Information Technology (Hansard, 27 July 1999)

§ Mr. Clappison
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the planned timetable for the issuing of an information technology needs assessment CD ROM to teachers by the Teacher Training Agency. [93179]

§ Mr. Charles Clarke
All schools have now been invited to apply for the ICT needs identification assessment CD-ROM. It is available free of charge to UK schools. The latest estimates indicate that over 30,000 packs have been distributed by the Teacher Training Agency. This is an overwhelming response, which fully endorses the decision to produce the CD-ROM.
181W

§ Mr. Clappison
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he is taking to improve the teaching of information technology in schools following the annual report of the Chief Inspector of Schools; and if he will make a statement. [92748]

§ Mr. Charles Clarke
We are taking significant and unprecedented steps to improve the teaching of information technology in schools. We were appalled at the completely inadequate state of such preparation that had been made both in ITT and for serving teachers before May 1997.
We have made available through the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) £230 million to provide serving teachers and school library staff in the UK with training in the effective use of ICT in schools. There will be strong pedagogical content in the training to ensure that ICT is used effectively to enhance the learning experience. This will bring serving teachers up to the same standard as teachers emerging into the profession whose training will have followed, in part, the Initial Teacher Training Curriculum for ICT in Subject Teaching which was introduced in September 1998.
To underpin the training we are making available over £300 million to increase the number of computers in schools, so teachers can have access to them. The availability of computers must go hand in hand with the training. In addition we recently made £23 million available for the purchase of 9,500 multimedia portables for teachers so that they can learn about IT in their own time.
Finally, teachers will be able to access the virtual teachers centre (www.vtc.ngfl.gov.uk) being developed by the Government and schools will have the benefit of being able to get better value for the purchase of computers and equipment following our managed services programme launched on 21 July.

§ Mr. Clappison
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many(a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools have appointed National Lottery-approved training providers for IT training in each local authority area expressed as a proportion of schools in that area. [93182]

§ Mr. Charles Clarke
Training has already begun in 20 LEAs. The New Opportunities Fund is agreeing budget schedules with other LEAs and we expect training to begin nationally in September. This is the first time many serving teachers will have access to such training, which is being supported by £230 million.

§ Mr. Clappison
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate he has made of the number of teachers in(a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools who have received information technology training through National Lottery-approved training providers; and how many he expects to receive such training in the academic year 1999–2000. [93180]

§ Mr. Charles Clarke
During the Summer Term 1999, training within the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) ICT teacher training programme has begun in approximately 20 education authorities. NOF is actively engaged in collecting data on this training from Approved Providers,182W and it is too early to give firm information on the number of teachers trained. These data will be available from NOF in September.
Training was initiated during this term to meet the needs of those schools which are particularly advanced in the provision of ICT hardware. However, the majority of the approved training providers are not proposing to start training teachers before the next school year (1999–2000). The NOF programme will last three years, and is integrated with Government initiatives to roll out the necessary hardware in schools, for example via the Standards Fund. NOF thus expects demand to build steadily during the next school year. The programme is designed to reach all serving teachers over its lifetime.