Wanted: Second-hand computers for N.W.T. students

Kirby Marshall knows outside of the larger, urban centres in the North, not only is access to the internet limited — so is access to computers.

When COVID-19 hit, Marshall said it was clear to him that schools would be one of the first things to shut down. That would mean kids would be learning remotely, posing a challenge for the hundreds of students in the Northwest Territories without a computer.

Marshall, who owns Global Storm IT in Yellowknife, says there are roughly 500 kids in the N.W.T.'s Tlicho and Dehcho regions that don't have one.

"This is a big problem and it's one that's only going to get solved by people working together," he said during an interview with Lawrence Nayally, host of CBC's Trail's End.

Marshall has been reaching out to companies across the North to see if they would be willing to donate any second-hand machines to equip students with the tools they need to continue learning.

According to a press release from Northern News Services Ltd., the media company is donating a drop-off point where they will "log and sanitize your donation" at no cost. The company will also give a free electronic subscription with each computer.

Ile Royale Enterprises Ltd. is also getting involved. According to the release, the company will be providing strategic advice for the program.

Marshall said because of the pandemic, the global supply chain for computers virtually dried up overnight. Factories shut worldwide and people gobbled up what was left of a dwindling stock so they could improve their work-from-home setups.

Hopes to collect 500 computers

Marshall hopes to receive 500 computers. He has about 50 so far. He sanitizes them, wipes their hard drives and installs software used by schools. He plans to start shipping them out next week.

The business owner hopes it will help keep kids in school, even if they can't physically be in the classroom.

Schools across the territory will remain closed for the remainder of the school year, and Marshall worries that will mean more students will drop out.

Roughly 40 per cent of Grade 11 and 12 students fail or dropout, according to a recent audit of the territory's education system.

"With the pandemic, those figures are going to go way up," Willis said.

He said some educators he talked to suggest the numbers could climb to 80 or 90 per cent — or higher.

"That's unfathomable," he said.

"They need help. And so let's all get together and do what we can to help them."