Remote Education: Merton

(asked on 30th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many devices were available to schools in Merton to support remote education requirements as of (a) 20 October 2020 and (b) 24 October 2020.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 13th November 2020

As part of over £195 million invested to support remote education and access to online social care, over 340,000 laptops and tablets are being made available this term to support disadvantaged children in Years 3 to 11 whose face-to-face education may be disrupted.

This supplements over 220,000 laptops and tablets, which have already been delivered during the summer term. This represents an injection of over half a million laptops and tablets by the end of the year.

Each school has a number of devices allocated to them by the Department, based on the number of pupils eligible for free school meals and estimates of school-owned devices and privately-owned devices.

Allocations were originally equivalent to a school’s potential need if it fully closed. Attendance data suggests most schools are not closing fully, but instead are supporting small groups of children that are not able to attend school because they are self-isolating. The Department has changed the number of devices allocated to each school to reflect this. In the context of significant global demand for laptops and tablets, this ensures that as many children as possible can benefit from a device at the point at which their face-to-face education is disrupted.

Where a school has a disruption that impacts a greater number of children without access to a device, they can contact the Department to request additional devices. This means the number of devices delivered to a school can be greater than their initial allocation. If a school is fully closing, their Regional Schools Commissioner will work with them to ensure they receive enough devices to meet the needs of all disadvantaged children in Years 3 to 11 who do not already have one.

Information on the devices provided this term to schools, local authorities and academy trusts as of 23 October 2020 is published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/929064/Ad-hoc_stats_note_shipped_data_231020_FINAL.pdf.

Devices provided as of 27 August 2020 is published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912888/Devices_and_4G_wireless_routers_progress_data_as_of_27_August_2020.pdf.

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