§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been allocated to schools in Buckingham for information and communications technologies in each of the past seven years. [161583]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeFunding for information and communications technologies (ICT) in schools is allocated to local education authorities through the Standards Fund and began in 1998–99. Since 1998–99 schools in Buckinghamshire have benefited from the following funding through the Standards Fund grant for ICT (including match funding from the LEA):
£ Allocation to Buckinghamshire LEA 1998–99 1,250,000 1999–2000 1,125,000 2000–01 1,755,443 2001–02 2,568,797 2002–03 3,646,484 2003–04 3,728,097
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of teachers in Buckingham have received computer training. [161575]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeStatistics on teacher training in ICT are not compiled on a constituency basis, but all teachers are expected to be able to use ICT effectively in the classroom. In-service training was largely addressed by the UK-wide National Lottery-funded New Opportunities Fund (NOF) ICT training, which ran between 1999 and 2003, and to which some 96 per cent. of teachers in England signed up.
Training in the effective use of ICT in teaching is also a mandatory part of Teacher Training Institute courses.
Further training opportunities to address teachers' continuing professional development needs (CPD) in embedding ICT in classroom teaching are now being developed across a range of subjects, and teachers are able to buy into this training using Standards Fund monies.