Schools in England are “much better prepared than last March” to implement home-learning, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told the Commons.
He said: “We are far better placed to cope with it than we were last March.
“We are now better prepared to deliver online learning, this is an important step forward in supporting children to make the progress with their education that they so desperately need, and we’ll also do what we can to help their parents.”
He added: “We have set out clear, legally binding requirements for schools to provide high-quality remote education. This is mandatory for all state-funded schools and will be enforced by Ofsted.
“We expect schools to provide between three and five hours teaching a day, depending on the child’s age. If parents feel their child’s school is not providing suitable remote education they should first raise their concerns with the teacher or headteacher and, failing that, report the matter to Ofsted.”
On laptops, he said: “We’ve purchased more than one million laptops and tablets and have already delivered over 560,000 of those to schools and local authorities with an extra 100,000 being distributed this week alone. By the end of next week, we will have delivered three-quarters-of-a-million devices.”
Gavin Williamson also said that GCSEs, A-levels and AS-level exams will not go ahead.
He told MPs: “Last year, all four nations of the United Kingdom found their arrangements for awarding grades did not deliver what they needed, with the impact felt painfully by students and their parents.
“Although exams are the fairest way we have of assessing what a student knows, the impact of this pandemic now means that it is not possible to have these exams this year.
“I can confirm that GCSEs, A-levels and AS-level exams will not go ahead this summer. This year, we’re going to put our trust in teachers, rather than algorithms.”
