Expelled, imprisoned, excluded: we’re creating a digital underclass​

An EdTech entrepreneur has called for more effort to be made ensuring fewer people are excluded from education.
James Tweed’s comments were made in connection with International Day of Education which is this Wednesday, 24 January and has the 2024 theme ‘learning for lasting peace’.

Tweed is CEO of King’s Award-winning digital learning company Coracle, based in Cambridge, which provides inmates at 86 prisons in England and Wales with access to education in their cells through laptops.

He said: “It is a sad fact that there are still many people in the world who are excluded from education. The negative impacts of this are the root of many of society’s problems.

“A lack of education is closely associated with criminal behaviour. Many of the people I meet in prison were excluded from school. Proportionally, there are also far more people with learning disabilities among the prison population than there are in the population as a whole.

“We must never give up on people who, for whatever reason, struggle within the education system. We must also make special efforts to ensure those who are hardest to reach in society gain access to learning and skills. The more we do to improve education for all, the fewer problems the world will have.

“I hope on International Day of Education we spare a thought for those who often lack access to education such as prisoners, the homeless and those on the margins of society.”