Schools and colleges suffer from lack of IT investment

Lack of technology can negatively affect learning, says study

Some 89 per cent of poll respondents said investment in IT for education is inefficient

Nearly half of education professionals in the UK say institutions are not investing enough in IT, causing a negative impact on learning processes, according to research.

Some 89 per cent of 201 education professionals polled by Netgear said investment in IT for education is inefficient, while 22 per cent said educational institutions are not investing enough because of the high cost of networking technologies.

Restricted budgets allocated by local education authorities and the government were identified as the cause of the lack of investment by more than a third of those surveyed.

During 2009, investment priorities when cash was available included wireless technologies, mentioned by 22 per cent of respondents, followed by storage (18 per cent) and infrastructure (17 per cent).

Another obstacle for effective investment in IT by educational organisations includes lack of understanding of product features, cited by 18 per cent of sector professionals.

According to the survey, the top three areas of investment were currently remote access, cited by 17 per cent of respondents, IT training (17 per cent) and buying up-to-date equipment (13 per cent).

“However, these are just pieces of a puzzle when installing a successful IT infrastructure. It is equally important to look at collaborative technologies such as videoconferencing and whiteboards, compliance with Becta standards and programmes such as the Home Access Initiative,” said Mark Power, managing director for UK and Ireland at Netgear.