Government laptop scheme a 'national scandal' as 68,000 devices still not delivered

Latest figures published by the Department for Education show that since the £85m scheme was announced in April, 68,000 of 230,000 laptops have not been sent to local authorities and multi-academy trusts across England.

The first batch of technology was dispatched on 18 May.

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The government also promised to provide 50,000 4G wireless routers to disadvantaged pupils in Year 10 and other vulnerable children, however, latest figures show just 32,389 have been dispatched or delivered.

The scheme was aimed at providing the most disadvantaged pupils with technology to support home learning while schools were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

However, giving evidence over the reopening of schools to the education select committee today (Wednesday) Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, branded the government’s response to helping around 700,000 children without access to the internet “close to a national scandal”.

She said: “We know that there has been a scheme to get laptops out to some Year 10 pupils but that’s a tiny proportion of the children who don’t have access to technology, we need to do better on that.

“In order for children to learn successfully over this long period where children have been out of school, which may continue beyond this, and to stand any chance of keeping up, they need to have access to technologies that they need to do that.”

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, praised the “incredible” work of teachers supporting vulnerable children and those of key workers in school while also preparing lessons to deliver online but added: “What we needed from the government in order to support that was a much better offer on digital learning, we needed those children without access to the internet to be provided with laptops and the laptop scheme to provide poor children with laptops has been particularly poor.”

Bousted said she had spoken to one local authority officer who had spent three days trying to work out which children were going to get 56 laptops provided to the council.

“We need a national plan to combat future issues caused by Covid-19,” she added.

The figures come amid a deepening row over the reopening of schools to more pupils.

Children in nurseries, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 returned to some schools on 1 June while some Year 10 and 12 students returned to class on Monday (15 June).

The DfE has now issued advice to primary schools to open to more pupils where they have capacity to stick to social distancing guidelines with maximum class sizes of 15 despite the government rowing back on plans to allow all children back to school before the summer holidays.

Campaigners have called on the government to reopen schools due to the impact of closures on the mental health and wellbeing of children as well as their education, particularly the most disadvantaged.

A recent study by the Education Endowment Foundation suggests school closures could reverse progress made to close the attainment gap between poorer and wealthier students back to levels seen in 2011. 

However, unions and school leaders have raised concerns over the safety of staff and pupils if school reopen too soon.