Kids who don’t have laptops or can’t work from home can go to school, education secretary says

Those children who don’t have a laptop or a space to work from at home are able to go into school throughout lockdown instead, Gavin Williamson says. 

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has explained that children who don’t have access to digital devices are allowed to go to school to learn from classrooms alongside the children of key workers.

Children who don’t have access to a laptop or a place to study are now described as ‘vulnerable’. It is estimated around one million more kids will be included in the new, wider category – around 9% of children in the UK.

However, MP’s have blasted this as ‘poor communication’ and said they weren’t aware of the rule.

Wes Streeting MP, Shadow Schools Minister, told The Sun: “The government’s support for pupils and guidance for parents is a mess. Ministers have had over nine months to get laptops to kids, but thousands are still unable to access online learning.

“A discretionary approach which passes responsibility onto individual schools is simply not good enough. The government must urgently get every child online with the laptops, internet access and support they need.”

Education Committee Chair Robert Halfon has welcomed the news of more children now being able to attend school. He said: “It’s really good news for hard working parents that children who have no remote access will now be able to attend school.

“This will make a huge difference and mean that these children will not be forgotten or left behind once again.”

Schools have been forced to close following the lockdown of the country announced by Boris Johnson on Monday. This news now means thousands more parents won’t have to worry about juggling home-schooling while working. 

Boris Johnson hopes that schools will reopen after February half term, however the decision won’t be made until nearer the time. 

Mr Halfon raised concerns in the House of Commons of a digital divide that some children will suffer from, with 880,000 children living in a household with only a mobile internet connection.

He explained: “I strongly welcome the Government’s laptop scheme but we know that there still will be, possibly, hundreds of thousands of people on the wrong side of the digital divide.

“Can (he) confirm that those students who just don’t have internet connection or computers at home will be able to go to school alongside children of critical workers?”

Mobile provider, Three UK said it will provide unlimited data upgrades to disadvantaged children in England until the end of the school year in July. 

Teach First, an educational charity explains that the digital divide in England hits poorer students hardest, and suggests that four out of five schools with the poorest pupils do not have enough devices to ensure all those self-isolating can keep learning. 

Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First, said: “Access to high-quality education has always been unequal. But whilst trying to learn from home, the gap between children from wealthier homes and their poorer peers is greatly exacerbated.”

More than 560,000 devices were delivered last year to schools and councils however some are still struggling.

The Guardian reports that St Ambrose Barlow Roman Catholic high school in Salford has only received 75 laptops for a school with more than 1,000 pupils. At least 40% of students at this school do not have their own device. 

Head teacher Ben Davis said: “Very few of our pupils have no devices at all at home, but you often have families of five with one laptop and everybody needing to get online.”

Newman Roman Catholic college in Oldham added that the school received 138 laptops from the central government scheme this week, adding to the 34 they received last year – nine months after making the original request for 237.

The Department for Education posted a photo on Instagram of a warehouse containing some of the 50,000 laptops and tablets that are set to be delivered to schools this week. 

Labour MP, Siobhain McDonagh, who coordinated a letter in which MPs, unions and charities called on Boris Johnson to take action to help ‘children on the wrong side of the digital divide’, said of the photo: “It beggars belief that the government would celebrate distributing devices almost a year after schools first closed and to just a fraction of the pupils who need them.”