It is disappointing that at the start of the 21st century a childsâ?? educational prospects continue to be largely determined by the occupation and income of their parents.
The huge efforts made to improve the performance of teachers, schools and the curriculum appear have moved standards up but have favoured the bright and the better off, while the link between disadvantage and low attainment stubbornly persists.
At KS2 there is a 20% gap in the maths score between pupils eligible for free school meals and those who are not; by the time the pupils get to their GCSEs the gap of pupils gaining 5+ A*-C grades has widened to 27 points.
For years educationalists have struggled to come up with practical and affordable ways to achieve a more level playing field, one.in which all children have the opportunity to realise their ability and potential. However, technological developments over the past 10 years have set the scene for new and affordable ways to address this educational apartheid.
The first area is by improving links between home and school, and supporting parents to play an interested and involved role in their children’s education. The development of online learning platforms and improved parental reporting offers some exciting new ways for parents and schools to interact, giving parents more regular information about their children’s performance and making sure that they know what their children are going to be learning and how they might support them.
The second area is the resources that ICT offers the learner; access to the Internet and the school’s learning platform, the opportunity to publish, work collaboratively and network, the ability to pursue areas of personal interest and the scope to learn in places and at times to suit the learner.
The impact that technology has had on learners has been documented by a stream of educational research; improved motivation, better attention span, more independent learning skills, help for special needs learners, learning basic skills for a digital workplace.
However, there is a catch. Over 1m schoolchildren do not have a computer and still cannot go online at home, and neither can their parents. And not too surprisingly it is these very families, often earning low incomes, and a large proportion formed of single parent families, who come out worst in the education system.
The Government’s £300m Home Access programme, due to be launched in the autumn following pilots in Suffolk and Oldham, represents an important element of a wider digital inclusion policy that aims to encourage and persuade every citizen of the benefits of “digital Britain”. Integrated into Becta’s Next Generation Learning programme, the Home Access programme aims to remove the financial barriers to many of our most disadvantaged families (about 13% of all families) in providing a computer and the Internet for their children’s learning at home.
Eligible families will be able to apply for a single use debit card which they can take to an approved supplier and receive a computer, 12 months Internet access, and a support bundle including insurance, warranty, support and Internet safety measures.
This is an important programme. Not least because of the scale of it. There have been a series of similar initiatives in the past but none with this level of Government backing.
The e-Learning Foundation has been engaging with schools and families over universal home access since its inception in 2001 and is working closely with Becta in the planning and implementation of the programme. The model adopted by the Foundation in the past has been one based on a school’s direct involvement in providing the technology needed to the families. This works well for schools able and willing to get involved, but does not suit schools with other priorities or limited resources.
The Home Access programme takes a different approach and provides individual families with the means to get the equipment they need from a local retailer without reliance on their local school. Whether this is the best approach only time will tell.
Will it eliminate the digital divide? No. But it will help to reduce it significantly over the next three years.
Will it successfully target the most hard to reach and persuade? This is one of the most challenging areas of the Home Access programme. It is likely that there will be a direct correlation between school involvement and take-up levels. The high take up in the pilot areas has been linked to the fact that the schools were very active in encouraging families to apply for their grant. For the national rollout the e-Learning Foundation will be encouraging schools to help their families take up their Home Access grants.
Is it sustainable? The answer has to be probably not, given the fact that the target group live on very low incomes. Luxuries like computers and the Internet will never make it to the top of a shopping list that starts with the rent, fuel bills, food and children’s shoes. However, in three years time the world will have moved on; portable computers may be available for a fraction of today’s prices and we could find ourselves living under a giant wireless Internet cloud. So perhaps the programme will convince the families of the value of the technology and the market will have made it more affordable. Who knows?
Will it reduce the achievement gap for poor children? It depends. This is the risk in a retail approach rather than going through schools. If the computer is treated as a family resource then it could get well used by the adults for access to Government services, help with finding a job, developing their own ICT skills, enrolling on an e-learning course, etc. It may also be used for recreational purposes such as shopping, social networking and entertainment. In this case the children may not have the sort of access to it that would make a difference to their own education.
This is why the ongoing evaluation of the Home Access programme is so crucial. This is a chance in a lifetime for the generation of children involved, and an equally important opportunity for their families to use this technology to give their children the best possible start in life.
What do you think about the home access programme? Go to Valerie Thompson’s blog at http://www.e-learningfoundation.com/ to air your opinions.