The Scottish government has scaled back its 2021 promise to provide a free laptop or other digital device to every pupil in Scotland - a move that education secretary Jenny Gilruth was forced to defend in Parliament today.
She hit back, suggesting that the decision was a consequence of reduced UK government funding for Scotland, while insisting that pupils from less affluent backgrounds would still receive free devices.
The issue was raised by deputy Scottish Conservatives leader Meghan Gallacher, who asked: “Why did the government promise something that they knew they would never be able to deliver?”
Free laptops scheme changed
Ms Gilruth explained that a scheme involving means testing to decide who was now eligible for mobile devices was in “the early stages”.
She stressed that the Scottish government had invested £25 million that had “resulted in 72,000 devices and 14,000 connectivity packages being distributed to disadvantaged learners all over Scotland”.
The 72,000 figure was first reported by Tes Scotland in December 2021.
Ms Gilruth also said that Ms Gallacher’s party, in deciding UK government funding allocations, had had a “direct impact on the spending priorities of this [Scottish] government”, meaning “less funding to go into things like education”.
The “reality”, said Ms Gilruth, was that there was “less money to go round”.
She also confirmed that to “maximise the impact of funding”, the Scottish government would now be “targeting device investment at disadvantaged families with children”, adding: “This approach will improve equity and access to devices and connectivity.”
‘Broken promise after broken promise’
Ms Gallacher accused SNP ministers of “broken promise after broken promise, from failing to close the poverty-related attainment gap to the rollout of free school meals”.
Ms Gilruth described it as “hypocritical” for the Conservative Party to level such criticism when it was responsible at a UK level for reducing funding.
She said that “we have one hand tied behind our back when we want to make spending decisions that affect the outcomes of our children and young people”.
Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie said the Scottish government had in 2021 made a “solemn promise” on free digital devices, and recalled John Swinney, who was education secretary at the time, saying that “these tools are no longer luxuries”.
Mr Rennie added: “So if they are essential, why is the government deprioritising this programme, and why [is it] now means-testing the access to free laptops and devices?”
In response, Ms Gilruth again blamed “decisions taken by governments in other parts of the United Kingdom, governments that the people of this country didn’t vote for”.
For the latest Scottish education news, analysis and features delivered directly to your inbox, sign up to Tes magazine’s The Week in Scotland newsletter
