Not enough school laptops for pupils to study from home

The majority of schools don't have enough digital devices to ensure all their pupils can study at home if they need to self-isolate.

That's what a survey from charity Teach First suggests, with almost three in four (73%) school leaders saying their pupils do not have sufficient access to digital devices and internet.

The situation is even worse for schools in the poorest communities, with 84% saying they do not have the necessary access to technology

This figure was 66% for schools in communities with less financial difficulties.

Teach First, which provides support to schools in disadvantaged communities, is calling on the government and large businesses to provide more devices to schools to ensure poorer pupils do not fall further behind and can keep learning.

This news comes as recent government figures show that nearly two in three secondary schools in England had at least one pupil self-isolating at home due to potential contact with coronavirus.

Approximately 6% to 8% of state school pupils - up to 615,000 children - did not attend school for coronavirus-related reasons on November 12, the Department for Education figures show.

For pupils who don't already have devices at home, this means schools need to spend large amounts of money on devices and other equipment students need to be able to join classes and study on.

The poll of more than 1,400 school leaders in England in November suggests that schools are having to dip into alternative budgets to secure more devices.

Nearly half (47%) of state school leaders said they will have to reduce other school activities to pay for devices and the internet, according to the survey.

More than a fifth (21%) said they will have to reduce spending on textbooks and libraries, and almost as much for school maintenance and upkeep (20%) in order to afford the necessary devices for pupils.

Meanwhile more than a quarter (27%) of state school leaders said they are using, or are planning to use, reserve budgets to pay for the gap in digital access for pupils, compared with 5% of private school leaders.

Schools with the most affluent intakes are nearly three times (29%) more likely to use donations to pay for digital devices compared with schools with the poorest pupils (10%).

Last week the Department for Education updated its guidance telling local authorities and academy trusts to identify unused 4G wireless routers, which were handed out in the summer term, and reallocate them to children "with the greatest need".

A DfE spokeswoman said: "The department has purchased over 340,000 laptops this term alone to support disadvantaged children. By Christmas, this will be an injection of over half a million since the pandemic hit.

"This is part of over £195 million invested to support remote education and access to online social care, which includes 220,000 laptops and tablets and over 50,000 4G wireless routers already delivered to children over the summer term. At its peak, 27,000 laptops were delivered in a single day."

Kathryn Hobbs, head teacher of David Nieper Academy in Derbyshire said students had been relying on smart phones to do their work, which she says "isn't sufficient".

She said: "The hard truth is that some families simply can't afford the most appropriate IT equipment."

"For schools to continue to support all of their pupils throughout this pandemic, we need more access to IT devices, but looking into our budget, there's not enough money to meet the need."

Teach First's Chief Executive Russell Hobby said: "All schools are doing their best in a challenging environment, yet the choices they face to make ends meet are deeply worrying - particularly if they have to cut vital areas of education to keep up with this urgent problem."

Matt Hood, principal of Oak National Academy, a Government-backed virtual school launched during the lockdown, said: "For children to keep learning, they need access to resources, laptops, and internet data. These findings again reveal that too often it's the poorest students who are being cut out."

He has called for more co-ordinated action, asking mobile networks to make educational websites data-free, enabling the one million children who can only access the internet through a mobile to keep learning.

He also wants businesses to work with the government to increase the number of laptops distributed. He said: "Without this, our most vulnerable children risk falling further behind."