Council warns of ‘two-tier’ schooling

ONE of Scotland’s largest councils has warned the use of technology in schools could create a “two-tier” education system if the Scottish Government does not provide funding for tablet computers.

Labour-led Aberdeen City Council said it was keen to press ahead with introducing tablets, such as the iPad, in its schools, but needed funding from ministers to make the plans a reality.

Earlier this month, education secretary Mike Russell tasked quango Education Scotland with looking at ways of encouraging the use of tablets in schools. However, he said there was no money available for a national roll-out of the technology.

Many schools in Scotland are already using tablets after securing funding from local councils or through corporate sponsorship for pilot projects.

Aberdeen councillor Jenny Laing, the city’s education convener, said there was a chance some schools could be left behind as other find ways of funding the technology.

She said: “We have some pilot projects in the pipeline or started already. We started off with a primary school, Hazelhead, where they got corporate sponsorship and have some other schools that have come on stream.

“We can see that there may well be benefits, but what we don’t want is a two-tier education system where schools in more affluent areas are able to finance these projects. That would be uppermost in our minds.

“It’s all very well the Scottish Government saying it’s keen to see these types of project, but we need to see finance coming from central government.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The funding of mobile device deployment in Scottish schools is a matter for local authorities and we’re not proposing a nationwide roll-out of any of the pilot work.”