Last Friday, Industry Minister James Moore announced renewal of funding for the Computers for Schools program. Computers for Schools is an initiative that collects and refurbishes donated surplus computers for distribution to Canada’s schools, libraries, not-for-profit learning organizations and Aboriginal communities
The renewed funding will put about 280,000 refurbished computers into schools across Canada, creating opportunities for about 1,000 training jobs in doing the recycling work to extend the life of the “gently used” corporate computers.
This is a good program, but it does not go far enough.
The government press release claims:
Hundreds of thousands of young people will be given access to digital learning opportunities that they otherwise would not have had, thanks to an investment by the Government of Canada.
This appears to be an acknowledgment by the government that there are hundreds of thousands of Canadian young people who otherwise do no have access to a computer. Three years ago, I said that we needed one million computers to bridge the income-based digital divide.
Computers in schools are necessary but not sufficient to enable young people to succeed in a digital economy.
Kids do homework at home.
Our national digital strategy shouldn’t be satisfied with putting computers into schools; we need to make sure that every school aged kid in Canada has access to a connected computer at home.