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Research carried out by the IT magazine, Computeractive, on behalf of the National Computing Day campaign found that 80 per cent of teachers surveyed strongly felt the Government should make investing in IT equipment a priority, whilst nearly eight out of 10 teachers felt that if more IT equipment were available, it would enable them to teach their pupils better.
The survey also found that the Local Education Authorities are held to blame by 70 per cent of teachers for not providing them with enough IT training to teach classes sufficiently, resulting in 91 per cent of teachers having been in the situation where pupils know more about IT than them.
Two years ago, Prime Minister Tony Blair piloted a new scheme in several schools where laptops were given to all teachers and pupils to help them work and learn more effectively. Although this scheme is being extended across the UK, of the 500 schools involved in the National Computing Day survey, nearly 80 per cent of the teachers felt that it would be beneficial to be supplied with more IT equipment now.
Zoë Rouch, of the National Computing Day organisation, said: "As we become a digital democracy, the role of computing in schools and colleges is increasingly important."
The UK risks being further overtaken by other countries that are placing IT education at the forefront of their curriculum. Countries building strong IT skilled workforces include: India, China and Russia.
The Indian Government already spends a large portion of its annual education budget on IT education and has recently committed several million dollars to a new project to increase the scope of those learning IT skills to rural areas.
Mr Ananth, a Director of IIT Madras, said this latest project would serve as an "information clearing house" for all Indian educational institutions interested in technology-enhanced learning. He said the IIT hopes to eventually offer more than 200 academic courses online and narrow the "significant digital divide" that exists in India.
The IT sector in China, which is attempting to undercut Indian IT in cost, is expected to double in size to $242 billion and account for three per cent of its GDP over the next five years.
It is estimated twenty million new jobs in IT will be created during this period. The Chinese Government is dramatically stepping up funding to expand its postsecondary education system in IT in response.
The UK's Department for Education and Skills (DfES) recently revealed the average secondary school spent £76,000 on IT in the past year, and has a pupil to computer ratio of 6:1.
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Richard Powell, © Shout99.com 2002
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