Latest boost to DfE laptop scheme ‘inadequate’, campaigners say
Ella Doyle
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Campaigners have criticised an “inadequate” announcement by the Department for Education promising to provide a further 300,000 disadvantaged children with laptops for home learning.
Gavin Williamson has announced the scheme will restart in the coming weeks with all devices set to be delivered by the end of January.
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He said that the government is making “significant support” available to “help schools deliver high-quality online learning”.
The comments come after DfE published a new education framework to help identify strengths and weaknesses in online teaching.
Remote education should now be equivalent in hours to in-person school teaching, it states.
Williamson added: “I want nothing more than for every child to be in the classroom with their friends and teachers, but with that not possible we are doing everything in our power to support schools with high-quality remote education.”
The latest boost to the scheme, which has been widely criticised by school leaders, teachers unions and charities as “ineffective” in reaching the country’s most disadvantaged children, means a total of 1.3m devices will have been rolled-out, Williamson said.
Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust, has said the digital divide is having a “huge impact” on disadvantaged students in England and called for the government to act faster for schools, saying “the picture has barely changed” since the scheme was introduced.
New research from the Trust reveals that many schools and local authorities in England have been forced to provide their own laptop distribution schemes for disadvantaged students during the third national coronavirus lockdown, after the government scheme was paused in the autumn.
The survey reveals that two thirds (66 per cent) of senior leaders in state schools reported needing to source IT equipment for disadvantaged pupils themselves whilst waiting for government support.
Just 10 per cent of teachers reported that all of their students have adequate access to technology for remote learning.
The Sutton Trust study also reveals stark differences between private and state schools.
Teachers in the private sector reported 54 per cent of their students had adequate devices for home learning, compared with just five per cent in state schools.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the latest announcement is not an adequate response to the scale of the crisis.
He said: "Schools have been kept waiting for equipment that has been promised to them throughout the pandemic, with last minute delays, changes or retractions of the kit they need becoming an alarmingly normalised response from the Department for Education.
“It is surely a no-brainer that schools should be compensated for having to plug the gaps. Every child must have access to the equipment they need to ensure they can learn safely from home. When will the government take their responsibility towards these children seriously?"