Question reference: S6W-10017
- Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 27 July 2022
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Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 August 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils in (a) Stirling, (b) Clackmannanshire, (c) Perth and Kinross and (d) Fife have received a free laptop, Chromebook or tablet to date to use at school and at home.
Answer
The following table shows how many devices have been distributed by councils to school aged children using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020/21.
Local Authority | Devices Distributed |
Stirling | 1794 |
Clackmannanshire | 828 |
Perth and Kinross | 1507 |
Fife | 5465 |
Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to the provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets.
The latest information we have from councils indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland. This includes 72,000 provided as a result of Scottish Government funding.
The Scottish Government are committed to ensuring every school-aged child has access to a device to support their learning by the end of this Parliament.