In April, weeks after schools closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced that the Department for Education would invest 150m to provide laptops and 4G routers for disadvantaged year 10 pupils and those in all year groups with a social worker or classed as care leavers.
However, new figures obtained by the commissioner's office show just 220,000 laptops were delivered by August despite 540,000 children being eligible for the scheme. These figures mean that just 37 per cent of eligible children could benefit from the scheme.
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A breakdown of figures shows that 27 multi-academy trusts received just one laptop while a third of trusts received less than 10 devices.
Some 20 local authorities were allocated less than 500 laptops with four including the City of London and West Berkshire receiving less than 200.
Analysis by the commissioner’s office suggests that in order to provide laptops for seven in 10 disadvantaged children in other year groups than year 10, the government would need an additional 980,000 laptops.
One secondary school told the commissioner’s office that their allocation was only enough for about half of the pupils in the year group who they knew actually needed one.
A primary school headteacher estimated that 70 per cent of her pupils lacked adequate internet access but that only three received devices.
Another headteacher said the scheme offered “too little, too late”.
Simone Vibert, senior policy analyst for the children’s commissioner for England, raised concerns over the provision of laptops for children in the event of local lockdowns.
“If in the recent Leicester lockdown the department had decided to provide 70 per cent of all children on free school meals with a laptop to help them continue to learn from home (excluding the year 10s already given one), it would have needed over 7,300 laptops to do so. If it happened in Birmingham, over 40,000 laptops would be needed.”
“During this pandemic, proper access to the internet is not a luxury for children having to learn at home, it is a necessity,” she added.
“While this scheme was very welcome, we know that many disadvantaged children have missed out.
“The government needs to ensure that all children are able to access education in the coming weeks and months, hopefully in school, but also remotely if that becomes their only option.”
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
