Children: Computers

(asked on 11th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils who do not have a laptop or mobile device and cannot access remote learning in (i) Tameside and (ii) Oldham.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 14th January 2021

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.

This includes over 700,000 laptops and tablets that were delivered to schools, trusts and local authorities by 11 January.

The Department has estimated the need for devices and internet connectivity by using data on the number of pupils eligible for Free School Meals, alongside data from Ofcom.

All schools in Tameside and Oldham can order their allocation of laptops and tablets and request connectivity support. As of 12 January, 1,086 devices have been delivered directly to Tameside local authority and 1,329 devices have been delivered directly to Oldham local authority. Devices have also been allocated to academy trusts that include schools in Tameside and Oldham that are not included in this figure.

The Department has partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online as well as delivering 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home. This offer is available to all schools in England.

The Department is grateful to EE, O2, Sky Mobile, Smarty, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Mobile, and Vodafone. We continue to invite a range of mobile network providers to support the offer.

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