Money is well spent on training

22nd February 2002, 12:00am

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Money is well spent on training

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/money-well-spent-training
WITH more than 80 per cent of eligible teachers in the UK signed up for New Opportunities Fund computer training and teachers steadily acquiring skills to integrate the benefits of technology into the curriculum, the scheme is already an enormous achievement. It is one of the most successful in-service training programmes in Europe.

You report (TES, February 8) that Paul Kelley, the former Department for Education and Skills adviser, felt that the money used to train 400,000 teachers “would have been better used to buy computers”.

This would have been putting the cart before the horse. Without training, most teachers would be unable to use technology effectively, let alone enhance their teaching role for the benefit of pupil learning. Training, hardware, and content are all fundamental elements of the vision set out in Transforming the way we learn.

The programme is actually using pound;231 million of Lottery funding. The article’s reference to pound;400m is inaccurate.

Richard Hill Head of policy and research New Opportunities Fund 1 Plough Place London EC4

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