Created on: 08 Oct 2021 | Last modified: 20 Apr 2023
To coincide with Challenge Poverty week, the EIS has launched a new briefing for EIS members on Digital Poverty. This is part of the EIS’s continuing impact of poverty in education campaign.
For some time, we have been raising concerns about the unequal access among school pupils to the devices and internet connectivity, and in terms of digital literacy skills, to enable full participation in digital-based learning.
The 2015 Face Up to Child Poverty publication highlighted the difficulties that young people from the poorest backgrounds face in engaging with homework activities that require internet research, either because they have no access to a computer at home or because access to the internet is limited or non-existent at home.
During the pandemic, levels of poverty have increased and the greater reliance on digital learning further exacerbated the impact of the digital divide on young people whose families are on low income.
This briefing is the first in a series that will culminate in the publication later this session, of refreshed advice on how EIS members might seek to mitigate the impact of poverty in the classroom and the wider school.
