Brussels, (Brussels Morning)- While the availability of digital devices for both teachers and students is increasing, a quarter of secondary school students are not allowed to take a school laptop home in the evening. This is apparent from a survey by the Education Inspectorate among 7,500 directors, teachers, students and parents that was conducted at the end of last school year.
During the corona crisis, it became clear that Flemish education was lagging behind in terms of digitization. The Flemish government has therefore made half a billion available for investments in, among other things, ICT policy, digital learning materials, training and ICT devices.
Halfway through the roll-out of this ‘Digisprong’, a large majority of schools say they have a vision of ICT that is geared to the context and input of the school. Nevertheless, there are still some pain points here and there. For example, many schools indicate that they do not always have an effective strategy to realise this digital vision. It is also not always clear to parents how their child uses digital devices in the classroom.
Although more than half of the pupils in secondary education have their own digital device, the survey shows that this is by no means the case for all pupils. In principle, they receive a laptop from the school, but almost three in ten students (27.6 percent) indicate that the device must remain at school. This means that those students cannot do homework on the laptop they received from school.
It is striking that pupils from vocational education in particular are not allowed to take their laptop home with them as much. In the third grade of secondary education, even 62.5 percent have to leave their laptop behind at school. This is a problem, since BSO students also have to share a device with other family members more often than students from ASO and TSO. “Those students are at risk of digitally falling by the wayside,” according to the Education Inspectorate.
“Although families who do not have internet access at home are also the minority in this survey, they are still present. We therefore advise that schools take into account the existing differences between students in their ICT policy.”
