School ICT hit and miss

Despite millions being spent on ICT equipment over the last 12 months, a report has shown the facilities in schools are still not up to scratch.

The Review of Educational Capital, commissioned by the Department for Education and undertaken by group operations director at Dixons, Sebastian James, claimed the disparate nature of ICT funding allocation had led to bad decisions and a lack of consistency across the UK.

"The majority of schools capital investment in ICT has been school-led, which has resulted in a widely varied schools ICT estate, limiting the ability to achieve value for money or provide a consistent quality of ICT experience for learners and staff," the report read.

"Capital programmes have encouraged a strategic approach to ICT expenditure through a model which linked capital investment to revenue expenditure. However, many schools have not progressed beyond an ad-hoc approach to funding and sustaining their ICT."

The report claimed schools were very good at putting ICT as a priority on their capital expenditure agenda. However, institutions had not considered the different lifecycles between ICT refreshes and building maintenance, so fairly new buildings needed quite an overhaul to be deemed suitable for incoming ICT.

"Individual institutions should be allocated an amount of capital to support delivery of small capital works and ICT provision," it recommended. The report added this should be controlled by a "responsible body" representing a number of schools, ensuring a more even spread of resources.

In a letter addressed to Michael Gove, secretary for education, James said: "While the civil servants, local authorities and frontline professionals involved have done their best to administer the system they were asked to use, it is, in my view, the case that the system is not fit for purpose and has been working against them."

John Botham, education director at D-Link and previous advisor to the Government, welcomed the review and offered his own recommendations.

"With the likelihood of reduced LEA support, in the face of budget cuts, ease of use and support for any new equipment will be vital: one computer may be cheaper at purchase but if it is unreliable, complex and comes with little or no warranty, in the long term it will be a huge drain on resources," he said.

"Instead, schools must seek out the equipment that offers the best long-term value. One way of doing this is for schools to have a 3-5 year plan on a leasing deal, which allows for the regular refreshment of kit and includes built in service deals for a fixed-termly amount."