Covid-19: People Living in Poverty

Lord Adonis Excerpts

Thursday 30th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

My Lords, nothing intensifies poverty and passes it from one generation to the next more than poor education. One of the acutely concerning aspects of this crisis is the suspension of the physical presence of all our schools. Evidence is already emerging of big disparities of class in the online education that is being provided as the crisis passes from week to week. Obviously, to some extent this is inevitable, given the emergency that has developed, but the Government should be putting in place arrangements to ensure that proper education is being provided during this crisis.

Can I ask the Minister two specific questions? First, what advice and regulations are being put in place on the minimum provisions that state schools are expected to make in respect of education? There is evidence that a lot of state schools are not even providing day-by-day online classes. That is unacceptable. Secondly, what monitoring is taking place? Can the Government make available statistics on what is happening with regard to education? Ofsted has suspended all its school inspections. Is it being applied to the task of monitoring and supporting schools in the provision of a basic education during this crisis?