We are delighted to be one of the benefiting charities of a fantastic policy at the Department for Education. See the below article below from ‘Inside DfE’ for more details:
Instead of going to landfill, some redundant items can now be sold and the proceeds assigned to educational charities working in DFID-priority countries. This imaginative, practical policy is a first across Whitehall.
The charities are selected by Northern Realisations – the department’s contractor for recovery of redundant equipment across all sites – under an objective process at arms’ length from the department. The charities undertake to purchase Africa-appropriate IT equipment and use it in innovative ways to advance education for marginalised groups of learners. The spending may be on a mix of equipment and training in its use and maintenance.
Since the policy was introduced just a few months ago, payments have been made to three UK charities – Educators International, Sabre Trust and Advantage Africa. On Thursday these three charities presented to DfE staff what they’ve done with the small sums received:
- Sabre Trust’s work has focused on early years education in West Africa, especially teacher training
- Advantage Africa works with very marginalised groups in Kenya including children with disabilities – of whom only 10% attend school
- Educators International has developed 3 innovative techniques all of which use the mobile phone that is already in the pockets of teachers in Ghana, together with a mini printer, to teach phonics, facilitate accurate assessment and create original books at an ultra-low cost. Many DfE staff are already familiar with Educators International, having backed it with their own personal cash. Others have become Associates of the charity, and work for it in various ways as volunteers.
Peter Lauener, Chief Exec of the Education Funding Agency and DfE Board Director said: “This has been a highly encouraging presentation. All three charities are doing remarkable work, and achieving amazing results with very small sums raised from the equipment the Department has no further use for. This is only the beginning and we look forward to further reports in future”.
Michael Stark (Trustee, Educators International), John Russell (Chief Officer, Northern Realisations), Charlotte Cashman (Associate, Educators International), Andrew Betts (Director, Advantage Africa), Dominic Bond (Managing Director, Sabre Trust)
Charlotte Cashman & Michael Stark
