Five years ago, more than 80 per cent of secondary schools were online, but fewer than one in five primaries and one in three special schools were able to “surf” the net. Today, the press of a button puts children in contact with schools on the other side of the world.

The new figures from the Department for Education and Skills do not reveal how many schools have super-fast broadband connections and how many rely on slower dial-up modems. But most schools can now have a permanent connection for little more than a couple of hundred pounds a year: probably less than the price of the Encyclopaedia Britannica a decade ago.

However, to achieve this, the amount that schools spend on information and communications technology has had to increase sharply. In 2002, primaries spent on average pound;15,400, an increase of nearly 50 per cent in a year. Although secondaries spent only 25 per cent more last year, their average spend was the equivalent of around three mainscale teachers per school or collectively some 12,000 teaching posts.

Sadly, around a quarter of teachers in primary and special schools, and one fifth of those in secondaries still do not feel confident about using ICT in their teaching.

However, this figure is likely to plummet over the next few years as more young teachers are recruited.

Nevertheless, the challenge remains to ensure that schools make better use of ICT than they have of earlier innovations such as overhead projectors, video recorders and indeed television. Schools have the hardware and the software. Now they need the time and money to spend on staff development if the technology revolution is to transform learning.

John Howson is a director of Education Data Surveys and a visiting professor at Oxford Brookes University. Email: john.howson@lineone.net