HAS anyone else noticed that the specifications of the “computers for teachers” published on the Department for Education and Employment website are often different from those available to the public?
Take the Dell Dimension XPS T 500. Purchased through the Dell advert in this month’s What PC the specification is significantly up-rated (ie a 17-inch monitor and DVD-rom) - furthermoreit is pound;24 cheaper!
To upgrade the teachers’ offer I would have to pay pound;1,186 for a machine for which, as a private individual, I would pay pound;996. Taken together with the likely tax charge on the “subsidy”, this process means my real subsidy is in the region of pound;200.
It seems that the “spin” is not only confined to the CD Roms.
R Smith
6 Beech Grove, Somerset
