As the government invests to level up internet access in rural primary schools, hundreds of thousands of students who live in the country will benefit from lessons enabled by enhanced digital connections.
Students in classrooms from Cornwall to Cumbria will benefit from full fiber broadband capable of delivering up to 1,000 megabits per second thanks to a joint £82 million investment from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Department for Education (DfE), it was announced today.
As a result, even if numerous classes are utilizing the internet at once, an estimated 500,000 primary school students will be able to do so uninterrupted.
They will gain from having access to a constantly expanding library of online resources designed to make classes more enjoyable and engaging, as well as the ability to connect with others anywhere in the world to learn from one another.
Up to 3,000 qualifying schools will have the opportunity to adopt modern working practices over the course of the next three years, saving money and lightening the workload of frontline staff.
The program will pay for the costs of rewiring remote schools that are currently dependent on antiquated copper lines and are unlikely to be linked by commercial rollout.
Nadine Dorries, the digital secretary, said:
The environment in which kids are raised shouldn’t dictate the educational possibilities available to them.
Today, we’re announcing millions of pounds to upgrade rural schools’ access to the best instruction by installing lightning-fast broadband connections.
Digital technology has revolutionized teaching, and we need to make sure that all students can take advantage of the opportunities it presents.
Robin Walker, the education minister, said:
For schools to be able to give students the greatest experience possible, high-speed, dependable internet is essential.
Through increased access to children’s online resources or quick, high-quality video streaming, this initiative will open up a world of opportunities for schools and instructors in difficult-to-reach locations.
The importance of connectivity in schools has never been greater, and this welcome investment adds to the program of Wi-Fi and connectivity upgrades that we are doing through our Priority Education Investment Areas.
Project Gigabit has already connected The Acorns and Whitley Village Federated School in Ellesmere Port to gigabit broadband, according to Russell David, the school’s head.
Our students now feel closer than ever to one another, their teachers, and our community.
The Connect the Classroom program’s fantastic new WiFi and gigabit broadband have allowed us to revolutionize the way we teach using the most up-to-date educational technology, giving students and staff access to a vast library of new tools and resources that will help them thrive and engage with the curriculum. Fast, reliable connectivity is essential in today’s classrooms.
We can now join the rest of the Rowan Learning Trust in this exciting journey without being limited by our remote location.
The DCMS GigaHubs program, which is a component of Project Gigabit, the government’s £5 billion initiative to bring ultra-rapid, dependable broadband to hard-to-reach areas of the UK, will provide funding for up to 2,000 schools.
Up to 7,000 rural public facilities, including schools, GP offices, libraries, and other public buildings, will be connected as part of the project.
By bringing gigabit connections (1,000 megabits per second) to the center of communities, the new infrastructure will encourage additional investment in difficult-to-reach locations and provide “hubs” from which the commercial sector can connect neighboring residences and companies.
As part of their goal to provide high-speed internet connectivity to every school in England by 2025, DfE will support an additional 1,000 schools.
The DfE is also investing £30 million in the pilot project “Connect the Classroom,” which aims to upgrade technology in thousands of more schools in priority areas. As a result, students will gain access to fast Wi-Fi and cloud services as well as the ability to connect with peers, experts, and specialists in other nations via live video calling.
In 24 of the nation’s Priority Education Investment Areas, where educational outcomes are the worst and support is being prioritized, the government is investing in “Connect the Classroom.”
The government’s efforts to achieve net zero are supported by the provision of new gigabit bandwidth, which enables schools to abandon inefficient locally hosted servers in favor of more effective and secure cloud data storage, services, and equipment.