This year for the first time more than half of all teachers had their own personal e-mail addresses funded by their school. This is in addition to any addresses they may have at home to access the Internet. The figure emerged in a Department for Education and Skills survey conducted in April - an annual look at technology use in schools. The growth in e-mail addresses - if not in their use, which was not measured in the survey - has been one of the phenomenons of recent years. Indeed, as recently as April 1998, only 2 per cent of primary and 9 per cent of secondary teachers had school-based e-mail addresses.

It is now more than two years since The TES started to put teaching jobs on its website. Alerts by e-mail now form an important part of many jobseekers’ Friday routine. An e-mail can help draw attention to particular posts, especially when The TES is carrying more than 3,000 jobs a week at the height of the recruitment season.

However, until teachers get access to their own computers, e-mail is unlikely to develop in schools in the same way that it has in offices and the Civil Service. Conor Ryan’s admission in The TES this month that he received nearly 300 e-mails on quiet days, when he was special advisor to David Blunkett, and that many came with attachments, will have enabled teachers to be thankful that it doesn’t happen to them. Otherwise, when would there be any time for teaching?

John Howson e-mail john.howson@lineone.net