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Refurbishment
Activities
Refurbishment refers
to all of the activities
necessary to repair and
upgrade second-hand PCs
ready for re-use. These
activities include:
- Testing of peripherals,
- Destroying data on
the donated computers,
- Testing of base unit
elements, such as, hard
drives, CDROM, floppy/stiffy,
- Loading operating
systems, application
software and educational
content and
- Upgrading components
installed and tested.
The key variables in
this process at present
are with regard to whether
PCs are refurbished in
their country of origin
or in their country of
destination. Two major
refurbishment pipelines
have been identified for
African schoolnets:
- International NGOs
based in the United
Kingdom, the United
States or Western Europe
refurbish donated PCs
in refurbishment centres
in their country of
origin before shipping
them to schoolnet partners
in Africa for distribution,
or
- Donated second-hand
computers are imported
to Africa for refurbishment
by African refurbishment
centres, or locally
sourced PCs are refurbished
in Africa. The advantage
of this pipeline is
that cost of refurbishment
is at African prices
and this allows for
job creation and skills
development in Africa.
This is a pipeline that
is highly favoured by
local schoolnets, but
extensive investment
and training is required
to ensure that there
are sufficient good
quality local refurbishment
centres before this
pipeline can be scaled
up significantly.
Refurbishment
Roles
The refurbishing process
differs from organization
to organization. The major
differences amongst the
international NGOs relate
to the following:
- Wiping data
- some organizations
assume responsibility
for wiping all data
from the donated PCs
before shipping them,
while others expect
the donors to wipe their
own data before they
donate the PC.
- Refurbishing
skills –
Some organizations refurbish
the PCs themselves;
others ship them out
without refurbishing
because they believe
that the refurbishing
skills should be developed
in the recipient countries.
- Predicted
lifespan -
this varies from 36
months to 60 months.
- Operating
systems –
some organizations supply
the PCs without operating
systems installed, while
others install various
systems.
Most African schoolnet
practitioners agree that
it is vital that refurbishing
skills are developed in
Africa. Not only will
this provide employment
and income generating
opportunities for African
youth, it will also reduce
Africa’s dependency
on foreign skills and
support.
There is a shortage of
technical skills in most
African countries, with
the result that when PCs
break down, they often
wait some time before
being able to be repaired.
This negatively impacts
a school’s ability
to use its PCs effectively.
It is vital that these
technical support skills
get developed in sufficient
numbers to meet the demand
created by establishing
computer networks in every
school. This will have
the additional benefit
of creating employment
and IT skills in local
African communities.
Maintenance and
Use
Procurement, distribution,
and installation of refurbished
PCs would achieve nothing
if they were not subsequently
maintained and supported
schools as part of an
entire ICT solution. There
are numerous stories about
refurbished PCs and computer
laboratories sitting un-used
because of insufficient
ancillary equipment, breakages
(owing to inadequate maintenance
or lack of spare parts),
and inadequate teacher
training and support1.
Maintenance Activities
The pipeline of activities
related to the process
of maintaining and using
refurbished PCs in African
schools include:
- Establishment of
a maintenance plan together
with the school for
ongoing maintenance
of the site (including
the identification and
appointment of suitable
technical support),
- Securing PC-labs
against theft
- Establishment of overall
plan together with the
school to ensure the
sustainability of the
site (including developing
strategies to fund and
resource the site on
an ongoing basis),
- Meeting teacher training
needs by sourcing and
implementing appropriate
courses
- Ongoing teacher training
and development (including
regular skills upgrading
and the development
of ICT champions), and
- Ongoing replacement
of end-of-life PCs with
newer refurbs as required.
1One
such example is the Thinthana
Supercentres project where,
according to Jenny King
from the Western Cape Schools
Network, fewer than 20%
of the refurbished computer
centres are working successfully
owing to equipment failure
and inadequate technical
support.
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