Teaching in further education can often feel like a war on many fronts. Throughout the academic year, there is a definitive push and pull between different priorities – I often hear colleagues describe how they are "battling" with one thing or another. 

In a normal year, the initial skirmishes in the early months give way to a period of relative stability after the Christmas break. This allows those on the front line to dig in, entrenching themselves in preparation for the big push towards the end of the academic year. 

However, this status quo was broken in the 2019-20 academic year: a new adversary emerged in the form of Covid-19 and the focus of battle shifted onto new fronts. In March, when we entered a period of lockdown, most academic staff did an excellent job of quickly adapting to the situation, embraced new technologies and moved learning online. 

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Digital poverty hiding in plain sight

While this was largely successful, it did shine the spotlight on a new challenge: digital poverty. It is a challenge for which we have, largely, been ill-prepared. The problem is, digital poverty isn’t a new issue – it’s been building for years now, hidden in plain sight.

However, it has never really been a main priority. You see, FE providers – colleges, in particular – have always been excellent at ensuring their students have access to the equipment they need. Computers, internet access, specialist software and hardware is all readily available – although it must be said, not always in abundance. 

When we entered lockdown, digital poverty, masked by the accessible equipment in college buildings, suddenly became very apparent. It was clear that some students were being left behind, excluded and marginalised at an alarming rate. The Office for National Statistics found that 700,000 individuals in the UK, aged between 11 and 18, have no access to the internet via PC or tablet device while 60,000 young people have no access to the internet at all. For these individuals then, the initial lockdown period was likely a very difficult time. 

While some young people struggled through the best they could – I have heard reports of young people walking to the nearest wi-fi hotspot, just to send an email to their tutors – many are likely to have just given up. DfE officials said that the attainment gap – the disparity in achievement of students from high and low socioeconomic status backgrounds – could be widened by up to 75 per cent by the Covid-19 outbreak.

This could be a devastating blow for some regions of the country. Not least the North East, where the attainment gap is already the highest in England. Beyond lost learning, this initial period of lockdown also likely meant isolation from friends and the loss of the support and safeguarding networks provided by FE colleges.

A far-reaching issue

This academic year, we have returned to a semi-normal state. Like a lot of others around the country, my colleagues and I are currently working on a blended learning format: face-to-face lessons to reduced class sizes, with others engaging online. While this in no way eliminates the issue of digital poverty, it does at least mitigate against it somewhat.

However, as I sit here typing this, I am hyper-aware we are now at a crucial point and the potential for another full-scale lockdown is a very real possibility. For some of our students, this could completely preclude them from accessing education – somewhere in the region of 15 per cent of my students do not have a suitable device or internet connection at home, to allow them to engage in remote learning.

A young person being unable to access education, because of their socioeconomic status, seems to fly against the overarching ethos of further education. I have always seen FE colleges as emancipatory institutions, providing a fulcrum for social mobility. While colleges and FE providers will no doubt try their best to ensure no learner is left behind, we need to recognise that they are not omnipotent and the agency they have to improve the lives of their students is finite. The issue of digital poverty is far-reaching and a much bigger issue than the sector can tackle alone.

My colleagues and I on the front lines will no doubt continue to face our own battles. However, these seem somewhat trivial when compared to the fight against poverty faced by some of our students – poverty that serves to marginalise them from society and preclude them from the opportunities most of us take for granted.

Lee Robinson is a lecturer at NCG’s Newcastle College