Government uses emergency powers to compel schools to teach online
The Department for Education has established a new legal duty for all schools to provide online learning. The unexpected move has been put forward by the government to establish pupils’ rights to home learning, despite the overwhelming majority of schools already having implemented contextualised online learning provision since the beginning of lockdown in March.
The DfE has implemented temporary continuity directions requiring schools to ‘provide remote education to pupils’. See the temporary continuing directions.
Lack of evidence based approach
This policy appears to be another example of reactive measures which haven’t taken into account views from the chalkface or evidence on whether this approach is effective. There is only an extremely limited evidence-base of what works regarding online learning, much of which is dependent on access to broadband and appropriate IT equipment.The EEF released a rapid evidence assessment as schools turned to online learning in April but acknowledged that the evidence used did not parallel the circumstances schools were facing with covid-19.
In May, Amanda Spielman, Ofsted Chief Inspector, said “When calls have been made for Ofsted to inspect home learning, I have been very clear that there are no standards to judge against and little clarity over what schools are required to do in these extraordinary circumstances.”
To date there has been little guidance or support for schools on this issue – with the DfE only publishing guidance on ‘Remote education good practice’ yesterday as they implemented the legal directive. While it has been said that Ofsted Inspections from January will include checking what home learning schools have in place there has been no expectations set for what this should consist of or how schools will be judged.
Issues with online access
As schools have been providing remote education since lockdown began, issues have already emerged with schools in disadvantaged areas having to find alternative ways to support children who did not have access to devices at home, and where devices could be provided did not have internet provision to be able to access online learning. The Department for Education has failed to support these schools, with the only provision around digital access being a scheme for Y10 pupils to receive laptops. This provision has not been particularly effective as many schools experienced huge delays and didn’t receive the laptops until the summer, often in amounts much lower than their cohorts required. A further programme to provide laptops to those self isolating has been criticised by schools as not meeting the need and only being accessible under specific circumstances.
Damaging to the profession
That the requirement has come into force as a new legal duty is incredibly damaging to the teaching profession who have been working hard to provide online learning over the last six months. Several teaching unions have stated very bluntly that there was no need for the government to implement this as a legal duty. The new legislation strongly implies that schools haven’t been fulfilling this obligation and minimises the efforts that schools and teachers have made, working hard to provide this without any effective guidance over the last six months.
This is a further example of the lack of consultation with the teaching profession and lack of joined up thinking from those in charge of education policy. Schools North East is committed to lobbying the government on these issues and to supporting schools input to effective policy making whenever possible.
Support for schools
To help schools to develop and refine their online learning provision, Schools North East has developed a resource for Blended Learning in our Ednorth Hub on ConncectEd – our online community for North East schools. This is a completely free platform for North East school staff. Visit ConnectEd to register or login to access our resources.
