Cathy Jamieson, Education Minister, said 600 specialists who have attended masterclass sessions would help others improve their ICT skills. More than half are classroom teachers while others are drawn from senior school management, local authority officers, lecturers at teacher education insti-tutions and HMI.

The latest figures on ICT in schools issued yesterday (Thursday) were “very encouraging”, Ms Jamieson said. The target for pupil:computer ratios in secondary schools has been reached and now stands at 5:1, compared with 11:1 in primaries.

She also highlighted the fall in the proportion of computers which are more than four years old, from 35 per cent to 23 per cent in primary and from 32 per cent to 25 per cent in secondary.

All secondaries and 88 per cent of primaries are on the internet.