>From the DfEE site - I missed this when first announced.

David Dawson
New Technology Adviser, MGC

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£400m To Bridge The Gap Between The Computer Haves And Have Nots - Blunkett

David Blunkett, Education and Employment Secretary, gave details today of a
£400m package to raise school standards and modernise the skills of the
workforce in England for the information age, following Tuesday's Budget
announcement.

Mr Blunkett emphasised the importance of investment in overcoming the
dangerous divide between the "haves and have nots" in both basic skills and
information technology.

The package includes:
A network of up to 800 new IT learning centres in England aimed at improving
access for all to information and communication technology - a substantial
number of these will be located in inner city areas. There will be a range
of centres of different sizes in schools, colleges, libraries and business
settings across the country; A pilot project to supply recycled computers to
homes. Families on low incomes will only have to pay a very small charge;
Subsidised loans to teachers for the purchase of computers - enabling more
teachers to use computers at home - and tax relief to employees who are
loaned computers by their employers;
Discounts of 20% on training for all holders of Individual Learning
Accounts;
Extra encouragement to take up IT training with ILA holders qualifying for
an 80% discount on the cost of initial computer courses;
An extra £2000 per school to buy up to 10 million new books - this is in
addition to the £2000 every school in England has already received;

Mr Blunkett said:

"I want to target a significant part of this investment in the inner cities,
developing basic skills as well as advanced learning. This step change in
access to information technology will help to bridge the gulf in familiarity
with computers in the workforce. It will match the modernisation now taking
place in the United States. It will raise standards in schools, develop
lifelong learning and improve employability

"Ensuring that as many people as possible have a grounding in basic skills
and computer literacy is not just desirable but is essential. The package I
have announced today will help to improve those skills for children and
adults and give everyone greater access to computers - be they pupil,
teacher or parent, in or out of work.

"Key to this will be a network of learning centres. These centres will be
targeted at developing partnerships with business to meet the skills needs
of tomorrow. This network will include two strands. The first focuses on
schools, including specialist schools and further education colleges. The
second focuses particularly on adult learning and ICT skills for business.

"The centres will bring state-of-the-art information and communication
technology systems within the reach of everyone. The network will support
the University for Industry. Many of these will have an inner city location
and I will give more details on this aspect shortly.

"The learning centres will give young people access to new approaches to
learning and offer a greatly expanding range of opportunities before and
after school. They will act as a core for cascading best practice and
working with neighbouring schools and may also develop language
laboratories, cyber-cafes or arts facilities.

"The incentives package for Individual Learning Accounts demonstrates the
Government's commitment to sharing responsibility for learning with
individuals and employers. It represents a step-change in the way we plan to
encourage individuals to manage and invest in their working life and will
ensure that a basic computer skill course is within the reach of everyone.

As well as investment in computers, I am also giving schools a further £2000
to increase the number of books available in school libraries. The money is
in addition to the £2000 I have already given to schools. This new money
could buy another 10 million books for English schools alone.

"IT is a modern tool to raise school standards. It will complement but never
replace the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, which we are developing
in our primary schools.

"We have already provided the following support to schools:

Last November the Prime Minister announced over £700 million
investment in ICT for UK schools.
In addition to this the New Opportunities Fund - from the National Lottery -
is providing £230 million targeted at training teachers and librarians in
the use of technology and a further £200m towards providing the right
infrastructure;  30% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools are now
linked to the National Grid For Learning and it is expected that 32,000
schools will be connected by 2002. The Grid is already giving pupils and
teachers access to quality educational software
and services.

"It is vital that we prevent a generation of children emerging as the
information poor. Information and communication technology allow us all
access to the future and will help underpin prosperity and equality of
opportunity into the next century for young and old alike.

Notes to Editors:

1.The Budget provided an extra £470m through the Capital Modernisation Fund
for IT in the UK - £400 million in England. There is £61m for books in the
UK - £49m in England. This money is additional to the £19 billion extra in
the UK (£16 billion in England) provided for education in the years
1999-2002

2.A new co-ordinating group will ensure full co-ordination with the
University for Industry, the Learning Grid and New Opportunities Fund
investment in libraries and community facilities.

3.The number of schools linked to the National Grid for learning is a
February 1999 BECTA estimate.

4.In the first phase there will be at least 30 learning centres with many
more to follow.




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