The municipality of Braga announced today that it “will not stop investing” in the purchase of computer equipment and services to lend to students who need them, to ensure that no one is harmed by distance learning.
In a statement, the municipality states that, for now, “it is appealing to social responsibility” from several partners, such as school clusters, parish councils and private patrons, companies and citizens, “to try to fill gaps in order to arrive at to a more affordable number in terms of municipal investment ”.
He adds that there is already a bag of “obsolete” computer equipment that the municipality is receiving, reformatting and making available to the students in question and which has already received dozens of donations.
“If with this combination of efforts it is not possible to cover the entire universe of children concerned, the municipality will not fail to invest in the purchase of computer equipment and services to lend to students who need them, once again meeting the needs of the most disadvantaged citizens. in a matter for which he has no strict responsibility, says the mayor, Ricardo Rio, cited in the statement.
The municipality of Braga, together with the school clusters, carried out a survey of students with a lack of equipment and computer services to accompany distance education in the municipality, with an estimated number of more than 2,500 children concerned. Of those children, two-thirds do not even have computer equipment.
In today’s executive meeting, the Chamber of Braga failed a proposal, presented by the PS, to provide the needy students with the technological means for distance learning.
The proposal provided for the loan of tablets, computers, cameras, microphones, routers and hotspots to students and teachers in “proven and justified” shortages of that type of equipment.
In addition to the PS, the CDU also voted in favor, but the proposal would be rejected by the votes of the majority PSD / CDS / PPM.
The Mayor, Ricardo Rio, said that the majority would only approve the proposal if it was stated, from the outset, that the Ministry of Education “imposed” the distance learning model “unilaterally” and without safeguarding the necessary conditions for the It is made.
Ricardo Rio also wanted the proposal to state that the Government would have to proceed with the “full reimbursement” of the investment made by the municipality.
The PS did not yield and the proposal was unsuccessful.
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