Getting low income families online

It’s up to schools to ensure that children’s access to technology does not becomea postcode lottery, says Valerie Thompson. Otherwise, those from low incomefamilies may be unprepared for the digital world that awaits...

When they leave school children will enter a digital world. Well-honed technology skills will be needed to apply to university, search for a job, read the news, receive training, keep track of personal finances, or even claim benefits.

So are we giving children the right grounding in the use of technology during their formative school years? Are schools suitably focused on ensuring they provide the right levels of access, and that children develop a high degree of competence, confidence and experience? Or is it a postcode lottery? How are the children most affected by the attainment gap supported? Should we assume it will all get taken care of at home?

We should first look to government for its policy on access to technology, its use across the curriculum, and IT skills for education and the workplace. However, there isn’t one. Questions on using technology across the curriculum, and the digital divide, are usually responded to with the “schools are best placed to decide” mantra – or else we see a quick change of subject to the introduction of computer science and programming to replace the study of ICT.

Sadly, over 700,000 school age children cannot go online at home, the majority of these coming from low income families who struggle to provide their children with a working computer that can be used to support revision, homework, research and links to the school VLE for completing and posting assignments. Where children in this situation attend a local school with limited provision (and it is extraordinary that there are still schools in the UK that provide no more than one hour a week of computer time) then they face a huge disadvantage when they go to secondary school.

In a recent BESA survey of teachers on the use of tablets in the classroom, the major objection was concerns about finance. Yet with every child eligible for free school meals attracting £900 of Pupil Premium funding this year there is clearly the scope to allocate a small amount of this towards a portable computer of some sort (tablet, netbook, etc). Where a school serves a better off community, parents have been shown to be prepared to share the cost of provision with the school – as long as the children can bring the devices home for use in the evenings, at weekends and holidays.

The bottom line is that it’s pot luck if a low income family will be helped by their school, or if the school blends the exciting things that technology can offer all learners into teaching and learning. This just feels wrong and unfair to the children our education system is intended to serve.

If teachers still feel uncomfortable and reluctant to change their tried and tested teaching practices then heads will have to be more creative in inspiring them to try new methods. If bursars don’t believe their school can afford to buy more devices for the children, they should find out why many other schools can. Income can come from Pupil Premium, school funds, parents’ donations, Gift Aid and then be enhanced by savings made by removing ICT suites, energy reductions (pupils charge their devices at home), and less photocopying and paperwork.

Network and ICT managers may not want to see school property leaving the premises, but can anyone tell me what is the sense of valuable educational resources being locked in a cupboard for 85 per cent of their useful life?

And school governors need to get behind their senior leadership teams. We have seen the wellthought through plans of many enthusiastic heads rejected by governors who do not understand how technology works in a modern classroom, and will not engage parents in partly contributing to the cost ‘on principle’.

Ultimately, the issue comes down to leadership, and in the absence of any from the Department for Education, this leaves headteachers clearly in the driving seat. The fact that a significant minority of schools are achieving excellent results and using technology to create an extraordinary learning environment means that it is possible for every school to deploy technology more effectively, increase the level of access for students, and ensure no child is left behind because of their family’s inability to pay for basic learning technology resources.