Pupils: Computers

(asked on 16th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data his Department holds on the number of pupils without access to an (a) internet-enabled laptop or (b) tablet at home.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 25th September 2020

The Department has allocated a number of digital devices to each school in the case that they experience disruption to face-to-face education because of COVID-19 related restrictions.

To arrive at this allocated number, the Department used data on the number of pupils eligible for free school meals in each school, alongside an assumption that pupils’ device needs will be met to some extent by the device endowments of schools and colleges. To construct this assumption, the Department used the British Educational Suppliers Association ICT 2019 survey data on the average number of laptops and tablets in primary and secondary schools and assumed that these are distributed between teachers and pupils. The Department also referred to the Teacher Tapp survey from March 2020, which shows the proportion of teachers provided with a device by their school.

Schools can access their allocated number of devices from the 150,000 devices available when they experience disruption to face-to-face education and become reliant on remote education. They are able to request additional devices if their original allocation by the Department does not meet their needs.

The devices are an injection of support, alongside local initiatives, and are in addition to the 220,000 laptops and tablets the Department has already delivered to local authorities, academy trusts and schools between May to July.

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