Half of UK pupils have poor access to ICT and computers, a report by the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) has found.
Internet connectivity was the main barrier for schools, with 65 percent of primary schools and 54 percent of secondary schools stating they were under-resourced in wifi connectivity, the trade association’s survey found.
Caroline Wright, BESA director, said: “British teachers are world-leaders in the use of educational-technology in the classroom so it is of great concern that pupils are being denied access to innovative and effective digital learning because of poor internet connectivity in more than half of the UK’s schools.
“In today’s digital society, classroom connectivity to an online world of knowledge and resources should be a right for every student in their place of learning and not a lottery.”
With the new curriculum in place, 60 percent of schools said extra assessment training for teachers will be necessary for 2015.
Budget boosts
Schools will benefit from 142,000 computers across secondary and primary, BESA says.
That, along with adoption of tablets in the classroom, will give children a better chance at learning core IT skills.
Additionally, ICT budgets are expected to grow, during the year, by almost 6 percent to an average of £14,450 per primary school and by 9 percent, to £64,400 in secondary schools.
A new computer science curriculum for children aged five to 16 that focuses on coding, algorithms and how computers function was brought into UK schools this month.