‘Pupils in Wales get least online lessons in UK’
CHILDREN are doing just 2.5 hours’ schoolwork a day in lockdown – and those in Wales are being left behind in online learning compared with peers across the UK, according to new research.
Just 2% of children in Wales receive four or more online meetings or lessons daily, compared with a UK-wide average of 7% and a London average of 12.5%, a study of lockdown learning at home by the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) suggests.
When it comes to offline work, only 14.6% of Welsh children receive four or more offline lessons a day – the second lowest figure in the UK – compared to 25.2% of children in Northern Ireland and 27.7% in south-east England.
The report calls for governments across the UK to “give education a much greater priority in
the management of the pandemic response” and for this response to focus on regional disparities.
It highlights the gap between maintained and independent schools showing fee-paying pupils are working far more at home and, inevitably, have more resources.
Responding to the findings, Plaid Cymru Shadow Education Minister Siân Gwenllian MS said children in Wales are being “let down” and called on the Welsh Government to take urgent action to improve remote learning.
She said the research “highlighted how ineffective” home schooling measures have been in the pandemic”.
“We need to know how many pupils don’t have a personal laptop or proper internet access. We need to know how many pupils are logging on to their education – and how many have no contact at all.
“Proper data on these aspects is a matter of priority so that a robust plan of action can be put in place by the Welsh Government.”
“The First Minister admitted himself last week that for many children there had been no contact with their school and their experience of remote learning “may have been mixed”. If he knows the full extent of the problem – why doesn’t he act, rather than brush the problem under the carpet?”
The report goes on to show half of private schools’ pupils spend four or more hours per day on schoolwork, as opposed to just 18 per cent of state schools.
And variations in the amount of schoolwork being done at home has added to existing regional and socioeconomic inequalities.
One fifth of pupils – around two million children in the UK – are doing no schoolwork at home, or less than an hour a day. While 17% put in more than four hours a day.
The paper, published by LLAKES, used data collected in the last two weeks of April from an online survey of respondents in the Understanding Society panel, a UK Household Longitudinal Study covering 4,559 children from households throughout the UK.
Study lead, Professor Francis Green (UCL Institute of Education), said: “The closure of schools, and
their only-partial re-opening, constitute a potential threat to the educational development of a generation of children.
“This new evidence from the Understanding Society COVID survey paints a gloomy picture of lost schooling and low amounts of schoolwork at home.
“Everyone is losing out in this generation, some much more than others. Better home schoolwork provision, and better still an early safe return to school for as many as possible, should now become a top priority for government.”
Those eligible for free school meals appear to be additionally disadvantaged during lockdown – one in five have no access to a computer at home.
In Wales schools have handed out hundreds of devices to pupils eligible for free school meals in a scheme funded by the Welsh Government.
Gaps in online lessons and meetings are particularly pronounced between private and state schools – 31% of private schools provided four or more lessons daily, compared with just 6% in state schools. The report points out that private schools have far more resources, and are expected to provide them by their fee-paying parents. And 31% of private schools provided four or more pieces compared with 22% of state schools.
Asked if the Welsh Government was happy with the amount of school work being sent to, and done by, children in maintained schools and what plans are being made to enhance remote learning, a Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Schools in Wales are deploying a wide range of approaches to ensure continuity of learning for pupils with the support of our “Stay Safe. Stay Learning” plan during the pandemic.
“Our leading online learning platform Hwb continues to play a crucial role in supporting the delivery of education during this incredibly challenging period, with an average of 2.5 million logins per month over the last three months – a 134% increase on the previous year.
“There have also been over 9.5m page views per month over the same period – a 157% increase on the previous year. More than 99% of schools are actively engaged in using the platform. We’ve also provided 9,339 software licences which have allowed schools and local authorities to re-purpose existing school devices to enable learners to access online learning. We have also provided 10,848 Mi-Fi devices to get households online.
“It is our intention to use the last weeks of the summer term to make sure pupils, staff and parents are prepared – mentally, emotionally and practically – for the new normal in September.”