Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what requirements or guidelines her Department issues on the reference or inclusion of digital and online resources in the curriculum (a) in general and (b) for students without access to broadband at home.

Nick Gibb

The National Curriculum, introduced from September 2014, focuses on the essential knowledge that teachers should teach, not on how they should teach it.

Schools are best placed to decide which resources meet their needs and to secure these accordingly. Wherever possible, the development of new resources and training should be sector-led, with schools prioritising their use of funding in their budgets in order to best exploit the opportunities offered by the new National Curriculum.

The Government is in favour of schools embracing digital technology in order to improve educational outcomes. We want to see schools making informed decisions about what and how technology will best meet their specific needs, keeping in mind that pedagogy should drive the use of technology.

Where teachers use digital resources in the curriculum, we would expect them to take into account the circumstances of all pupils and make appropriate provision for those without access to broadband at home.