Peterborough councillors launch campaign to give every child in city access to online schooling

The campaign has been launched by Hargate and Hempsted Ward councillors Cllr Mohammed Farooq and Cllr John Howard.


With schools set to remain closed for the foreseeable future, the biggest challenge for some parents in the city is not just how to homeschool their children but how to even access online work set by teachers.

At Cllr Farooq’s request, Peterborough City Council’s education department conducted a survey amongst the city’s schools and found that in order to give every child access to online learning, there were requirements for 2981 laptops and 634 children who needed internet access.

In order to address this shortfall, the councillors will be writing to the government, as well as the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, to ask them to fund the plans. 
They will also be tabling a motion at the next full council meeting on Wednesday (January 27) and will be seeking to allocate funds from the council’s Community Leadership Fund (CLF) to support the project.

Each elected council member is allocated £1,000 each financial year from the CLF to spend on neighbourhood projects.

Cllr Farooq said: “We hope the government will support us in this, they have already spent around £4 billion in the pandemic relief effort. We are not asking for top of the range laptops and it would probably take just under £1 million to cover the costs.

“It is absolutely vital that we provide children with equal opportunities in education now so that they will get equal opportunities in life. If we don’t address this issue now then it will be too late and it is our statutory duty to do so.

Cllr Farooq, who has in the past raised money for Peterborough City Hospital to buy a Cardiac Echo Machine to help diagnose heart problems in young children, as well as funded local schools to be able to provide breakfast to pupils through the ‘Magic Breakfest’ scheme is also collecting donations of laptops from residents in the meantime.

These will then have their hard drives wiped before being redistributed.

Cllr Farooq added: “We have had some good early take up and I know there are people willing to donate.

“This alone isn’t going to complete the project but every small step can make a life changing difference.” Anyone wishing to make a donation can contact Cllr Farooq via email at [email protected] or Cllr Howard or [email protected].