UK schools fail to match inflation with tech spend increases

26 September 2012

Research from the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) has found technology budgets across the UK are still increasing, despite the removal of government ring fences around ICT expenditure.

However recent, and predicted future increases fail to match current UK inflation rates.
BESA’s findings come from the 15^th annual survey into the opinions and trends of ‘ICT in UK State Schools’. The research, carried out in conjunction with the National Education Research Panel (NERP) provides analysis into the likely provision of technology in UK state schools in the next year and gives insight into teacher confidence, training and the level of ICT in schools.

The survey of 1,317 UK schools (766 primary, 551 secondary), which was conducted in July 2012 found that schools are assigning an increasing amount of their budget to technology, with a 2.1% rise (2.3 per cent in primary and 1.8 per cent in secondary). Looking ahead, the trend looks set to continue with 2013/4 ICT budgets forecast to rise by 3.3 per cent in primary and 2.8 per cent in secondary schools.

However those rates of increase do not match the current UK inflation rate of 2.9% (August 2012. It is likely that the 2013/14 increases will keep pace with the Bank of England’s predicted figures, but only just.