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The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) have raised concerns about the amount of schools that are taking full advantage of the Government's technology initiatives.

Much investment has been made in kitting out schools with the latest IT, to enhance childrens learning experience. But BECTA have reported that only 1 in 5 schools are using these investments effectively.

In many cases, it appears that once the IT kit has been delivered, the support to use it through teachers, teaching assistants etc is not readily available to pupils due to stretchedcapacity. The 20% that are performing well are those that invest staff resources, collaborate effectively and engage the pupils. BECTA is now working with the 80% to bring them up to the same standards - one of the ways they are doing this is through annual excellence awards which benchmarks schools against each other. Although it is a voluntary process for schools to measure and report on best practice it now has a 60% take up rate.

BECTA realises there is a lot of work to be done through a range of Government initiatives such as 'Building Schools for the Future', 'Primary Capital Programme' and 'Universal Home Access' but believe with their strategic leadership of these programmes, anything is possible.