Tech Labs Laptops loan

The numbers are unprecedented and subsequent implications are extraordinary. As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the globe, worldwide countries have announced temporary shutdown of schools, with great impact on young students’ life and Portugal was not an exception.

Following the current Emergency State, declared by the Portuguese Government, the final term of 2019-2020’s school year will be completed remotely, hence all students from primary up to intermediate schools are studying from home.

Never before have so many children been out of school at the same time, disrupting learning and upending lives, especially the most vulnerable. This situation flagged a social issue, since some families don´t have means to purchase or gather extra computers for their children, or simply, it is difficult to share one equipment among several family members.

The main challenge is to maintain youngster’s learning process through COVID-19 and find ways to keep their school activities remotely. The City of Aveiro decided to purchase approximately 200 new laptops and 30GB internet routers to lend to students in need until the end of the school year (July) and top up with more 220 laptops of the Aveiro STEAM City’s Tech Labs which are not currently in use, since schools will remain closed until the next school year.

In total 420 portable computers, 420 headsets and 200 Internet accesses where lent by the City of Aveiro to the students from disadvantage families, flagged by the Schools of the Municipality of Aveiro, to assist them during their remote classes with their teachers and as a supplement of the “tele-escola” (TV Broadcasted School).