• silicon.com
• Management
• CIO Insights

By editorial@silicon.com, 29 August 2002 18:00

COMMENT News that the average secondary school spends £76,300 per year on IT is causing a few eyebrows to rise - not least in the silicon.com office. Even as a bunch of relative whipper-snappers - average age about 30 - we could count on the fingers of two hands the number of computers we ever saw during our time in secondary education. Other figures that caused an 'it wasn't like that in my day' reaction included a pupil to computer ratio of 6:1 in secondary education and 80 per cent of teachers saying they are confident using computers as a teaching aid. Back in the day, the maths teacher drew the short straw because of a connection with numeracy and was sent on a two day course. It's all changed now (see: http://www.silicon.com/a55325 for more on the latest research by the Department for Education and Skills). While any figures released by the government should be looked at carefully - if not taken with a pinch of salt - the headline stats here are impressive. The UK education sector has come in for plenty of criticism in the past where IT is concerned - largely due to underfunding and a lack serious planning on the best ways to implement IT strategies as part of a national curriculum. But the time may have come to doff our old school caps (as opposed to 'old skool caps'- we're not that 'new media'). Of course it's not all careful planning. Any agony aunt will tell you 'time is a great healer'. The breed of teacher with leather patches on their elbows and chalk dust in their hair have moved on to pastures new. Those for whom an overhead projector was a 'new-fangled nonsense' too far have left the profession - many going to that great staff room in the sky - and younger, more IT aware and tech savvy individuals have moved in. But also the pressures brought to bear by the industry must play a part. A knock-on effect, which started with a call from UK industry for more IT-wise graduates and in turn presented opportunities to A-level students looking for courses, has finally permeated down to the bedrock of the education system. This can clearly be seen by the fact that even primary schools are ploughing through an average IT budget of £15,000 per year these days. This is no guarantee that our schools will soon be churning out hundreds of wanna-be Bill Gates - but at least we're moving in the right direction.