Eighteen Draperstown businesses get together to help tackle school 'digital exclusion'

The Draperstown Digital Inclusion Project was developed when a school principal in the area highlighted that some children were at risk of falling behind in their education because they do not have access to the technology to take part in online lessons during periods of school closures, due to the pandemic.

Responding to the need the Workspace Group established a consortium of some 18 local business with the aim of raising funding to purchase digital devices for the eight schools in the area.

The aim of the project was to enable the schools to identify those children who didn’t have access to or had limited access to a suitable digital device to undertake home schooling work.

The devices would be gifted to the schools who would then distribute them to children/families as necessary.

With many parents trying to juggle home schooling with every day commitments during these already challenging times the local businesses involved welcomed the opportunity to work together and play their part in supporting efforts in making a difference to the local community.

Laurence O’Kane, Chairperson of the Workspace Group, said: “It’s clear that digital exclusion is real issue for many children, not just those who attend schools in our community.

"Children have been widely affected by school closures and the lockdowns and with the support of many local businesses this project has allowed us to try to limit the amount of digital exclusion in our community and prevent many children from falling behind their peers