As both adults and children prepare to exchange unwanted Christmas presents, such as games for computers at retail shops all over the UK, one charity is highlighting the fact that over a million schoolchildren still don’t have access to a computer away from school.
A new study by the E-learning Foundation suggests that at least one million children are being held back in their studies by a lack of computer access. The foundation states it is almost always children from poor families who find access to computers most difficult with only 40% of the poorest families in the UK having a home computer.
Valerie Thompson, the chief executive of the E-Learning Foundation, whose aim is to ensure every schoolchild in the UK has access to the internet at home, said “For those at school, this translates into very tangible disadvantages when it comes to completing homework, researching topics, independent learning, and communicating with teachers and classmates on the school learning platform.
“Without a computer with the internet, this attainment gap measured by the E-Learning Foundation that characterises children from low income families will only get worse”
She asked that more fortunate families bear in mind the struggles that some of their children’s classmates experience in trying to keep up with their homework without a computer at home. Of course for those families who do have a computer at home, household insurance is always a good idea, with many insurance providers offering cover away from the home if the computer is a laptop.
There has been no official response from the Government so far who recently supplied figures saying a quarter of a million schoolchildren from the poorest backgrounds had actually been provided with home computers through the scheme.