Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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849. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the qualifying criteria for technology assistance for students. [21733/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As part of a package of COVID-19 supports for the higher and further education sectors, my Department has allocated €15 million to higher and further education providers for a Once-Off COVID-19 Grant to support disadvantaged students in accessing ICT devices.

This initiative addresses concerns regarding the digital divide in the context of the shift to online and blended models of learning, which were identified by a range of stakeholders in the context of the COVID-19 structures put in place to co-ordinate responses among the further and higher education sectors.

Devices procured using the grant will be distributed by the relevant Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Education and Training Boards(ETBs) via appropriate lending schemes. The education institutions are best placed to determine which individual students should be prioritised to receive a device on a needs basis and within the terms and conditions of the scheme.

In determining distribution of the devices, HEIs are required to have regard to the target groups identified in the National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2015-2021 i.e.:

- Students disadvantaged by socio-economic barriers

- First-time mature students

- Students with disabilities

- Part-time/flexible learning students

- Students who hold further education qualifications

- Students who are members of the Traveller and Roma communities

HEIs and ETBs must be satisfied that students who receive a device under this grant have demonstrated a verifiable need for such a device e.g. they or their family do not have the means to purchase such a device themselves.