Covid-19: Educational Settings

Baroness Fox of Buckley Excerpts

Thursday 7th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have purchased more than a million laptops. The change in the formula to which I believe the noble Lord refers—the change in the allocations—was to get laptops to children already self-isolating at home, and not to have them delivered to schools by a numbers allocation. That was entirely sensible: those children needed those laptops there and then. As I said, by the end of next week, 750,000 will have been delivered. The portal on the DfE website is open to all secondary schools and more than half of primary schools, and the latest response time I have for schools ordering and it being delivered is four to five days from that order. As I said, by the end of next week, we will have delivered 750,000 laptops. The Department for Education is one of the world’s leading purchasers of laptops. This was an enormous order to manufacturers to give our disadvantaged children access to technology.

[Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, to quote the Statement:

“I would like to reassure everyone that our schools have not suddenly become unsafe, but limiting the number of people who attend them is essential”


when Covid rates are rising. So schools have not suddenly become unsafe; it is about limiting numbers.

Some rather imaginative, frustrated and demoralised sixth-formers I know have a suggestion for the Minister, which is that they would happily meet in limited numbers if she requisitioned a whole range of buildings lying fallow in this lockdown and mobilised a volunteer army of ex-teachers, heads and any number of members of the community who are willing to help, to allow them to study in hotels, hospitality areas or wherever, so that they could have face-to-face teaching and then be able to do their exams.

No matter how much you get Ofsted involved, you will not improve the quality of online teaching. Ofsted could be all over this House, but it would still notice that it is sterile to have a hybrid form of debate. It is sterile to have online teaching, no matter how much Ofsted inspects it.

I have a quick final question. Early years education remains open, which is fantastic, as far as I am concerned, but why cannot primary school pupils aged four, five, six or seven go to school as well, even in small clusters, in a similar way? Surely the science does not stop at three or four. What basis is there for keeping early years open? I do not want it closed, by the way; that is not the conclusion. In other words, reassure us that it is safe and then find imaginative ways of making it safe for face-to-face teaching to carry on.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, it is an ingenious suggestion and I am grateful to the noble Baroness for giving me advance notice of it. However, it is one of those things that is easier said than done. It is very difficult to expect schools to operate, even in small groups, over multiple sites. There are issues with health and safety, et cetera, and the logistics of running provision. You are not just running remote provision but running a school over a number of geographical sites. Although it is not the same as face-to-face teaching, it is easier at that age for them to engage online.

The evidence is that the level of the disease in the early years population group is the lowest of all the age groups. Therefore, the decision for early years provision to stay open was made on that basis. For the reasons that I have outlined, and because we are at the other end of the age spectrum for that age group, one cannot deliver that kind of education remotely at all. In terms of numbers, the decision was made to limit primary schools provision to small clusters of vulnerable children and the children of critical workers. Referring back, FE colleges in particular have made a good job of moving their provision online. Therefore, online provision for that age group is the best option at the moment, and follows public health advice.