New Teacher Tapp data finds significant decrease in access to devices in England’s schools

Teacher Tapp, a daily survey app gathering insights from teachers in England, has found that access to devices in classrooms has fallen in the last three years.

When asked in May 2025 if they had access to various devices, 26 percent of teachers said their whole class had access to Windows desktop PCs, down from 36 percent in October 2022.

A similar trend was seen with access to Windows laptops - with 27 percent of teachers sharing their whole class had access to these devices in May 2025, down from 34 percent in October 2022. 

On access to Google Chromebooks, 34 percent of teachers said their whole class had access to these in 2022 and this had fallen to 32 percent by May 2025. In 2022, 42 percent of teachers said their class had access to iPad tablets, which had again fallen to 36 percent in 2025.

In 2022, just 4 percent of Teacher Tapp respondents said their class did not have access to any of the digital devices listed in the survey. By 2025 this has increased to 12 percent.

Teacher Tapp said the figures for secondary schools were slightly higher, with 17 percent stating their class would not have access to any of the devices listed in May 2025, up from 7 percent in 2022.

While private schools were more likely to have access to devices than state schools, the data also shows that schools with the highest proportion of students in receipt of free school meals are more likely to have whole-class sets of devices than schools with lower proportions of these students.

Teacher Tapp suggested two reasons for the declining access to digital devices. Firstly, it noted that schools have faced funding pressure in the past three years which has led to devices not being replaced at end-of-life. 

Secondly, Teacher Tapp accepted that a different device, not listed on its survey, is being widely used in schools. 

Founded by two former teachers, Teacher Tapp is a survey app that asks teachers, mainly in England, three questions each day. It has more than 10,000 users and aims to help the government and education businesses better understand teacher views.