Manifesto proposals for education and digital environment

When policymakers focus on issues of the day there is excessive time spent on arguing for a pecking order that trades off children’s protection, participation and privacy online. In doing so, they can forget the purposes of pedagogy and learning in the digital environment. There is a DfE strategy on edTech but it’s all about the technology, companies and exports. While those are important, there is no parallel vision for a long-term consistent approach for children in the digital environment in education. We offer ours, based on the prioritisation of people, not products first.

Children cannot put their education on pause, while policymakers get this right. Now is the time for all politicians to make commitments to education, fit for the future.

We also need a trustworthy digital environment for school staff as employers and employees. The sector needs support to manage recruitment and retention as never before. Digital literacy and digital citizenship skills and training are now vital competencies for all, not an add-on for pupils taking computing or ICT classes.

We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and discussing it across the sector. We hope the next government will put it into action.

Read the manifesto here