Ever since COVID pushed educational institutions to digitize their curriculum and brands to create specific educational products like cheaper iPads and Chromebooks, schools have been giving students free laptops and tablets.
The measure has been a success in ensuring that all students have access to their curriculum but what has been the cost for schools?
A new report shows some troubling numbers when it comes to the actual cost of free laptops in schools. The number of free laptops and tablets has to be a lot higher than the actual number of students because the devices go missing in huge quantities – lost, stolen or misplaced.
From CBS News:
The Chicago Public Schools spent a record $124 million on technology in the 2021-2022 school year – and lost $23 million of it. That is the conservative estimate from the CPS Office of the Inspector General, detailed in a more than 130-page report released on Tuesday.
“You can’t pin this on COVID,” said CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher. “You can pin this on students who are just taking devices and not returning them.”
In many cases, schools marked tech devices “lost” when they were assigned to students or staff and never returned – but there were no consequences, according to an OIG news release.
Worse off, schools also have to spend a lot of money in solutions to track the devices they give to students. In this case, Chicago spent around $2.5 million on software to track devices but wasn’t actually using those tools.
According to the report, up to 27 percent of the devices given to students go missing.
Also read: Which iPhone Is The Best For Students? Three Things To Consider Before Buying
Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay
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