Report shows inadequate access to technology in schools

A report commissioned bt Microsoft has revealed that just one per cent of primary state schools provide devices that their pupils can take home, compared to 38% of private primary schools.

The survey commissioned by Microsoft from polling organisation Teacher Tapp, in association with think tank The Centre for Education and Youth, shows evidence regarding the severity of England’s digital divide has been mounting throughout the pandemic.
 
Microsoft commissioned the survey of over 5,000 teachers across England, including more than 1,200 senior leaders, to better understand the value and benefits educators perceive from current education technologies and the barriers they foresee to future adoption, the so-called ‘digital divide’ included.

In the state sector just one in three teachers have access to 1-to-1 technologies, compared to two in three teachers in the private sector.

72% of students in schools rated inadequate by Ofsted do not have access to individual devices in their classrooms, compared to 59% in outstanding schools.

Just 1% of primary state schools provide devices that their pupils can take home, compared to 38% of private primary schools. At secondary level, 7% of secondary state schools provide take home devices, whilst 20% of private secondary schools do so.