The government is about to buy up to 270,000 computers for England's poorest children. Becta, the education technology agency, will use the keynote speech at Bett 2010 to announce the roll-out across England of its £300m Home Access programme.
Internet access is seen as an increasingly integral part of a child's education and, in line with the Every Child Matters agenda, giving virtually every child home internet access is a way of preventing the poor being left behind.
The government's own figures indicate that as many as one million children remain without internet access at home and precious few poor children enjoy the perk of a laptop in their bedroom.
"What we've learned from our pilots is that people do more learning when they've got access to technology," says Niel McLean, Becta's executive director for schools and families. "In 80% of cases [in the pilot], within a few weeks, the kids were doing more learning at home."
The Home Access scheme is designed to encourage low-income families with children at key stages 2 and 3 to apply for a one-off, £500 grant to pay for a computer and a 12-month subscription to the internet. If the family receives free school meals they can apply for a single-use debit card loaded with £500 worth of credit. Families then have a choice of retailers - including Comet and Curries - to buy from. Becta hopes to give out 270,000 grants and reach as many as half a million children.
Results from the pilots are promising: more than 9,000 families participated, which was nearly 90% of the target group.
They include Lesley Donaghue, a single parent in Oldham, and her children. Her 16-year-old daughter, Naomi, attends Counthill school while five-year-old Abbie has just started at the local infants school and was eligible for the grant. Before signing up to Home Access, Naomi struggled to use public computers. But the grant changed that: "It was the only way that I could ever afford a computer," says her mother. "We now have a laptop and internet access at home, which makes it easier for Naomi to do her coursework."
There are, says McLean, wider benefits too: "The evidence from the pilot is that even against difficult economic circumstances, once low-income families have been helped up the ladder, they recognise that [ICT] has got a family value to it. We have seen a high degree of commitment from the families involved in the pilots to carry on paying for the connection."
McLean says that the pilots were very successful but admits that there is a hardcore of "invisible kids in the system" who are hard to reach.
"They are mobile, their accommodation is constantly changing and they change school [frequently]. The risk is that we will narrow the gap but the people on the other side of the gap may feel further and further away."
But the scheme has proved that it can also reach the most challenging of children. Stuart Bailey, head of the Parkside referral unit in Suffolk, works with young people who are excluded from mainstream education, 70 % of whom are dealing with a mental health issue.
He says that access to technology has a positive impact. "Our youngsters access their work where they like; some work in our kitchen, some work at home, some work in the corridor. Home Access has supported everything that we were doing."
Home access is clearly important to many educationalists. And it is about to get a lot more important. Online reporting - the next big shift in education - allows parents to see school data (attendance, behaviour, assessment) as it happens. Online parental access is great for families with home access, and irrelevant for those without.
Dominic Tester, assistant headteacher at Costello technology college in Basingstoke, Hampshire, has helped pioneer a parent portal that shares data with parents. When a teacher sets an assignment, using the Frog virtual learning environment, parents are able to access a news feed outlining details like their child's recent attendance; the details of the assignment complete with deadline; and links to classroom materials.
"It is giving parents a handle on what students are doing in school and they are able to look at the resources themselves so that they can offer support at home," says Tester.
There is the rub. Parents want to get more involved. Internet access is vital, therefore, if such a system is to be fair to all. That is where the Home Access scheme will come into its own.
