Independent schools support government ICT strategy
Latest BESA research reveals 62 per cent of independent schools feel the government is on the right track, compared with 26 per cent of state schools
Despite suffering from IT resource issues, independent schools have a more positive view of the government’s ICT polity than state schools, research has revealed.
Findings from the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), which questioned leaders from 148 independent schools, revealed that 87 per cent of independent schools are actually aware of the government ICT policy. This is compared with just 70.5 per cent of state schools.
In the context of the research, "independent" schools are former state schools that have attained academy status.
More importantly for the government, 62 per cent of independent schools felt the government was on the right track with its ICT policy, while just 26 per cent of state schools felt the same.
Ray Barker, director of BESA, said: “The findings will not be good news to the government. However, when we consider the fact that the foundation of the government’s policy sits on an increasing level of freedom and autonomy for schools, it is not surprising that the independent schools sector understands and feels a closer alliance to the recent policy changes.”
He added: “As an increasing number of state schools convert to become academies with independent school status, we are starting to see government policies that possibly sit more comfortably with independent schools, who are more akin to managing themselves.”
Number crunching
Key findings of [independent schools] research:
• A third of preparatory and half of senior schools have been relatively unsuccessful in integrating ICT into lessons using interactive whiteboards.
• A fifth of preparatory and more than two thirds of senior schools will continue to be under-resourced with laptops, while 15 per cent of all schools will be under-resourced with system and general software.
• Only eight per cent of preparatory and five per cent of senior schools are well resourced with tablets, but only 15 per cent of preparatory and 22 per cent of senior schools say that lack of teacher interest is a barrier to adoption.
• About 10 per cent of computers in independent schools use OS X, compared with 40 per cent using Windows 7.
• Preparatory schools are forecasting a 5.1 per cent decline in ICT spending in 2012, although spending on broadband and technical support is set to rise.
• Senior schools are forecasting a 3.7 per cent drop in spending, with hardware purchases the hardest hit (down by 7.5 per cent).