Angus primary pupils are being stranded on the information superhighway by a rural/urban service divide.
As plans progress to allow youngsters to bring mobile devices, such as iPads, into the county’s classrooms, some pupils are being deprived of online learning opportunities by archaic connection speeds in areas like the Angus glens.
In the worst case, Lethnot primary pupils are logging on at a paltry 256KB, compared to secondary school counterparts in the burghs with a 100MB connection potential 400 times faster.
Education councillors have just agreed a £1.2 million investment in schools’ IT provision but the widening gap between connection capabilities between schools has been highlighted by a former head teacher and councillor who fears “disadvantaged” country pupils will stay in the slow lane for years to come.
Angus strategic director (people) Margo Williamson set out the schools’ digital priorities to education committee councillors highlighting developments in areas including broadband provision, interactive whiteboards, wireless technology and expansion into GLOW Plus an already well-used online learning and conferencing tool.
“All eight secondary schools and 27 primary schools have a direct link to AngusNet via a 100Mbit network connection,” the director said.
“This link offers excellent network performance and allows schools to benefit from access online resources for CFE, access to GLOW, SEEMIS, On Track with Learning (OTWL), video clips (including YouTube) and other learning and teaching opportunities.
“There are currently 11 primary schools connected by Licensed Radio connections offering Line of Sight’ network speeds from 5Mbit up to 15Mbit.”
But the report added: “A further 14 schools and one nursery have BT MetroFlex links, which are significantly more problematic. These schools are generally in rural locations where network speeds can vary from a maximum of 2Mbit down to 256K.
“These links offer limited access to resources and cannot be used for many tasks such as GLOW video conferencing and video streaming.”
Lethnot primary is the poor relation of Angus in ICT terms, linked by a BT ISDN line running at around 256KB. It does not allow pupils and staff access to some services and a satellite link which was tested proved no better than the existing connection.
Upgrades to broadband connections for 14 primaries and development of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) technology are planned but officials have sounded a note of caution over the timing of those schemes.
Councillor Jim Houston, an ex-headteacher, said he did not believe the future looked good for rural pupils logging on.
“I understand the benefits the internet can and does bring for pupils and staff but to achieve maximum benefit, a high-speed connection is necessary,” he said.
“I’m concerned that there remains a group of 14 schools that don’t benefit from this resource simply due to their connection speed.
“This difficulty has been with us for a number of years, with little signs of real improvement for the affected schools.
“Another full site survey is to be done to establish the feasibility of connectivity but this has all been discussed for eight years with little progress.
“How many reviews do we need? In terms of connectivity, there are no definite plans, only more reviews, so when will the 14 schools be able to access online resources and not be at a continuing disadvantage?”
Councillor Ewan Smith added: “It’s ironic because part of the report is speaking about how we are catching up and yet in some schools we have this slow connection situation, which means the pupils cannot access resources available to other schools in Angus.
“I have friends who work very effectively in rural areas, albeit at a cost to them, but they can run a business which trades across the world online.
“Every school in every village and every burgh deserves the same opportunities as the next and that is not where we are.
“It’s not acceptable and without it our children may be hanging back in a world which is moving over to an IT perspective,” he said.