Remote Education: Printing Machinery

(asked on 12th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the availability of printers in pupils’ homes by (a) phase of education, (b) free school meals eligibility, and (c) any other division of data available.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 21st January 2021

The Department does not have data or estimates of the availability of printers in pupils’ homes.

Schools can provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, to structure learning. We expect schools to work to overcome any barriers experienced by pupils in accessing remote education. This could include distributing school owned laptops or supplementing digital provision with different forms of remote education such as printed resources or textbooks. This should be supplemented with other forms of communication to keep pupils and students on track or answer questions about work.

The Government is supporting access to remote education and online social care services, through an investment of over £400 million that includes securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people who do not have access to their own device. Over 800,000 laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities by 17 January.

We have also partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online as well as delivering 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home.

Support is available for schools to get set up on Google or Microsoft platforms. These platforms bring together the school community, pool resources and give pupils the opportunity to work with their peers remotely. As of 5 January 2021, 6,900 schools have applied for a digital education platform.

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