched them a bit,” he said.

“We are grateful for the support from the Government but the reality is if we were still at Level 3 they would still be sitting in the boxes at the school.

“We are grateful they were doing something though as it is an equity issue.

“Of the 110 students that didn’t have devices, the majority of those were Maori or Pasifika students.”

Preece said students had been happy to get back to school post lockdown, which was reflected in attendance numbers being above 90 per cent, something he said was uncommon during the winter months.

The ministry’s chief digital officer Stuart Wakefield told the NZ Herald the Ministry of Education had sent out 23,242 computers to students who needed them and had 400 requests outstanding for the top priority group, students in Years 11 to 13 in deciles 1 to 3.

“We have further devices on order with delivery from overseas confirmed.

“We currently expect them to arrive in late June, and to be dispatched to students in early July,” he said.

“The ministry has arranged 51,710 household connections to the internet.

“We estimate that there are around 30,000 still to be arranged and we expect to arrange these by June 30.”

He acknowledged that “we didn’t always get it right”, but said nothing would be wasted.

“Modems not required can be returned and reallocated. If in cases the modem/router wasn’t required, it won’t be wasted – either another household will use it or we will return it,” he said.

By Jaime Pitt-MacKay © The Ashburton Guardian - 12 June 2020