Digital technology is expanding quickly in schools and head teachers are understandably keen to be at the forefront of new teaching methods. Also the attraction of long term cost savings on text books cannot be underestimated.
The dilemma facing many schools, is do they ask parents to part with £300 for a tablet, or pay for a device in instalments? Some schools are charging up to £30 a month, as they rush to keep ahead of the information revolution.
While the introduction of digital technology is lessons is popular with youngsters, parents and teaching unions are raising concerns that those from poorer backgrounds could lose out on that supposedly free state education.
Although there have been expected complaints, head teachers rightly insist pupils should be able to engage and be confident with using modern technologies.
A major concern however, is that young people may be reluctant to let their schools and classmates know that they cannot afford to lease a computer from the school, let-alone have one at home to use. If such items were given free of charge to all pupils and maintained and repaired by the school, then that would be one way of ensuring all pupils have the same equal access and opportunities without stigma.
At GEEX we fell our Operating Leases allows schools to provide just such a service. All of our iPad leases include the following as standard:
- A full 3 years parts and labour hardware warranty plus telephone remote support. In the event that we cannot solve a problem over the phone we will send out a replacement iPad the same day and collect the faulty one ensuring the minimal disruption to the classroom.
- All risks insurance covering against theft, loss and accidental damage.
- Equipment Renewal/Upgrade – our normal lease is capped at 3 years but we uniquely offer a renewal of your Apple iPads after only 2 years. You can return the old iPads and cancel the original agreement allowing you free to take a new lease on the latest iPad. You can keep the original iPads but there would be a small cost to do this which we can add to the new lease.