§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the cost of internet access so far achieved in(a) primary and (b) secondary schools in the last 12 months. [14249]
§ Mr. TimmsThe Department for Education and Skills does not collect data on the cost of internet access. Internet costs are dependant upon the supplier, the bandwidth and the level of service and the cost therefore varies from school to school. However, I can report that the average annual school spend in England, as from January 2001, on ICT for teaching and learning was £8,500 in primary schools and £49,600 in secondary, this compares with averages of £6,800 and £41,800 in January 2000. Substantial progress has been made towards the
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§ Mr. TimmsThe available data are shown in the children there were in(a) the UK, (b) England and following table.
Government's target for every school to have access to the internet with over 99 per cent. of secondary and 96 per cent. of primary schools connected as of January 2001.