Open Letter: Oppose Tesco’s ‘Computers for Schools’ Voucher Scheme
Below is the text of a letter sent to a number of local and national newspapers. So far, the Campaign for a Commercial-free Education is aware of it having been printed in five papers (in the Wicklow, Kildare, Tipperary, and Mayo regions).
If you know of it having been printed anywhere else, please leave a comment (and link to the article, if possible).
Wicklow Times 02/04/08 Article
Alternatively, feel free to print it and sign it and send it to your local newspaper/school/Tesco/community notice board. A slightly more detailed copy of the letter can be found on indymedia.ie.
_________________
Sir –
The recently launched Tesco ‘Computers for Schools’ scheme claims to provide schools with free IT equipment. This is a fallacy. Simple maths will explain: in order for a school to claim a ‘free’ computer that retails at about €700, customers will have to spend €344,000 in Tesco (i.e. 34,400 vouchers at €10 each); in order for a school to claim a ‘free’ battery charger and four batteries (that you could buy for around €10) customers will be asked to add €18,900 to Tesco’s bank account, and so on. (Source: 2008 Tesco Computers for Schools Catalogue, available at tesco.ie)
What a scheme like this actually does is allow an under-funded education system to continue to be under-funded by allowing the government to continue to abdicate its responsibilities in this area. The line seems to be: if Tesco are willing to provide IT equipment, why not let them? The same is true of the currently-running SuperValu ‘Kids in Action’ scheme, which claims to give free sports equipment to schools. Could you imagine the uproar if Tesco et al decided to run a ‘Medical Equipment for Hospitals’ voucher scheme? Or, ‘Better Equipment for the Gardaí’ voucher scheme?
The only free thing that comes out of this scheme is free advertising for the supermarkets. A cursory look at Tesco’s website gives the following advice to teachers to increase the amount of vouchers they collect: ‘Put up posters around school’ (i.e. advertise for us); ‘Send a letter to parents’ (i.e. advertise for us); ‘Design and circulate flyers’ (i.e. advertise for us); ’send a letter to other local businesses’ (i.e. advertise for us); ‘prize for the class who collects the most vouchers’ (i.e. pit students against students).
The Irish National Teachers Organisation has called on its 34,000 members to ‘reject this campaign by sending the vouchers back or by putting them in the recycle bin”. Indeed, this is advice that every right thinking parent ought to consider (whilst also writing to Tesco to let them know that we are not going to allow our education system to be co-opted by private enterprise).
Is mise,
Mark Conroy.
Tags: Computers for Schools, Tesco, Voucher Scheme
April 8th, 2008 at 6:32 am
The customer gets vouchers for doing normal shopping they do not have to spend any more money or buy products they do not want. It may be a back handed advertisment for Tesco but at least they are supporting our schools.
Why do ‘we’ as a nation have to knock the winner all the time.
If the government spent the right amount of mmoney on schools and provide the right equipment to enable our up and coming generations to recieve the education they need to stay in touch then this sort of campaign would not need to happen.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
“The customer gets vouchers for doing normal shopping”- not true, because if that was Tesco’s intension then they’d just write a cheque to local school to which its customers children attend, hence rewarding existing shoppers and shopping volume. Howver, tokens, collection boxes, charts etc are all part of cynical marketing by Tesco, to gain new customers. The PR spin doctor from Tesco on Vincent Browne, TV3 recently claimed they don’t count financial gain made doing this scheme- not to do so would be not be a very smart business practice. Token schemes are designed with sole purpose of cheap marketing for Tesco- they are the winner alright Debbie and I for one am proud to knock them and exposing them for what they do. In fact I agree the government should fund schools properly and not only that but ban these schemes from our schools altogether.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
“The customer gets vouchers for doing normal shopping”- not true, because if that was Tesco’s intension then they’d just write a cheque to local school to which its customers children attend, hence rewarding existing shoppers and shopping volume.”
So how would they decide how much to give in this one of cheque? Pick a random number? And would people really remember they gave, especially if they did it every year?
And even if the government did put more money into education and in theory they didn’t need any more equipment - would schools ever turn down more equipment?!?
July 11th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I enjoyed your writing style and I’ve added you to my Reader. Keep these posts coming.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Re: Jon,
Jon,
Thanks for your comment. I’m giving just a quick reply as the author of the original post (realising that your comment was directed primarily at Niall).
I am not sure how you would decide how much Tesco (or any other business interest) should give as a donation. To be honest, I don’t think any business interest would have to give a donation if our education system was properly funded! Nor do I think any businesses should be involved in our education system in this manner. I think my students also agree with me as you can see from this post. Perhaps they could simply reduce their prices and let people decide where their money should be put.
Would people really remember they gave the money each year? I’m not sure that they would, but, then again, should people have to remember? If giving donations is supposed to be philanthropic why would it matter if it is noticed? If it is only to gain brand loyalty and recognition then it becomes nothing more than another part of the business plan, “something we need to, unfortunately, spend money on to make us look good and garner us customers”.
Your final point/question is too hypothetical to merit a reply.
Regards,
Mark Conroy.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Mark,
To provide your students with your own (very biased) article/open letter for an exam seems to me to be close to brainwashing the children. I can’t see how you’re surprised that they are all accusing tescos of manipulating parents and teachers in their responses when the article is so one-sided.
Why not provide them with a balanced, independent article to consider for their exam? That way you may offer them a better chance of making their own minds up.
Chris
July 15th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
[...] gave my Higher Level Fifth Year English class the article “Opposing Tesco’s ‘Computers for Schools’ Voucher Scheme” for the reading comprehension section of their summer exam. Question 3 asked “What are your [...]
July 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Chris,
I do not brainwash my students.
Giving this article was part of an exam. The purpose was to assess if students understood what is involved in using argumentative language and persuasive language. I have, of course, used many other texts during the year. Judging by my students responses (to Question 3 (responses above, and the other questions)) they have a pretty good grasp of working out the difference between something that purports to be “balanced, independent” and what is obviously argumentative.
We also studied narrative language and informative language - the latter, especially, had texts that would fall into your beloved category of “balanced, independent”.
As an aside, I suppose I/one could make the argument that my piece was independent (since I am not beholden to any stakeholder interest - Tesco, SuperValu, Irish Independent, etc.) and I/one could also make the argument that it is balanced, since it gives a counter to the usual spin than students are fed about these voucher schemes.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Yours in Education,
Mark Conroy.