Dad ‘overwhelmed’ after principal lends struggling NI family his own laptop for home-schooling

Supermarket worker Joe Kelly (54), said he and his wife Kritsana are on low incomes and can’t afford to buy iPads for their children.

He said repeated requests to the Department of Education for help with additional equipment have been ignored.

Mr Kelly said this has meant his children, 17-year-old Manatsawee, 14-year-old twins, Joe-a and Joelle, and Aimeasha, 11, have been struggling to do their online lessons on just one computer since lockdown began nine weeks ago.

‘‘We used to live in Thailand and we decided to bring the children here because Northern Ireland has the best education in the world - but it’s failing us badly at the moment.’’

He added: ‘‘The three boys go to Slemish Integrated College and are required to do four hours per day homeschooling and it’s three hours for my daughter, who is at Braidside Integrated Primary School, so that’s 15 hours in total of homeschooling.

‘‘I rang Mr Michael Bennett, the headmaster of Slemish, to say it was impossible, because if they start at 9am, that means a child won’t get on the computer until 11pm.

‘‘The headmaster told me had emailed the Department of Education every week and they don’t even reply anymore.’’

Mr Kelly said the headmaster sent him an email last week to say a laptop had become available for his children.

‘‘He didn’t want to say, but it turned out he had given me his own home computer to help my children. I was overwhelmed by that, I just couldn’t get over it, such kindness. But Mr Bennett should not have to do that. He is under a lot of pressure. It’s not just my children that are needing help in his school and how many home computers has he got to give?’’

Mr Kelly said he is ‘‘really disappointed’’ by the way the Department has dealt with the situation, adding his children are worried they are going to fall behind and are fearful for their futures.

‘‘My twins are in Year 11. One is worried that he’s not going to get a good job, he’s going to end up in a factory. The other twin said he felt like he was drowning in a swimming pool.The oldest boy has A levels next year and due to the computer situation he has missed deadlines for his work. I really worry about their education.’’

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: “In a recent DE survey over half of schools who were using online learning reported that all pupils had the resources they required to access online learning. A quarter of schools reported also, that they were lending devices to pupils. Nevertheless, the Department is aware that some young people do not have sufficient access to technology to support their learning while they are out of their normal school setting.

“In response, the Education Minister has agreed a process to lend digital devices including laptops and tablets to those children who would benefit most in terms of supporting their learning.

“Following prioritisation of existing school stock which will begin this week, schools will work with the Education Authority to identify how many new laptops are required. We anticipate having around 3,000 new laptops available in the coming weeks and, if needed, will purchase more”

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