The hidden hurdle in education

From a lack of access to broadband and devices, to missing skills to thrive online, digital poverty is affecting education, career opportunities, and social mobility. With many classrooms also affected by poor technology infrastructure and connectivity, we examine government initiatives and grassroots efforts to tackle the digital divide

To be unable to keep up with an increasingly digital world is to be digitally excluded. Digital poverty, as defined by the Digital Poverty Alliance is: “the inability to interact with the online world fully, when, where and how an individual needs to.”

Some people are more vulnerable to digital poverty than others, such as low-income households, who are more likely to struggle to afford broadband and data, disabled people, who are more likely to struggle with accessibility, and young people struggling to find work. These are all compounded when they occur in young people, when the modern education system demands several devices, a stable internet connection, and digital competency. A failure to access these things will inevitably affect school performance, and potentially affect young people into their careers.

Digital poverty in young people

Despite technology being rife and children accessing the internet at younger ages, digital poverty is worryingly common and was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which kickstarted a mass shift to digital. One in five children home schooling during the pandemic did not have access to an appropriate device like a laptop.

Being digitally excluded has signficant effects on a child’s school performance, who are more likely to be punished for missing online homework, and behind on academic targets. As digital poverty is a socio-economic issue, failing to address it hampers social mobility and prevents bright and applied children from succeeding due to factors they cannot control. This is supported by research that found that 40 per cent of children in middle-class families were able to provide five hours or more of online learning, compared to just 26 per cent of working-class households.

The Digital Inclusion Action Plan

Addressing digital poverty in young people, then, requires several approaches: tackling broadband poverty, equipping children with the correct devices, and ensuring that every child has the necessary skills to navigate the modern world. These principles guided the government’s recent Digital Inclusion Action Plan, which was published in February. The cross-departmental mission to make steps to foster digital inclusion reflects the scale of the problem, with young people at the crux of it: setting young people up safety and confidently to navigate a digital world is a skill 
for life.

The framework has four focuses: opening up opportunities through skills, tackling device and data poverty, breaking down barriers to digital services, and building confidence. All four of these provide opportunities for the government, local authorities, educational settings, and education providers to collaborate to ensure no child is left behind.

Upskilling and opportunities

3.8 million people in the UK lack the essential digital skills for life and 7.3 million (18 per cent) lack the minimum essential digital skills for work. Digital exclusion due to a lack of skills is often attributed to elderly people, and although it is true that more than one in three over 65s lack the basic skills to use the internet, research from The King’s Trust found that 37 per cent of young people sampled in the UK did not study a digital or technology-focused subject beyond Key Stage 3, which is concerning.

Digital skills aren’t just crucial for accessing many employment options, but also to participate in the economy and society. The government’s action plan sets a target for everyone across the UK, regardless of their background or circumstances, to have the skills to benefit from the online world in a safe and informed way, which will involve providing training and education, facilitating access to skills support for everyone, and making sure that upskilling enables people to realise the wider benefit of being online.

To achieve this, the government is developing the Industrial Strategy, setting up Skills England, launching the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, as well as announcing a new growth and skills levy to ensure that every young person leaves school with digital skills, and adults who are without them are able to upskill.

Tackling data and device poverty

The report explains that to get online, an individual needs three things: a broadband line or mobile signal, a telecoms service, and a device, but not everyone lives within reach of a reliable network, can afford the cost of a monthly service, or a device.

Those living in rural areas have broadband speeds 26 per cent slower than those in urban areas that can make video calls, for example, and a report by Frontier Economics for BT suggests that as many as one million households are likely to be unable to afford connectivity at any price, and may be sacrificing other life essentials (clothing, food) to keep themselves or their children online.

Alongside broadband, a lack of devices can make young people digitally excluded, particularly needing a laptop as well as a smartphone. In 2024, four per cent of UK households did not have a laptop, PC or tablet at home, with a 2023 Nominet survey of young people aged 8-25 finding that 53 per cent of respondents from working class households considered laptops too expensive. Although schools are increasingly providing tablets and laptops, this leaves distance-learning pupils without support, and where devices are supplemented, still fails to address broadband or connectivity issues.

The government has piloted a proof-of-concept multi-department device donation scheme with the Digital Poverty Alliance to provide re-purposed government laptops for those that need them. The Westminster OpenRoaming initiative is in the process of being rolled out across the borough since February, with a free WiFi connection to be established throughout Westminster and hopes to expand the network across all of London. In the beginning of July, this was complimented by free laptops issued by the Digital Poverty Alliance.

The digital divide in classrooms

While digital poverty applies to individuals’ home life, it can also affect entire schools, with only 63 per cent of schools responding to the 2023 Technology in Schools Survey saying that they have functional WiFi throughout the school.

To tackle this, the government is investing £45 million to boost school infrastructure, including £25 million to upgrade wireless networks this year – helping get classrooms online.

Technology in the classroom has several benefits: not only can it accelerate learning, as research by Education Endowment Foundation found, but it builds digital literacy skills in children, complementing the Online Safety Act 2023 which will better protect children online.

This marks the latest phase of funding in this programme which, so far, has connected more than 1.3 million pupils to reliable networks across 3,700 schools. This is separate from an additional £20 million to complete the delivery of fibre upgrades to 833 sites.

New Bridge Multi Academy Trust, a SEND Trust in Oldham and Tameside, has received £250,000 to use technology to remove barriers to learning, with an assistive technology coordinator using 3D printing to adapt access methods for individuals, such as custom-printed joysticks and switches to better navigate iPads.

Richard Bright, executive advisor for technology across New Bridge Multi Academy Trust, said: “Tech gives our young people a voice, and through reliable connectivity we can consistently give them that voice. Tech supports improved attainment and benefits attendance, behaviour and wellbeing.”

See the Digital Inclusion Action Plan here