BT has announced it will increase support for families learning from home by adding zero rating of Oak National Academy content to its ‘Lockdown Learning’ support scheme by the end of January. The content will be free for all EE, BT Mobile, and Plusnet Mobile customers, while face to face teaching is paused.
The partnership follows hot on the heels of BT’s announcement last week that it will zero rate BBC Bitesize content. By the end of the month customers of EE, BT Mobile and Plusnet Mobile accessing online lessons in Oak National Academy’s virtual classroom or on BBC Bitesize, can watch as many online lessons as they need, even if they have run out of data.
Marc Allera, CEO BT Group’s Consumer division said: “We’re rapidly boosting our ‘Lockdown Learning’ support scheme by zero rating access to BBC Bitesize and now Oak National Academy for all our mobile customers.
“Our inclusive support package means families that need it most can get help to keep learning, with unlimited data, free access to our 5 million WiFi hotspots and now free access to the two most popular educational resources.
And to make sure that we are keeping children across the whole of the UK connected, we’re also asking Ministers in Wales, Scotland and NI to work with us on offering Unlimited data for eligible customers, as well as potential zero rating of other regionalised educational resources.”
BT is doing all it can to help support the nation during lockdown. Last week it unveiled its ‘Lockdown Learning’ support scheme, working with the Department for Education to ensure school children can continue to learn online while face to face learning is paused. BT will be giving those children who need it most unlimited mobile data as well as handing out thousands of free WiFi vouchers to schools and charity partners to distribute to families without an internet connection. The vouchers give access to the internet via BT’s five million WiFi Hotspots across the UK.