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The challenges of home schooling and the educational and digital divide

3 mins read Guest Blog Education
Having already supported over 500 families during lockdown, Buttle UK has a significant insight into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children living in poverty.

We have, for example, seen first-hand how low-income families have been struggling with home schooling in disrupted and sometimes chaotic environments full of stress and anxiety.

For many children and young people, the Covid-19 crisis has only amplified difficulties that already exist in their lives, increasing their isolation and forcing them to spend many more hours in homes that lack the bare essentials and comforts most people take for granted.

Like many others, I welcome recent initiatives to help families: the government’s £1b cash injection in the form of a national tutoring fund; the recent Private Members Bill to increase the availability of computers and internet access to children and the U-turn on free school meals during the summer holidays. However, I have real concerns that without careful thought these initiatives will be a missed opportunity. More than a third of the poorest children do not have the internet at home and a similar number do not have a computer, official figures suggest.

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