To ask the Minister of Education what resources have been allocated to the provision of remote learning in the event of further disruption and remote learning becoming necessary over the next few months.

My Department has asked schools to have contingency plans in place for the delivery of remote learning in the event of a school closure, or that a class or group of pupils need to self-isolate.

Practical advice and support is available to schools on remote learning from their COVID-19 Link Officer and from both the Education and Training Inspectorate and Education Authority more generally.

In addition, my Department has provided guidance for schools on both Remote Learning and Curriculum Planning and Blended Learning for 2020/21. Further resources, guidance materials and case studies have also been produced by my Department’s Continuity of Learning Project.

EA has developed a website to host resources and to provide access to a range of online Teacher Professional Learning sessions on issues pertinent to the COVID-19 context. New resources are being added on a regular basis over coming weeks and months.

We are fortunate in Northern Ireland that schools have access to a centrally provided IT system - C2K. This has supported online access to school services from the beginning of the COVID-19 school closures. Additional funding has been provided to EA to continue to improve the services available, including a number of additional learning applications and upgrading the bandwidth in specific areas.

My Department’s scheme to provide IT devices and WIFI access (vouchers or MiFi devices) to our educationally disadvantaged and vulnerable learners to support access to remote learning has distributed over 8,500 devices and remains open.