Schools wait for delivery of hundreds of laptops already paid for by parents

More than half a dozen secondary schools are still waiting for the delivery of laptops or other information technology (IT) equipment for their students from Olive for Education, one of the country’s biggest providers of one-to-one laptops and tablets.

The Irish Times has spoken to two principals whose schools both have more than 200 laptops that are overdue since the start of the school year. They say parents are becoming increasingly angry that the devices for which they paid more than €650 have not been delivered, despite almost a third of the school year being completed.

Paul Crone, director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), said his organisation has provided advice to several school principals on their legal rights over the late delivery.

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“NAPD are aware that a number of schools who ordered student devices have not yet received those devices despite the order being placed well in advance of the start of the school year,” he said.

“This is a very concerning situation and it is not acceptable that schools would put their trust in a supplier and be let down so badly. School principals are left managing this situation locally and this is not good enough.

“Schools will undertake a procurement procedure to appoint a supplier and will commit to work with a supplier in good faith. The responsibility of the supplier is to deliver the devices for students to the schools. NAPD would encourage all school principals to be diligent in the procurement process to ensure their students are not being disadvantaged through no fault of the school.”

In some schools, students have received their devices from Olive but have not been given the hard plastic cases they paid for to protect them from damage.

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One principal said their school was told by Olive that “global supply issues” were to blame for the late delivery of their laptops.

Another principal said Olive had a stand at last month’s NAPD conference in Galway. When he raised complaints with the Olive staff present about the late delivery of his students’ laptops, he was told he could speak to Olive’s chief executive Brendan Kavanagh when he arrived at the conference. But he said Kavanagh did not attend the conference.

Several principals said that despite Minister of Education Hildegarde Naughton saying parents were not required to buy student devices, stagnant IT budgets and requirements for electronic submission of additional assessment components and classroom-based assessments meant they believed individual devices are required for students to complete coursework.

“We don’t have enough school computers for all students so these devices are necessary,” said one principal. “We have had to delay a lot of coursework while we wait for the devices to be delivered by Olive, who had previously been a good supplier.”

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A number of schools had previously dealt with Gary Hoey, Olive’s director of education, but an email to his account last week prompted an automatic response directing inquiries to other members of Olive’s staff.

“My role within Olive Group is now focused exclusively on the development of an exciting new educational software offering. I’m looking forward to sharing full details in due course,” the email noted.

Several queries on the problems that schools are encountering were submitted to Olive’s spokesman on Thursday morning. There was no response other than a legal letter on Friday from Philip Lee solicitors marked “Private and Confidential”.

In July, Olive filed a High Court action against former Olive executives who set up a rival business, Eduvolve. It accused them of “commercial sabotage” and improperly trying to solicit Olive’s customer schools. Olive complained that it had lost contracts at 20 schools valued at €1.6 million. The claims were denied by the defendants. The case is up for mention in the High Court on Monday.