Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education,what steps he is taking to ensure that children from lower income families are in receipt of (a) laptops and (b) other necessary educational aides to prevent disruption to their education during the covid-19 lockdown.

The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G routers.

The Department is providing laptops and tablets to vulnerable and disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examination in Year 10, are receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver. The Department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets and is working to provide these devices in the shortest possible timeframe.

To support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education, 40 teachers have come together to develop the brand-new Oak National Academy, launched on Monday 20 April. Oak Academy provides 180 video lessons for free each week, across a broad range of subjects, for every year group from Reception through to Year 10.

Schools and families will also be able to draw on support from the BBC which is broadcasting lessons on television. Some of the BBC educational content is offline, via the red button, which disadvantaged pupils without digital devices or connectivity will still be able to access.

Schools may also choose to draw on the many resources offers which have been made by publishers across the country. The Department has published an initial list of high quality online educational resources, which have been identified by some of the country’s leading educational experts to help pupils learn at home.