With the exam season looming, hundreds of thousands of young people are logging on to internet revision sites to help them with their preparation. But the e-Learning Foundation is warning that the 1m children who cannot go online at home are being increasingly disadvantaged and risk falling behind.

Latest figures from the BBC suggest that 1.2m teenagers log on to its revision pages every week and last year there were over 20 million weekly page views. Evidence suggests that online revision tools make a real difference to pupils’ exam results. A research report for the BBC found that those regularly using online resources were on average likely to achieve a grade higher in their exams.

Intel’s free maths and science website, www.skoool.co.uk, expects an enormous peak of usage during the summer term. Last year it received more than 6 million page views in the month of May, more than 3 times higher than in other school terms.

And a report by the Fischer Family Trust for online resources company SAM Learning also found that there is a positive relationship between the use of e-learning and students’ progress. Over half of all online work is conducted outside school hours and June usage levels are three times that of February.

The e-Learning Foundation is encouraged by the fact that so many young people are benefitting from online revision resources but is warning schools that they need to act to ensure those who cannot currently get online are given the support they need. It suggests that the current emphasis on traditional resources including textbooks and ICT suites needs to be balanced with online resources and portable technology that can be used at home as well as in the classroom.

Parents too need to be encouraged and helped to make provision for their children to have the opportunity to access these invaluable resources via a computer and Broadband.

Commenting, Valerie Thompson (Chief Executive, e-Learning Foundation), said:

“The figures demonstrate how hard young people are working for their exams at this time of year. Yet without home access to the Internet many pupils struggle to complete their homework and coursework and, at this time of year, miss out on the benefits of online revision sites.

“The digital divide is having a truly damaging impact on children’s prospects and causing the most disadvantaged to fall even further behind.

“We know that online revision sites can help young people to get the best possible results. But we have to tackle the digital divide so that all young people can benefit from the opportunities that online learning has to offer.”