The Manaiakalani Programme was born out of an education collective with the desire to improve learning outcomes for children at a socio-economic disadvantage. To achieve this goal, it’s worked closely with Acer and its device of choice is the Acer Chromebook.

With its roots in Tāmaki, a suburb of Auckland that’s among the lowest socio-economic areas in the country, the Manaiakalani community is a group of schools that’s dedicated to providing students with full digital citizenship and helping them realise their potential using high-quality, digital learning devices.

Started a decade ago with the establishment of the Manaiakalani Education Trust (MET), the programme has since extended to 12 other regions and more than 100 schools. At its heart is a community of learning that relies on the collaboration between educators, students and their families, and the partnering with technology providers like Acer, to achieve improvements in education outcomes.

“Manaiakalani whānau are given the opportunity to invest in the education of their tamariki by leasing to own their child’s learning device,” said Russell Burt, Principal at Point England School, one of the programme’s founding schools.

“Typically, they’re purchasing a three-year warranted and insured device that has a quality-insured bag at the rate of approximately $4 per week.”

Preferred device

The current learning device of choice at Point England School – a primary school with 600 students – is the durable Acer Chromebook.

Burt cites three reasons why the Acer Chromebook is now the device of choice for the MET and many more schools that have looked to replicate the Manaiakalani Programme’s model of success:

• Quality of performance for learning;
• Affordability; and
• Ease of management and maintenance.

“The platform offers an easy set-up process for schools to administer and maintain,” said Cam Anderson, Country Manager of Acer Computer New Zealand. “The device is a robust, reliable and affordable product that is proven in the New Zealand education marketplace.”

Partnering to improve lives

A large part of Anderson’s role is building long-lasting relationships with partners that align with Acer’s values and commitment to the education sector.

“Ensuring that all students, no matter what ethnicity, school or decile they may represent have equal digital learning opportunities is the driving force behind Acer’s commitment to the Manaiakalani Programme and MET.”

Significantly, Anderson notes that matching the right devices to suit the Manaiakalani schools’ needs has been critical to the programme’s overarching success.

“The right product is essential to the success of the MET’s digital learning initiatives, and the Acer devices chosen throughout the years have met and exceeded the daily demands of students of all learning ages.”

Acer has created a bespoke support and service model for MET that is suited to their ongoing growth.

“With a large device fleet, backend service and support is also just as important – if not more important – than the stand-alone device.”

This support has brought significant value to the greater Manaiakalani community.

“Manaiakalani enjoys a warm relationship and partnership with Acer,” added Burt. “Acer is able to add considerable value to our learners and community partners through conditions of sale, after-sales service, problem solving at a system level and provision of quality devices at an affordable price.”

A growing success

Acer is at the forefront of developing technology that can enhance the learning experience.

“We are extremely proud to have helped grow this programme from the initial cluster of 13 schools, to now over 100,” added Anderson. “The research, measurements and student success rates that MET collate, prove that this is a system that works, and truly improves the learning outcomes of New Zealand’s most challenged students.”

For a technology consultation on your future needs contact Acer at education.aca@acer.com

Download the full case study.

INTERFACE November 2021