AV channel to make Budget gains
Channel players set to benefit from Budget wind-fall
The audiovisual (AV) channel could be set for a chunk of the extra funding that Gordon Brown pledged to the education sector in last month’s Budget.
The Chancellor said that annual investment in state schools will rise from £5.65bn to £8bn over the next five years. He also promised a further £1.6bn of capital investment in school buildings and IT by 2010-11.
Steve Dracup, managing director of distributor Promethean AV, said: “All resellers have seen a cooler period in education from about October/November last year until now. So with the Chancellor announcing more spending in education, let’s hope it will entice schools to move forward with their purchasing.
“Once all schools have an interactive whiteboard, interactive voting systems will be the next big thing. Companies such as Riverdeep have built software for voting systems so it can be used as part of a lesson, rather than just for tests,” added Dracup.
Andy Duckworth, managing director of education VAR CDEC, said: “The education market has been slow this year, so hopefully this might kick-start it.
“We are pleased to hear about the extra funding in education, but it depends where the schools will spend it. If it’s on equipment, great, but it might go on teacher’s wages.”