Labour elects to focus on IT

The general election could be won on the issue of IT in education, a senior Labour Party adviser said this week.

Professor Stephen Heppell, who sits on the Labour Party's IT in education policy thinktank, said the issue of how IT should be used in schools could be a more important issue than the economy.

'There is not a parent in the country who has not worried if their child is to become computer literate, or who is not considering buying or upgrading a family computer,' he said.

Labour, which will announce its IT in education policy in late December, was looking at the implications of making all school classes computer and Internet-based.

'One of the most important things to work out is improving the access kids have to computers,' said Heppell.

He said the education system needed a dramatic shake-up. 'We have been teaching kids how to use wordprocessors for 15 years, yet when we put them through an exam we ban calculators and force them to use a pen and paper.'