Providing laptops for online learning

Many of the SAE’s students, and particularly those living at the educational residences, come from families that are at risk both economically and socially. The Corona crisis, which has students at home all day, has placed immense pressure of many types on these families. Since the beginning of the crisis, the SAE has implemented a comprehensive system of measures to help ease the strain on students and their families. These include an emergency assistance fund that provides supermarket vouchers to families struggling to acquire food and basic personal hygiene items, and ongoing psychological support for students and their families where necessary. As students have not been able to attend school since the onset of the crisis, all SAE schools are working through distance learning. Lessons are held online, and students “attend” them and submit assignments. It goes without saying that access to a computer is essential in enabling students to participate. However, for many families, purchase of a computer is beyond their financial means. Additionally, many students come from large families with a number of children, all of whom are meant to be engaged in distance learning, such that, even if the family has a computer at home, it is not adequate for all the children who need to “attend” lessons at the same time. Thus, we would like to purchase laptop computers for some of these students (as laptops are mobile, they enable students to work wherever they can find a quiet corner, and this may vary from day to day, depending on what is happening in their homes at any given moment). Our top priority will be students who are writing matriculation exams this year, as this is the final stage in which they can prepare. However, other students are also in need of computers, in order to keep up with their studies. The majority of students to whom we would like to provide computers are those who live at SAE’s educational residences during normative times, however there are also non-residential students who need them.