Is Home-Schooling Widening the Class Divide?
Lack of access to resources leaves those with disadvantaged background at a loss through no fault of their own
The closure of schools across the UK has left students and parents trying to implement home-schooling with the resources available to them at home, with varying degrees of success. With no proper structure having been outlined by the Government, schools have been left to their own devices on how to continue educating their students at home.
A disparity is emerging between private and state schools, with pupils of the latter seemingly missing out on support compared to the former. Those of ethnic minority and those from poorer and working class backgrounds will suffer the most; perhaps because they lack the proper resources or because they have parents who work anti-social shifts and are therefore unable to support their home education fully. Children in these circumstances experience this disadvantage unfairly for reasons outside of their control.
To help disadvantaged students at home, last week the Government announced they will provide laptops and 4G routers to those families who do not have internet access.
Leading UK tutoring service MyTutor, similarly, hope to support all pupils, and aim to level the playing field of home-schooling by launching a free Online School which is packed with support.
The platform offers daily live group tutorials on key topics and new resources are added every day. Current offerings provide GCSE module tutorials, with Key-Stage 3 and A-Level modules in development. Pre-recorded videos focussing on popular topics are also uploaded to MyTutor’s YouTube channel regularly, across a wide range of subjects, but are currently centred around the core subjects: Maths, the three Sciences and English.
Pupils working in isolation from home because of containment measures could face learning challenges at a critical period. Fortunately, online platforms can be accessed in a convenient and hygienic way across the UK, assisting schools, teachers and pupils as they work from home.
