Albert

The following is an extract of an article from the UK Times Educational Supplement suggesting that money would be better spent on books rather than IT equipment:

"....Mr Hurd, Malcolm Dixon of Liverpool John Moores university, and Joanna Oldham of Liverpool Hope university, have been analysing data collected from more than 6,000 primary schools over three years by Ofsted. They have also surveyed 540 heads.

They have come to the conclusion that spending £100 per pupil on books has a greater impact on average test scores across English, maths and science than the same amount spent on ICT or staffing.

They found the average key stage 2 test score was 27.5 and estimated that schools which spent £100 per pupil on books raised test scores from an average 27.5 to 27.9 or 1.5 per cent per child. This compared to £100 on ICT which would raise scores by 0.72 per cent per child."

Full link and a related article in The Register:

http://www.tes.co.uk/section/story/?story_id=2233918&window_type=print

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/22/computers_dumbas/