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Minister: Home laptop worth two GCSE grades

By Barry Collins

Posted on 13 Jan 2010 at 11:56

Government Minister Vernon Coaker claims that having access to a laptop in the home can boost children's GCSE scores by two grades.

Opening the BETT education show at London's Olympia, Coaker used his speech to trumpet the Government's plans to provide 270,000 free laptops to low-income families, which were announced earlier this week.

Denying children access to technology at home can have a seriously detrimental effect on attainment

Coaker said that giving every child access to a computer in school was no longer enough. "Children only spend 15% of their time at school," the Minister of state for schools and learners stated. "When we talk about technology education, we have to think of its place in the home as well as in schools."

"Denying them access to technology at home can have a seriously detrimental effect on attainment," the Minister added. "Having a laptop at home can make a two grade difference at GCSEs."

Coaker claimed that positive results from pilot schemes to provide free laptops to families in Oldham and Sussex had encouraged the Government to expand the Home Access scheme nationwide. "On average, a child spent one hour more on learning [at home with a free laptop]," he said.

Coaker said it was also vital for schools to continue investing in the latest technology to help engage pupils and meet demand for future jobs. "We need to be able to prepare the future workforce for the future workplace," the Minister said, adding that three million science-related jobs will become available by 2017. "We cannot allow students to be disengaged from important subjects such as science."

The Minister's comments follow stinging criticism of the free laptop scheme from leading ISP TalkTalk. The broadband provider claimed the Government scheme was inconsistent with plans to pay for next-generation broadband with a £6-per-year landline levy and a copyright clampdown, claiming that the "additional burden could lead to 600,000 financially stretched families being forced to give up their broadband connections."

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User comments

Hogwash

"Government Minister Vernon Coaker claims that having access to a laptop in the home can boost children's GCSE scores by two grades."

Based on figures made up over a three hour brainstorming lunch the previous day.

Or as George Orwell put it:

"But actually, he thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty's figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connexion with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connexion that is contained in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version."

Surely it would be cheaper just to keep making exams easier?

By Lacrobat on 13 Jan 2010

If you give children a laptop what are they going to do with it? Messenger and Facebook!

If children spent more time reading and less time watching TV and wasting time on PCs, their academic results would improve.

OK, they can type up homework and do research maybe. However, having taught in a college for serveral years, I've seen that students are not taught how to use technology effectively.

By Stiggy on 13 Jan 2010

Linux not Windows

I'm dubious about the benefits as well, and what in fact these laptops will be used for.
Hopefully, they will be supplied with a special bolted down Linux distribution that can only run a browser and prescibed software, and be based on a chip that's not supporetd by Windows. Don't get me wrong, I'm no MS hater but in this case I think it would be overkill and become outdated too quickly. And also perhaps it would mean fewer games will be installed. So fewer distractions, and hopefully more benefit to the kids. It's just a thought .... ;-)

By rjp2000 on 13 Jan 2010

@Stiggy

First you say that kids will waste their time on facebook and messenger, then you say they should be spending more time reading. How can they use facebook or messenger without reading, and for that matter writing?

By Shuflie on 13 Jan 2010

cut and paste culture

Yep!

By darkhairedlord on 14 Jan 2010

@Shuflie

If you honestly think there is no difference between a well-wriiten book and the mindless drivel on Facebook, you are deluded.

Reading helps to promote proper spelling and grammar, which is sadly lacking. I am a Microsoft Trainer, and I regularly meet people who are great at IT, but incapable of passing an exam because they cannot comprehend written English.

Going along with the comment by rjp2000 about providing PCs with Linux - the money might have been better spent on eReaders pre-loaded with 1000s of books.

By Stiggy on 14 Jan 2010

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