Fife Labours budget passed by Fife Council last week has rolled out a further programme of investment in Information Communication Technologies (ICT) resources to primary schools aimed at improving engagement in the use of ICT as a tool for learning.
Last year two primary school clusters around Lochgelly and Kirkland High Schools were given £100,000 each to develop more use of ICT in the classroom using word books hand held devises as part of the learning experience. This has been increased with 6 cluster areas including the Beath High School cluster receiving £100,000 each to develop the programme.
Alex Rowley said that the work carried out at primary schools in the Lochgelly cluster was producing great results and welcomed the additional funding for primary schools in the Beath High cluster. He said; “ICT is a good tool for learning and it is important that all children are supported to access such communication from an early age. There are big difference in the amount of hardware available in schools and that is why Labour has focussed more resources on making sure that all schools have up to date and good equipment. Money was also built into the council budget for supporting teachers and children in learning how to access the resources”.
Fife Executive member for education Bryan Poole said; “We are seeing some really good results coming forward from those schools who have been piloting this work and it is encouraging that teachers and pupils are using ICT to support the learning experience in the classroom. We have used free school meal entitlement as the measure to target the resource at the areas of the highest deprivation and we will continue to monitor the progress made. Our aim is to improve the ICT provision in all schools and we will continue through the life time of this administration to make progress in this important area”.
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