WE NEED TO GET TWO MILLION PUPILS WORKING ONLINE
STATE schools must provide online lessons as millions of children are failing to get an education, politicians demanded yesterday.
Privately educated youngsters have been receiving a full day’s teaching online during lockdown, it was said.
But the majority of children in the state sector are going without, ministers claimed.
This is despite online services such as Zoom and Google Classroom being free to use.
Robert Halfon, Tory chairman of the Education Select Committee, has called for an online education strategy. He has asked education watchdog Ofsted and local authorities to work closely with schools to set “clear guidance” for the online learning.
He said: “There are over an estimated two million pupils doing virtually no school work during lockdown.” The call comes as Education Secretary Gavin Williamson faces some difficult decisions.
The latest figures reveal four in 10 pupils in England have not had regular contact with their teachers, with children doing schoolwork for an average of just two and a half hours a day. And just seven out of 10 state school children are getting, at most, one daily online lesson. But almost a third of independent school pupils enjoy at least four online lessons a day.
Anthony Coxon, director of online teaching publisher GCSEPod, said: “In our recent survey of 5,000 teenagers, six in 10 said they want online learning to form all or part of their studies.
“And eight in 10 teachers say that they are comfortable with online learning being a permanent fixture.
“Blended learning is here to stay – that is high-quality online learning combined with face-to-face classroom practice.”
Draft government guidance says teachers must step up the quality of their remote learning because this may end up as an “essential component” of children’s teaching if there is a local lockdown and schools are forced to close.
Schools have been told they need contingency plans in place for remote learning by the end of September.