Coronavirus: Children without computers ‘are being left behind’ as they learn from home
One organisation has claimed disadvantaged children on the northern beaches are struggling to learn from home without access to technology amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Manly
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A local organisation working with disadvantaged families said children are the ones “being left behind” as they struggle to learn from home without computers or laptops amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Community Northern Beaches have put a call out to residents who are looking to get rid of old technology which could be “used and valued”.
“COVID-19 has highlighted the technological divide between those that can afford technology and the internet, and those that can’t,” executive director John Kelly said.
“This time has highlighted how critical online learning has become in schools and universities and many kids and university students are being left behind because they cannot afford that technology.”
He said while the northern beaches may be seen as a prestigious area, there are families doing it tough.
“There’s a family who live a couple of doors up from us in Mona Vale who had to go to the library to access a computer for study,” he said.
“You only get an hour on the computer and you can’t always get there after school so we have people with great access and then there are others who don’t have that option.
“We have the highest population of Tibetans in Australia who live in the northern beaches. These people have come as refugees because of the political situation there and they work two or three jobs to make a better life for the next generation and a huge part of that is education.”
Mr Kelly explained why going to school is not an option for these children amid COVID-19.
“A lot of migrant families are intergenerational, so they have grandparents at home. If the kids go to school and pick up the virus, they risk coming back home and giving it to their grandparents who are more susceptible,” he said.
“They’re really caught between a rock and this hard place with this COVID-19 situation.
We run the homework groups so we know they don’t have them (computers and laptops).
The organised have recently received three computers which they’ve been able regift.
“Little things can help change peoples lives and I don’t understand why more isn’t being done.
“I’m hoping we can get as many as we can. If we got 100, we could easily give away 100 to those who need it.”