In the seventh in a series of blog posts, Dr Verity Jones, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education and Childhood at UWE, and Online Project Lead considers some of the challenges families from disadvantaged groups are facing in lockdown and what is needed to combat these inequalities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nine weeks in…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026 here in England things are changing. We\u2019re\nnow allowed to sit in a park and have a picnic. We can have as much exercise as\nwe like and even go to garden centres. The first steps of returning to\n\u2018normality\u2019 are tentatively taking shape. However, the outlook for young people\nto return to schools and colleges is not on the horizon and our youth continue\nto be home schooled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some youngsters home schooling is working.\nLessons are emailed in, downloaded and supported by parents and carers.\nHowever, there has been and continues to be a disproportionate impact of\nCovid19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Home schooling has been dominated by online access.\nWeek after week we welcome more organisations supporting online learning with\nfree access to their resources, daily online activities and a social media\nfrenzy of ideas to keep young people engaged while stuck at home. This blog has\ndone its fair share of sharing such websites. But what about those who haven\u2019t\ngot access to the internet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, the Good Law Project<\/a> has argued that the reliance on online learning during lockdown is illegally disadvantaging<\/a> some young learners who don\u2019t have access to tablets and laptops and inadequate broadband. If hardware is available it may be shared by the family and pupils won\u2019t have access to it for school work when they need it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Add to this how greater numbers of lower income\nfamilies, in what tend to be more densely\npopulated homes, are having to turn to food banks. Those pupils who would\nnormally receive free school meals are having to negotiate new systems and\npressures to ensure they have food. In\nsuch circumstances it is not surprising that these groups have been the most\nharshly hit by the virus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Covid19 has shown the reality of inequality in the\nUK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the coming weeks it is essential that\neducational inequalities are addressed else the most vulnerable will become yet\nmore vulnerable. But what intervention would work? Many schools are reporting\ndistributing laptops and tablets to their most disadvantaged pupils, but this\ndoesn\u2019t ensure there is access to broadband or even electricity to support\nthem. This cannot be the answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our most disadvantaged learners need a clear and supported educational strategy to ensure that the gap in achievement is not increased; every individual needs to be supported in order to meet their potential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reopening schools as soon as possible is not the answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It needs to be safe for both pupils and staff. Once back, the gaps need to be assessed and the curriculum adjusted. Reform is essential in order to rebalance teacher workload and improve the retention of our teachers so consistency can be maintained for our learners. Reform is essential to rethink the exams and assessments undertaken at all school stages and take account of the inequalities the pandemic has accentuated. We cannot just expect the gaps to grow and mind them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our\neducation system needs to be right for all, not just for some. It is failing\nand will continue to fail if systematic change does not occur. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Verity Jones is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Online Learning Project Lead and Acting Associate Head of Department for Learning, Teaching and Student Experience.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow Dr Verity Jones on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Equality of learning in lockdown \u2026 In the seventh in a series of blog posts, Dr Verity Jones, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education and Childhood at UWE, and Online Project Lead considers some of the challenges families from disadvantaged groups are facing in lockdown and what is needed to combat these inequalities. Nine … Continue reading “Keep calm and carry on learning – Part 7”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,2,199,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-inequalities","category-education-policy","category-home-learning","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":598,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595\/revisions\/598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}