Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when his Department plans to implement the Connect the Classroom pilot project.

Building on the £30 million investment for the Connect the Classroom pilot programme, the department is investing up to a further £150 million on Connect the Classroom to upgrade more schools that fall below our Wi-Fi connectivity standards in priority areas. The Connect the Classroom pilot started in 2021 and engagement with schools who qualify for the additional £150 million of investment began June 2022.

National connectivity data does not cover private business fibre connections procured by schools or the take-up of a high-speed internet service by a school. The previous analysis of publicly available data of access to infrastructure showed that 3,835 schools are in postcodes that do not have access to full fibre or are currently not in areas of proposed commercial build within the next five years. This covered schools which do not have access to gigabit infrastructure, but does not consider new activity planned since this time.