INTERNET ACCESS

9 January 2008

Commenting on Jim Knight’s speech on internet access in schools and at home, Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe’s largest teaching union said: 

“The Government must be congratulated for trying to end the digital divide in education. Every youngster should have an equal start in life, and that includes equal access to the internet.

“If more pressure can be put on the providers, then good. However, for many parents living with little or no money coming into the home, being asked to contribute to the purchase of a computer would be impossible.

“Jim Knight has to be far more specific about his goals for real time reporting to parents. We will treat this aspiration with caution. There has to be the hard evidence from a pilot scheme which includes the effects on teachers’ workload before we can accept claims that real time reporting is workload neutral. Until a proper pilot, independently evaluated, happens he cannot claim that there will be no increase in workload”.