To feel computer scheme in school seems a tad unethical

[Yougetwhatyouget]

Child will start secondary next year and we got an email about getting them a Chromebook for a little under £500. I asked a few questions & established

• School will use computers for work in lessons
• She can’t take the tablet she already has to use in school as it has to be a Chromebook from this supplier with specific software
• If she doesn’t have one we buy it’s not guaranteed the school can provide one to students on a 1:1 basis
• Any payment schemes are at over 10% APR

We will buy one but this doesn’t feel very much like a voluntary scheme as it’s like buy this or have your child disadvantaged and the laptops seem very expensive (I know they come with insurance and it’s not a ludicrous price but it is a lot). I’m not suggesting this is unusual but more just pondering how stuff like this and the stupid school uniform demands that result in people spending a fortune on badged stuff are so prevalent.

My daughter has an iPad they charge me £13.50 a month for for 4 years

Yep they’ve said they can’t support other devices as the scheme ones come with a Chrome Management licence which allows them to apply settings and security settings globally and remotely. It feels off to me. If us paying more subsidises the school getting some to use for anyone that can’t buy one I don’t really object to that but I do if it’s mostly going to some 3rd party supplying them.

Id want to know why someone is getting rich from it.

Please don't buy a Chromebook under this scheme it will be utterly crap and worth a fraction of what you're being asked to pay.

So I got an email reply just now to some questions I sent the school. It seems much of the additional cost links to the laptops being covered for theft or accidental damage. In case they break the kids can switch out for a school one while theirs is repaired. While I’m a bit irritated by the whole thing and agree it’s not amazing value £200 also isn’t appalling for a software licence & 5 years of damage insurance. In a twist another parent asked the head of year and was told it was ok to bring a non scheme device so I guess my next thing is to forward on the mails from the IT guy and head of year we each have and ask head teacher to clarify which is correct. I swear you couldn’t make up the organisational chaos of all our local schools. The staff are lovely, the quality of teaching is by all accounts great (as it has been in their existing schools) & so much effort goes into providing extracurricular activities and opportunities for the kids but the communication to parents and the joined up thinking is often very lacking.

Because it's illegal not to.

I only half jest.

I agree that it seems incredibly unethical. My little one is only starting reception in September, but just looked and it appears that our local high school seems the same. Crazy when she’ll get free school lunches and we don’t even have to send a pencil in. Apparently, inequality for children from poor backgrounds is ok at secondary school. And I think very little of them encouraging/enabling parents to get into (possibly further) debt with the finance scheme. It’s so bizarre that they think it’s morally ok. No idea what you could do about it though.

It’s so bizarre that they think it’s morally ok.

It's a long established rule in capitalist societies that morals are subservient to profit.

Lots of schools who do this will also offer a cheaper/free option to those in financial hardship, on free school meals etc so that they don’t miss out. One of our local comp’s allows parents to apply to hardship fund which then pays for the laptops or you can apply and do a “pay what you can afford” if certain conditions are met (usually things like free school meals, UC etc). It’s obviously still not great but there are options.

This happened in my daughter’s school except it was MacBook pros not 500 quid chrome books
Some kid kicked a footy across the room, knocked her laptop off the desk smashed to smithereens
I then got called in because my daughter said I was going to go mad at her and given a lecture on child abuse for the rant that I hadn’t yet had.

You're also paying for the support of the laptop as well in the price of the purchase. This should be for 3? years? depending on what you get.

Yes. I’m not really suggesting the price is that appalling (though I do think it’s quite expensive) but it’s more the short window to decide for next school year & the pressure to get one due to the lack of other options. We’ve already bought both of ours iPads for First/Middle school and I’m torn between not buying for now and seeing how it goes and getting one.