Teachers: £2bn Covid cash should have bought more tech

Scotland’s biggest teaching union has questioned why some of the £2 billion of public money left unspent during the pandemic was not used to provide more laptops and ipads to school pupils.

Audit Scotland last week revealed that by the end of 2021 the Scottish Government had spent £2bn less than it was given by the UK Government to deal with the Covid crisis.

The same report showed just £24 million was spent on digital inclusion for learning in the first year of the pandemic. Educational Institute of Scotland general secretary Larry Flanagan said some of that cash could have been used to provide free digital devices to children – at a time when schools had closed their doors during lockdowns and most pupils were home learning.

“Many pupils didn’t have a laptop or adequate wifi,” said Flanagan. “Remote learning was also delivered by teachers using their own equipment and their own wifi.

“There was certainly demand for IT across the country, so an underspend is surprising and it’s a concern. I don’t think coordination between government and local authorities was always effective.”

Lindsay Paterson, professor of educational policy at the University of Edinburgh, agreed. He said: “The impact of home schooling showed how important it was that all children should have easy access to good-quality devices and fast broadband. Having that kind of equipment at home is a great boost to learning.”

Peter Kelly, Poverty Alliance director, said it was unjust that many young people, particularly in low-income families, were being prevented from accessing the internet. “We need to make sure no child has their life chances restricted because they can’t access the internet.”

In the run-up to last year’s Scottish Parliament elections, the SNP promised every school child a free laptop or device and a free internet connection.

Almost 280,000 laptops or other devices “have been or are in the process of being distributed” to pupils, the Scottish Parliament was told on Thursday. There are around 700,000 pupils in Scotland.

Scottish Education Secretary Shirley-anne Somerville said funds provided to councils had resulted in more than 72,000 pupils receiving a device and 14,000 receiving an internet connection.

The Scottish Government last night said all of its Covid budget had eventually been spent by the end of the financial year in March.