Teachers lack the technology to teach remotely during school shutdowns, survey claims

Almost half of teachers have adequate technology to enable them to teach remotely from home, according to a study.

The report, from the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) and Dixons Carphone, comes during the week that teenagers receive GCSE and A-level results after 18 months of school shutdowns and remote learning, during which around a third of face-to-face teaching time was lost.

The DPA said its findings highlight the need for “greater public investment in digital inclusion to improve equality of education and address digital poverty”.

The findings come from a poll of 700 teachers in 200 schools across the UK which revealed that 47% said they did not have adequate technology at home to teach remotely. Of these respondents, 24% had internet access but no suitable device; 16% had reliable internet but only one device that had to be shared with others in their household, while 7% said their internet connection did not have adequate data.

Some respondents also lacked access to a suitable device for home working, with 20% saying they had access to a mobile phone but no other suitable device. Overall, 66% had access to a laptop and 11% reported having access to a desktop computer.

Just over half — 53% — said their home internet set-up was fully suitable for home working. If these results were representative of the wider UK teaching population, this would mean between 250,000 and 295,000 teachers are lacking suitable means to deliver remote teaching from home.

The research was carried out in June and July 2021 in schools with a high level of pupils eligible for pupil premium funding — the cohort of pupils most at risk of falling behind during the pandemic.

Paul Finnis, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance said, “These results expose the difficulties faced by teachers in fulfilling their responsibilities due to a lack of essential digital access. As a result, many will have been unable to help their students prepare for this year’s exams to their full potential.

“This pandemic has revealed the staggering disadvantages facing many teachers as well as their pupils. The UK is facing not just a legacy of lost learning that children have had to cope with during lockdown, but also the lost opportunities for supporting their learning and their lives at home by providing the access they needed to the digital world over the past year.

“We cannot close the country’s educational attainment gap unless the government also addresses and levels up digital inequality. Urgent focus is needed to support not just disadvantaged children, but also those tasked with their education.”

According to Ofcom research from April 2021, digital poverty affects millions nationwide, with 1.5m UK homes still having no internet access. During the school shutdown, 20% of children did not always have a device for online learning while schools were closed, and 4% of school-age children had to rely solely on mobile internet access.

Lord Jim Knight, the Chair of the Digital Poverty Alliance Board, said: “Without a clear and co-ordinated national strategy to drive digital inclusion, which considers the needs of people and their support networks, the UK cannot hope to deliver a long-term robust recovery plan from the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Teachers much be equipped to provide equality of education to all to build the skills of the next generation.”