Among those to already benefit is Ramonjit Parmar, 11, who has had minimal access to the family computer at home because her sister has priority as an A-level student
Mail Force has received another stunning boost of more than £200,000 as the nationwide initiative to deliver laptops to schoolchildren hits top gear.
Experian, the consumer credit reporting company, and charity donation website The Big Give have raised the money together.
It lifts the running total of donations in cash and computer pledges from generous Daily Mail readers, philanthropists and corporations to an astonishing £12.1million.
Experian matched every £1 donated – up to a generous £100,100 – to the Computers for Kids campaign on The Big Give.
Pupils were delighted to get their hands on new Mail Force laptops after months of sharing tiny mobile phone screens with their siblings.
Children who struggled with online learning because of limited resources at home are returning to school today – but they need to catch up on the months of schooling lost during the pandemic.
So youngsters were jumping for joy when the Mail Force van made a delivery to the Langley Academy Primary and Langley Academy Secondary schools in Slough, Berkshire.
After being handed ten Microsoft Surface Go 2 devices, Tracey Bowen, head teacher of the primary school, said the donations would help to narrow the academic gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
Education firm Pearson has backed Mail Force with a fantastic double donation.
The company is offering 250 laptops and £50,000 cash on top. Both donations will go straight into the campaign to get lockdown schoolchildren online.
Pearson, which publishes everything from pupils’ textbooks to educational resources for teachers and companies, pledged to add more laptops at a later date.
The firm employs more than 22,000 in 70 countries and is the latest corporation to back the Daily Mail’s Computers for Kids campaign, which has now raised an incredible £10.7million in the three weeks since it launched.
Andy Bird, chief executive of Pearson, said: ‘We are proud to support the campaign to provide laptops to children most in need across the UK.
Meanwhile, as our overflowing mailbag will testify, providers also need to work harder when it comes to basic customer service.
One reader, Sarah, wrote to us in desperation last week after her 89-year-old grandfather was left without internet for almost month. He is deaf and the internet is the only way he can communicate with his family, she says.
Despite being flagged as a priority customer, Virgin Media repeatedly failed to fix the issue. And his tale is far from unique.
Even reporting a complaint can be a headache in itself.
Research for Money Mail last year revealed that a quarter of broadband customers were unhappy with the service they had received, with 7 per cent left on hold for more than an hour.