By Victoria Mckeown-
The British government is struggling in its delivery of laptops to England’s poorest pupils, after it was revealed that thousands of pupils are still without laptops to pursue their education remotely during the lockdown.
]Despite the government’s commitment to provide laptops to every child who needs it due to the closure of schools early this month, many pupils still remain without laptops necessary to keep updated with daily school assignments.
Data released by the Department for Education (DfE) today reveals that 51,676 laptops were dispatched to schools between January 24 and 31, a fall from 74,489 the previous week.
The government has done relatively well in providing 927,689 have been sent out to date.
The DfE currently has 372,311 of the devices promised by the government still outstanding.
The several thousand pupils without laptops are likely to be suffering set backs in their academic development, especially as assignments given by schools are all done online.
A new duty automatically arises on parents with children needing a laptop to figure out how to improvise in those circumstances, which would usually mean either borrowing a laptop from one of their parents, or borrowing from a family member or family friend.
There is no excuse for parents without a laptop not to seek an emergency measure to provide at least a temporary laptop for their child, not even for poor families who are entitled to state benefits.
The reality is that many pupils may conveniently use the absence of laptops as their excuse to do no work, especially children of irresponsible parents who suffer from substance abuse.
The Department Of Education today did not respond to questions from The Eye Of Media.Com , requesting to know when the remaining laptops will be provided, and what advice, if any, they have for pupils to manage in the meantime.
However, the Department of Education has promised to provide additional funding will be available in exceptional circumstances where the funding allocation is not sufficient, and after every other alternative option has been exhausted”.
Special arrangements have been agreed to grade UK pupils generously this summer after exams were cancelled as part of the lockdown decision.
Analysts and educators believe the overall education standard in both primary and secondary schools has already dropped significantly because of the pandemic, except for private school students, often from well of backgrounds, who have dedicated parents and tutors to keep their education developing.
Children from good state schools who are supported well by their parents are not expected to lose out much during school closures.