Education Route Map: Covid-19

Siobhain McDonagh Excerpts

Thursday 25th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab) [V]]

The pandemic has laid bare the inequalities across our society, but these have been exacerbated by the Government’s utterly inadequate support for our schools, and I fear that the impact could be felt for generations. After months of infuriating debates, the Government have finally been dragged to deliver 1 million devices to support remote learning—little cause for celebration, given that they arrive a whole year after schools first closed. I ask the Minister, whatever happened to the other 300,000 devices that were pledged? How does she think these children have been able to log in and learn from home? The answer is simple: they have not.

Every click has widened the attainment gap. We know that a device is inaccessible without connectivity, so with over half a million children without internet access at home, why have fewer than 68,000 routers been distributed? The reality is that the digital divide has manifested itself, giving those from the wealthiest backgrounds an advantage. Some 31% of those with the lowest incomes have been unable to spend a single penny on their child’s remote learning since September, compared to the 29% on the highest incomes spending more than £100. Eighty-six per cent. of private schools are using online live lessons compared to just 50% of state schools. Forty per cent. of children in middle-class homes access over five hours a day, compared to 26% in working-class households.

Minister, with schools reopening, this is no problem for the past because we know how far behind these children will have fallen. Whatever happened to levelling up? Before the pandemic, children on free school meals were leaving school approximately 18 months behind, and that gap was getting wider. The Government have failed those children throughout the lockdown and now offer a completely unambitious catch-up programme. Compared with the vast sums squandered throughout the pandemic, the new support promised to schools is paltry. I was tearing my hair out listening to the Secretary of State suggesting that £6,000 was enough for a school to employ more teachers.

Although I welcome the holiday schemes, work must be done to ensure that children who need them most actually attend. We need more than six weeks’ catch-up, we need six months’ catch-up after six months off school. One-to-one and small group learning is vital. The schools catch-up programme needs the drive and the delivery of the vaccination programme, and the Secretary of State is simply incapable of doing that.