Loan of tablets to vulnerable students
In an effort to tackle the digital divide and work for equal opportunities in education, a pool of tablets with internet connections has been set up for vulnerable pupils quarantined during compulsory and post-compulsory education at publicly run and publicly subsidised private schools in the city. The initiative was started by the Barcelona Education Consortium.
Since the beginning of October, 610 pupils in obligatory education have used tablets on loan and 91 schools have requested the service. Among students in post-compulsory education, 1,464 tablets have been loaned to people in vulnerable situations. Once the students are out of quarantine and return to class, they have to return the devices to their education centre.
The City Council used 500,000 euros from the Covid Fund to purchase 2,000 devices as an addition to the 300 which became available in the 2019-2020 school year. This came after 2,700 tablets were distributed among all pupils in socially vulnerable situations and in their last year at primary school or first year at secondary school, as well as ICT coordinators at publicly run schools and teaching resource centres (CRP), who will have tablets available to them until the end of their compulsory education.
The tablet loan service is in line with the Digital Education Plan for Catalonia 2020-2023, implemented by the Ministry for Education and seeking to improve the digital skills of students, teaching staff and schools as part of the educational transformation.
