Nearly 6,000 digital devices have been sent out to Fife pupils to enable them to access remote learning – equivalent to one in every eight schoolchildren across the Kingdom.

Fife Council says it has provided 4,639 new laptops and tablets, as well as 1,300 existing school devices that have been reconfigured for working at home, as of the end of last week.

The school term formally began with remote learning on January 11. The return to classrooms has been pushed back from the end of this month to at least mid-February while Scotland remains in lockdown.

The Scottish Government has given councils across the country £200 million to spend on remote learning, part of which can be used to buy digital devices for those without ready access to tablets or laptops for online lessons.

Fife’s education and children services sub-committee heard yesterday (Tuesday) that the council will get back £3.9m – spent recruiting teachers and support staff during the Covid-19 pandemic – from central government funds.

Around £200,000 has been spent on new IT equipment that will also be refunded by Scottish ministers.

Education bosses in Fife say schools are making use of a number of resources – from posting assignments on official education platform Glow to hosting live video lessons between teachers and pupils – to ensure kids can continue learning while schools remain closed to all but the most vulnerable.

However, head of education and children’s services, Angela Logue, says that remote learning is not being limited to online-only measures, despite sending out devices where it can to those who need them.

She said: “Children and young people are being supported by our school leaders, teachers and support staff to get involved in a variety of appropriate learning experiences to help them make progress and develop independent learning skills across the curriculum.

“Remote learning in Fife includes learning experiences that may take place online but also in a range of other ways to allow children and young people to learn through reading, investigating, researching, observing, creating and doing.”

Ms Logue added that the council was allowing teachers to make the decisions on how best to teach their own classes.

“Teachers know their children and young people best, therefore, they continue to have responsibility for the planning, delivery and assessment of remote learning activities as appropriate to the age, stage, learning needs, preferred learning styles and areas of interest of their own classes.

“All children and young people will have an appropriate number of daily tasks relevant to their age, stage and learning needs, taking into consideration the expected time that will be required to complete them.”

The continuation of home learning has been supported by teaching unions, who say schools should only re-open when the level of Covid-19 community transmission – known as the R-rate – stays low.

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said last week: “While home learning brings many challenges for pupils, parents and teachers, the indications are that the vast majority of students are engaging positively via remote learning with appropriate support from teachers, parents and carers.”