An education ministry official. Nearly 30 percent of laptops provided to public high schools have never been used, a survey conducted by the Board of Audit revealed. Under the government’s GIGA (Global and Innovation Gateway for All) school project, each student is assigned a tablet or laptop, but the survey showed that approximately 26,000 PCs worth 990 million yen in government funds remained unused.
© Asahi ShimbunVoices
in
Japan
quote of the day
It was expected that the number of PCs lent to students would increase due to online classes during the coronavirus pandemic, but it seems that many households purchased them independently.
©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
6 Comments
Login to comment
JeffLee
Why didn't they sell them on the used PC market after the pandemic subsided?
GBR48
They would be fine for five years, ten with a new battery, given the power under the hood. But the irresponsible greed of the tech industry - EoL mandates on OSs and built-in obsolescence - will see them declared e-waste.
At the very least, get a reliable Linux distro on to them and distribute them to anyone on low income.
shogun36
So use them. Or sell them.
It's not rocket science.
It does no one any good, just sitting there doing nothing.
Geeter Mckluskie
Each of our 1500 students has been provided with an i-pad. All of them use them during class and all homework is issued and done via Google classroom. In class, an interactive screen is used rather than the blackboard. The blackboard has become obsolete for all but it's use as a memo board. I'm not sure why 30% of laptops haven't been used other than perhaps an issue of ordering more laptops than there are students in some cases.
purple_depressed_bacon
Why not donate them to households who can't afford one? Or sell them to students (uni students especially) who need one but are on a tight budget? It's useless letting them collect dust somewhere.