Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have conducted a survey to ascertain how many school pupils do not have access to (1) a computer, laptop or tablet, and (2) home broadband; and if not, what plans they have to conduct such a survey.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.
As of 15 February 2021, over one million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, trusts, local authorities and further education providers.
Laptops and tablets are owned by schools, trusts, local authorities, or further education providers who can lend these to children and young people who need them most during the current COVID-19 restrictions.
The Government is providing this significant injection of laptops and tablets on top of an estimated 2.9 million already owned by schools before the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. The extra provision of laptops and devices is in line with Ofcom’s estimates for the number of pupils who do not have access to a device.
Ofcom has estimated that between 1.1 and 1.8 million children do not have access to a device across the whole of the UK. Education is devolved so our programme is just for England.
The Department estimated the number of disadvantaged pupils without access to an internet connection using data on pupils eligible for free school meals in each school, taking into consideration that some pupils would already have access to a private internet connection and estimations by Ofcom. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, we have delivered over 60,000 routers to schools, local authorities, and trusts.
We have conducted surveys with schools, pupils and parents throughout the COVID-19 outbreak and have collected data on access to technology, which will be published in due course.
To support disadvantaged households who rely on a mobile internet connection, the Government has partnered with some of the UK’s leading mobile network operators, to help ensure that families have the data they need to access online educational resources while COVID-19 requires children to learn from home.
In partnership with mobile network operators, the Department is providing a service for schools if they have identified families who do not have a broadband connection and need free mobile data uplifts to engage in remote education.
Following a successful pilot, the offer is now available for schools across England to request free mobile data uplifts for disadvantaged children via the Get Help with Technology service.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional resources they plan to make available to (1) schools, (2) colleges, and (3) universities, to administer the Turing scheme.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Turing scheme will be backed by at least £100 million of public money, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges, and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021. We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in the coming weeks. Successful applicants will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
We are pleased that the new scheme will be administered by the same consortium of the British Council and Ecorys which has been delivering Erasmus+ in the UK for a number of years, so will be able to draw on those organisations’ experience of working with education providers across the UK and ensure helpful continuity.
Further details of the scheme will be published shortly.