The research was conducted in June 2009 through an online questionnaire and involved 770 primary and 572 secondary state schools across the UK, whose teachers are part of BESA´s panel of ICT co-ordinators and heads of IT. The full report can be downloaded in the members’ area of BESA’s website, while a summary report is available in the BESA Document Database) as well as in the Insight Library).

Infrastructure provision

In the UK there are on average 6.9 pupils per computer in primary schools and 4.2 in secondary schools. Desktop computers are still more diffused than laptops: if only 6% of primary and 16% of secondary schools estimate themselves under-equipped with desktops, only 34% of primary and 36% of secondary schools feel to be well-equipped with laptops.

Internet access and broadband is good (91% primary and 92% secondary school computers being able to connect to the internet), but still only 58% of primary and 48% of secondary schools think to be well-equipped. In fact optimal bandwidth still lags behind current provision: primary schools ask for 13.4Mbps against today’s 4.1, secondary schools 55.0Mbps against today’s 21.5. On the contrary, IWB provision has risen to 77% in primary schools and 57% in secondary schools.

Investment in ICT equipment is ongoing, but the survey has identified a trend which shows a decreased demand for desktop computers both in primary and secondary schools, while demand for laptops has remained strong.

Software and content provision

The provision of online digital content has strongly increased in comparison with 2008: now 31% of primary ICT co-ordinators consider themselves to be well-equipped against less than 25% of last year. As for secondary schools, 2009 percentage reaches 23% against 2008’s 11%. On the other hand, learning platform provision is perceived as clearly inadequate in primary schools (only 21% consider themselves to be well-equipped), while in secondary education the picture is more complex, having one third of well-equipped schools and another one of adequately-equipped.

Trends in ICT budget

Budget cut-off will be widespread both at primary and secondary level. UK schools are continuing to restrict additional budgets for a broad range of ICT products and services: in 2009/10 primary school will see a budget decrease of 2.2% and secondary schools of 1%. In 2010-11, budgets will even decline of a further 4.4% and 2.7% respectively in primary and secondary schools. In particular, desktops´ budget is expected to score a -8.5% in primary schools and a -3.4% in secondary schools, peripherals and networking budget -5.3% and -3.2%, system and general software -2.0% and -0.4% .

Confidence in ICT use

Teachers’ confidence and competence in the use of ICT in the curriculum, although widespread, is considered to be worsening compared to 2007 figures, passing from 80% to 70% for primary teachers and from 68% to 60% for secondary teachers. The ability in accomplishing word-processing tasks is higher than in using presentation tools: 60% of ICT primary school leaders and 44% of secondary school leaders consider the majority of teachers to be very confident in the first, while respectively only 20% and 16% of primary and secondary school leaders consider the majority of teachers to be very confident in the latter.

Despite this fact, fewer teachers will be provided with training in 2009 than in 2008: 55% in primary schools (compared to 67%) and 55% in secondary schools (compared to 72%). Teachers themselves (80% from primary and 90% from secondary level) suggest that a limited access to ICT affects their use of ICT in the classroom, where 39% of primary and 41% of secondary schools indicate to still have limited access to computers.

- BESA ICT in UK State Schools 2009 summary report:
http://resources.eun.org/insight/BESA_ICT2009_Summary.pdf

- Insight Library:
http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/library.cfm

- BESA:
www.besa.org.uk