Poor training of teachers means many pupils are not benefiting from millions spent on computers. Cherry Canovan reports
COMPUTER training for teachers provided by the New Opportunities Fund has been criticised again by inspectors a year after they first identified serious problems.
The Office for Standards in Education suggests that inadequate training means much of the huge investment in technology is going to waste.
Despite the Government’s commitment to information and communications technology in schools, the report says that it only enhances four out of 10 secondary departments in which it is used.
It says the training has not had an impact in classrooms and has “simply ground to a halt” in many secondaries. The report adds: “NOF training remains unsatisfactory... Training in six out of 10 secondary schools and half of the primaries has so far failed to tackle adequately those issues relating to the quality of ICT use in classrooms.”
Training materials have not excited teachers and those left to use distance learning on their own rarely make much progress.
The report follows a similar OFSTED study published in May 2001 which criticised NOF training.
Richard Hill, head of policy at the NOF, said the organisation had acted on last year’s recommendations from inspectors by promoting programmes and boosting recruitment.
“The new report says some very positive things in terms of what schools know about the scheme and the number of people who have signed up,” he said. By Christmas, some 83 per cent of eligible teachers - 340,000 - had enrolled.
He added that the NOF would now tackle problems with the effectiveness of training and materials. “We will work hard with schools and providers. Some schools have clearly had an experience which was not what they might have expected,” he said. “We will also continue the process of reviewing materials.”
But he said the lesson of the reports was that one training programme could not solve all schools’ ICT problems. “It has to be an ongoing process,” he said.
The OFSTED report also calls on the Government to spell out its plans to fund ICT beyond 2004“to ensure that recent advances in ICT resources in schools are maintained”.
