"For a small council like Kawerau, $100,000 is 1 per cent of rates ... meanwhile the Ministry of Education is ducking for cover. A lot of kids don't even have devices.
"Whilst I totally concur that we need as much connectivity as we possibly can, I think it's a bit rich for us to be honest. There's families in this town that struggle to put food on the table and uniforms on their kids' backs, let alone these devices."
He said council had granted $40,000 to a scheme a few years ago that was supposed to have solved the connectivity problem.
"I'd like to know what happened there. What went wrong?"
He said central government had been "throwing money" at councils all around the country over the past year.
"A reasonably stern letter to the minister is needed to say, 'hey, don't forget about us, guys. We've got kids here who are bright and intelligent, they just need a bit of a hand up just like everyone else'."
Councillor Faylene Tunui said the committee members did have a "very robust discussion" about the funding application the last time they came to council.
"I think we can all agree that we have competing priorities. We can all agree that, in principle, we do, of course, support connectivity for our tauira, for our students. But is it the ratepayer's role to be doing this or is it our role to advocate to the very ministry that is put in place for education to support more connectivity for students."
A report that resulted from a previous request by councillors for more information about the funding, showed that the trust had applied to the ministry for funding for 50 of the 285 customer premises equipment (routers, dishes and so forth) required to complete the project.
The ministry was considering the funding and if it came through with the funding, only $74,000 of the $100,000 would be required from the council.
The trust had a strategy in place to ensure that students could access digital devices such as Chromebooks to make use of the service once it was up and running. An equity fund would allow families with poor to no credit to borrow to buy discounted devices with minimal repayment of $5 a week.
Campbell said he thought even $5 a week was well outside what some families could afford.
Tunui suggested the council engage with the ministry "in a more active way" to lift the level of support for the project, rather than only bearing 17 per cent of the cost.
Students rely on hard packs for learning
A lack of devices and connectivity is having a huge impact on students in Kawerau who are relying on distance learning during the lockdown.
Kawerau Putauaki School principal Rachel Chater said although 40 per cent of Kawerau did not have connectivity, it was higher for the school.
"In terms of our school it is probably more like good 60 per cent while only about a third of students have devices, so that is where we fell over," she said.
The school has been very busy this week getting hard learning packs out to students.
"What has really upset me is that during the last lockdown the ministry was giving out devices to Remuera but we got none at all."
She said the school has distributed all of its devices to students but there was still a significant shortfall.
"In some cases there are four kids sharing one device."
Chater said when Chromebooks were given out during the previous lockdown priority was given first to secondary students.
"In terms of priority … then it should have based on the deprivation index which should have been extremely high for Kawerau and a lot of the Eastern Bay, but we missed out."
She said they had given every student a hard copy learning pack.
"We found in the last lockdown that even when they had devices the data was not good enough or parents were not confident supporting them [with online learning]."
The principal said a huge amount of work was being done by Te Aka Toitu Trust to install towers and some amazing things were in the pipeline to improve connectivity in Kawerau.
Tarawera High School principal Helen Tuhoro said there were significant issues with connectivity for high school students.
"Our SLT are spending tomorrow morning making hard copies for whanau to collect. We have allowed this extra time so parents can be in touch to let us know whether they need hard copies," she said.
- Additional reporting by Whakatane Beacon education reporter Kathy Forsyth
