AQW 9694/17-22

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 04/11/2020
Answered On Date: 13/11/2020
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education (i) what additional funding has been provided to schools for (a) personal protective equipment; and (b) the provision of remote learning since they reopened; and (ii) what the average is for each, per school in Northern Ireland.

Answer:

(i) (a) My Department has allocated £13.5 million of additional funding to grant aided schools for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on a per pupil basis. Details of the individual allocations to schools are available on the Education Authority's website.

(b) Funding to support remote learning is not provided on an individual school basis as it is better value for money for digital devices and other services to be procured centrally. My Department has allocated the following funds to support the provision of remote learning:

£2.4 million to support the expansion of bandwidth in particularly low bandwidth areas, and also for the procurement of additional learning applications to support remote learning;

£2.2 million for the purchase of 8,000 Chromebooks for disadvantaged or vulnerable learners;

£2 million for laptops for primary pupils for disadvantaged or vulnerable learners;

£0.2 million for 8,000 WIFI vouchers for disadvantaged or vulnerable learners; and

£25k for MIFI Units (i.e. Mobile WIFI dongles) for disadvantaged or vulnerable learners.

The costs provided do not include the cost of internal staffing resources within the Department and its arm’s length bodies involved in developing resources and guidance for schools to support remote learning.

(ii) Funding for remote learning is managed centrally by the Education Authority and is not distributed on a per school basis. It is therefore not possible to provide an average cost per school. The average funding allocated to grant aided schools for PPE (albeit on a per pupil basis) is £12,487 per school.