BT announces ‘Lockdown Learning’ support scheme
January 8, 2021
BT is increasing its effort to enable school kids to better connect with teachers and online learning, while schools remain closed, with the launch of its ‘Lockdown Learning’ support scheme.
Unlimited free mobile data will be made available to those EE and BT Mobile customers eligible for the Department for Education’s Get Help with Technology programme, rather than the 20GB previously announced. BT is also offering free BT WiFi vouchers to schools and charity partners to pass on to parents and carers of children lacking the connectivity they need to access home schooling digital resources.
Marc Allera, CEO of BT Group’s Consumer division said: “As a national champion, we want to ensure no one is left behind while face-to-face teaching is on hold. That’s why we’re launching our ‘Lockdown Learning’ support scheme, which offers a number of different ways for disadvantaged school children to get connectivity support, across both our fixed and mobile networks.
“We’ve been working closely with the DfE since the start of the pandemic, to help get kids connected, and we’re now stepping up our partnership to offer unlimited data, as well as working harder on getting free WiFi passes into the hands of those families and kids that need them. We’re also aiming to zero rate some of the most popular learning portals this month, to ensure critical learning can continue even when data access runs out. We’ll reveal more on this in the coming week,” he added.