A new report by the ETI has highlighted that some students are not able to engage with remote study, and part of it is due to tech availability.
When schools closed across the UK in March in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, many started to put in place remote learning processes. Some ran live sessions online, and most made learning materials and assignments available online for students to complete at home.
According to a new report by the Education and Training Inspectorate, as many as half of the pupils in some post-primary schools didn't take part on the remote learning programmes offered by the school. Some parents were also worried about the amount of screen time their children were having, and requested hard copies of school work instead.
Seconary schools identified that there were some problems with keeping their students engaged from home, but there were also more practical problems to overcome. Rural students often had issues with internet connectivity that made video and streaming content difficult to access, for example, and many students didn't have adequate IT equipment at home to take part.
Schemes offering laptops to students so that they can study at home have been massively oversubscribed, so there just isn't enough tech to go around. Schools also found that certain subjects such as PE and practical aspects of subjects that require qualified supervision were not possible to do remotely, and would need to be rethought.
Source: BBC News
