Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Deferred
Commission guidance and establish a kitemarking scheme for online educational apps and websites.
Conclusion
The next Government must commission guidance for parents and schools on the educational value of purported educational websites and apps within a year. They should also support a kitemarking scheme for educational resources found online in the first year of the new Parliament to enable parents to quickly identify the best educational resources online for their children. The next Government should engage with tech companies to encourage them to introduce standards for the use of educational labels and to remove apps which do not offer educational benefit. (Paragraph 62) Screen time: impacts on education and wellbeing 49 Digital literacy curriculum
Government response summary AI-generated
The government deflected, stating it is building evidence on online impacts and that Ofcom will report on app stores and age assurance regarding harmful content, but did not commit to commissioning guidance or supporting a kitemarking scheme for educational value.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
DfE is already working to improve the evidence base around EdTech products and services for schools, working with industry and educational experts. Since the committee’s report was published, we have appointed the Chartered College of Teaching (CCT) to develop criteria for evaluating EdTech evidence based on its effectiveness for teaching and learning. Setting standards and piloting their use in assessing products is the first stage in any process of using evidence to evaluate and communicate—via a quality mark—the efficacy of EdTech products. DfE has published a big-tech backed set of AI safety expectations, outlining capabilities and features GenAI systems and tools should aim towards to be considered safe for users in education. DfE does not actively back or mandate individual products, because we believe that it is up to educational establishments to decide what technology they need to meet their requirements in relation to their educational contexts and circumstances. Digital literacy curriculum
Read the full response on Parliament ↗