The Learning and Technology Minister Michael Wills announced at the opening of the BETT 2001 show in Olympia, London last week, that a capital funding boost of £400 million will be spent for new technology in schools over the next three years. This has resulted as new research has shown a direck link between good computer facilities and standards.
The British Educational and Communications Technology Agency BECTa published a report that demonstrated a direct link between good ICT facilities and standards at Key Stage 2. The report entitled Schools of the Future - Achieving Today shows that there is a consistent trend for pupils in schools with better ICT resources to achieve better grades for English, Maths and Science. It also showed that schools that use ICT to support a particular subject, achieved better in that subject than schools that did not use ICT.
Mr Wills also stated that progress was being made towards the National Grid for Learning targets set for 2002, as:
- nine out of ten schools are connected to the internet, compared to over one in ten in 1996
- computer to pupil ratios have improved from 1:17.6 in 1998 to 1:12.6 in prmary schools and from 1:8.7 to 1:7.9 in secondary schools and
- expenditure on ICT by primary schools has risen from an average of £3,600 in 1998 to £8,300. In secondary schools the increase is from £40,100 to £50,100.
Headteachers and teachers also believe that ICT has been important in raising standards in the last two years.
