Students to computer ratio

[stevenlong1985]

Hi all

Does anyone know what should be primary schools in the UK Students to computer ratio?


Thanks in advance

[farmerste]

i have 'heard' that the government have said they are wanting a ratio of two pupils to 1 computer( in primary ), but i have so far been unable to verify this. ( i suspect is it nothing more than computer salesman bu115hit)

I have however asked an ofsted inspector, and she said so long as you are following BECTA recommendations - 5 :1, ( i currently believe) then the school will not recieve any 'bad marks' during an ofsted inspection.
I was also surprised to hear that if you have a computer ratio of around 6:1 and the school is doing well in other regards, then this would not result in a 'bad mark' either.

Got that straight from an ofsted inspection team !

I suspect these extremely low ratios of computers to children have, in most part, come from upper schools in remote areas etc, where the school will only have 50-100 kids anyway.
I have emailed ofsted directly to ask the question, but the reply i got was not helpful at all, as it said it was only inspecting within the guidelines set, and didn't set them ( i think )

so currently it just looks like salesmen trying to put the scare on schools, and create more sales.

also if you are quoting becta recommendations i would in particular quote the ratio of wired to wireless computers in a school, which i think is around 80% wired. Also remeber that becta 'used to' recommend one full time tecnician for every 50-100 machines !

still looking to find more sources for this, so if anyone can help ???

[stevenlong1985]

Just spoke to the Duty and she says it 5:1 lets hope it is, I'm currently 3.8:1 ---- 682 Children to 180 (150 Laptops / 30 PCs)

[rayfleming]

I don't believe that there are now targets.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far away, (when they were still called DfES) there were central targets for computerupil ratio, but these disappeared - along with the NGfL grants

Since then, the targets for ICT which are in place are for broadband connections; online parental reporting; a personal learning space for every student (ie disk on a server!) and for every school to provide a Learning Platform.