Online education publisher KneoMedia Limited (ASX: KNM) has confirmed that New York City Councillors have committed a further US$3 million to the Connect ALL Kids education initiative into New York City public schools. KNM’s share of this third deployment is US$780,000 or ~A$994,000.
CEO, James Kellett, said this third deployment is reflective of the New York City’s growing commitment to the programme given their desire to assist students who have fallen behind during the pandemic as schools have been closed. With in- person teaching resuming, funding and roll-out of previously stalled education programmes is now ramping up significantly.
Given KneoWorld has approved supplier status with the New York City Council and the Department of Education (New York DOE), and Connect ALL Kids is an established program with the DOE, receipt of funds will be seamless. This third deployment coincides with the new school year in New York in starting August 2021 with funds to be received concurrently.
Under the deployment 5,000 Dell Chromebooks, pre-loaded with the KneoWorld technology, will be provided to a number of New York City public schools and will take the total device numbers to 8,400 located in over 70 schools.
Mr Kellett said that whilst this third deployment is pleasing, the Connect ALL Kids roll-out is still in its very early stages.
He said the immediate focus for KneoWorld, Dell Technologies and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is to more comprehensively penetrate more of New York City’s 1,720 public schools and achieve a presence outside of New York City.
Direct-to-school sales of the SaaS-based KneoWorld software is also advancing and this represents a second sales channel in the United States alongside Connect ALL Kids.
We are very pleased that New York City Councillors have committed to this third Connect ALL Kids deployment. It clearly shows the traction we are getting with students, teachers and parents and more importantly, it confirms without doubt that we have now established a dependable sales channel for our technology into this huge education market and it sets a strong precedent for future sales,” Mr Kellett said.
“With 2.6 million students across New York State, KNM is presented with a major market opportunity to scale up operations and provide urgent education technology to those that require it most. With growing support from Dell and the NAACP, and growing demand from teachers and students, we believe that the roll-out is just getting started as the demand for equal technology access continues to grow. We look forward to providing shareholders with updates on operations and more sales in the very near future.”