Over 300 IT devices donated to rural children by the Informal School of IT and BCR

In May, the Informal School of IT launched the IT4Kids in Rural Areas project, aimed at improving access to modern education (including remote learning) for students in rural areas, amid the Coronavirus pandemic and children's inability to attend school in person. 

As part of the project, BCR and BCR Social Finance IFN SA donated over 300 IT devices (laptops, tablets, routers, etc.), which were distributed to 15 educational institutions in Sălaj, Sibiu, Cluj, Iași, Dolj, Constanța, and Buzău counties. All the IT equipment collected was sanitized, wiped, and set up with operating systems by Ecotic, A.P.D.E.T.I.C., Ateliere fără frontiere, and Smart Health Cluster, partners of the project.

„IT4Kids in Rural Areas is a new successful project by the Informal School of IT, which will bring students and teachers from many rural schools closer together through the online environment. Over the project's 3 months, we discovered how important it is to stay connected, both to technology and to the people around us. Together, we can lend a hand wherever it's needed”, says Mihai Talpoș, co-founder of the Informal School of IT.

The IT4Kids project also supported over 120 rural teachers from Sibiu, Sălaj, and Cluj counties, who took part in free online "Introduction to the Zoom and Google Classroom communication platforms" courses, delivered by mentors from the Informal School of IT. 

„We're glad we can support the IT4Kids project, extremely useful especially in the current context, but also for the future. Whatever happens in the coming period, whether schools stay online or not, the digital component will be increasingly present and will influence education in many ways. A laptop or tablet shouldn't be a sci-fi object for any child, no matter what background they come from. So any means by which we can make access to technology easier, for both children and teachers, is a very important investment with long-term effects for them, but also for society”, said Ionuț Stanimir, BCR Marketing Director.

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Founded in 2013, the Informal School of IT is the national leader in non-formal education and IT career-change. To date, over 5,000 technology enthusiasts have graduated from the school's IT courses, across the 7 biggest IT hubs in the country (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara, Brașov, Sibiu, and Craiova). The active community of over 100 mentors, practitioners at major national and international IT companies, provides mentoring and career coaching to students seeking the chance of a fresh start. The Informal School of IT is a partner to over 120 top companies in the IT & Software industry.