Question reference: S6W-05712
- Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 14 January 2022
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Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 January 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the proportion of school pupils to whom it has (a) issued a free digital device and (b) provided free internet connection at home.
Answer
In 2020-21, as a response to the pandemic and the closure of school buildings, we provided £25 million to councils across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion. This resulted in over 72,000 devices and 14,000 internet connectivity solutions being distributed to disadvantaged pupils across Scotland to support their learning. 72,000 equates to 10.3% of pupils.
These figures do not include devices that will have been distributed from local authorities via their own programmes or any additional COVID funding. However, COSLA have reported that 122,000 devices (including the 72,000 funded by the Scottish Government) have now been distributed.
In addition, since May 2020, the Scottish Government has invested over £48 million in the Connecting Scotland programme which has resulted in 60,000 digitally excluded people being brought online.