Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment in the autumn term of the effect on children's progress of exposure during the covid-19 lockdown to different types and amounts of education technology and online learning.

Understanding the effect of time outside of the classroom, what factors have driven lost attainment and how quickly it is being recovered and how it is recovered over the next academic year is a key research priority for the Department to inform strategic policy for supporting the school system.

To help schools provide effective online teaching, the Department has supported sector led initiatives such as Oak National Academy, which covers curriculum for every year group from reception through to year 11. The Department has also published guidance based on the current experiences and practices of teachers and school leaders so that other teachers can learn from examples of teaching practice during the COVID-19 outbreak as they develop their own approaches to providing remote education. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remote-education-practice-for-schools-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

The Department recognises that barriers to online access can make engaging with remote education more difficult, which is why we have committed £100 million to fund devices and 4G connectivity to help pupils overcome them.