The government’s free laptops scheme has been “hugely successful”, theDepartment for Education official leading on digitallearning plans said today.
Appearing before the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Education Technologythis afternoon,Katherine Moulds, the DfE’s deputy director in charge of the digital strategy for education, reflected positively on the programme to supplylaptops and tabletsto pupils in need during the Covid crisis.
She also hinted at further efforts to boost the availability of technology, revealing thatthe department is “looking at a future strategy on possible access to devicesas part of the comprehensive spending review”.
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Asked what will happenwhen the 1.3 million devices supplied by the department “age out”, and about the“commitment to funding”, Ms Moulds said: “The department is investing now, actually, in levelling up technologyinfrastructure across the country, and we’re working also across government on connectivity -particularly with DCMS [the Department for Culture, Media and Sport], obviously.
Delays in the DfE free laptops scheme
“On the devices programme, it’s been hugely successful -devices have been provided to schools and local authorities.”
She added: “We are looking at a future strategy on possible access to devicesas part of the comprehensive spending review, but we really do need to think about the best and the most sustainable use of our investment in technology.”
Earlier this month, the government finally fulfilled its pledge to provide 1.3 million laptops and tablets to pupils in need across the country.
But the journey to thispoint has not beensmooth sailing.
Ten days after the scheme wasannounced on 19 Aprillast year, education secretary Gavin Williamson said the laptopswouldn’t begin to arrive until the end of May, with the majority being delivered in June.
On 9 June, Meg Hillier, Labour chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, raised concerns about delays to the programme.
But the education secretaryrefuted her claims, arguing that the DfE was“on target” to deliver all thedevices by the end of the month.
By 14June, just over half of the free laptops pledged by the departmenthad yet to be delivered.
Meanwhile,headteacherscomplained that the free laptops for disadvantaged pupils werearriving at schools “locked” and unusable.
The DfE went on tomiss the education secretary’s delivery targetby nearly 30,000.
In July,Tesrevealed that the government allocated at least4,000 fewer free laptops and tablets than councils said they needed.
And in the week before pupils were due to go back to school in September, the DfE hadstill yet to meet the targetit setto deliver 230,000laptops to local authorities and academy trusts by the end of June.
More devices were thenpledged in stages by the DfE for the autumn term,earmarked for disadvantaged children required to stay at home due to Covid.
But the extendedscheme also proved controversialwhen the departmentcut schools’ laptop allocationsjust a day after they were given a legal duty to ensure that pupils had instant access to remote education.
At the beginning of this year, concerns were also raised that schools haddiscovered malware on their government-funded laptopsthat was said to appear to be contacting Russian servers.
The DfEwent on to increasethe number of devices pledged to a final total of .
As of 6May,1,313,449 laptops and tablets hadbeen delivered or dispatched to pupils in need.
