Brussels, 04/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - The daily use of information in schools (upper secodary) remains disappointiung, despite considerable spending on information and communication technology (ICT) equipment. This was the general finding of a recent OECD report, published on 3 February and entitled "Completing the foundation for lifelong learning: an OECD survey of Upper Secondary Schools".
The publication is based on data from 14 OECD countries: France, Italy, Belgium (Flanders), Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Norway, Switzerland, Mexico and Korea. The objective was to look at structural barriers to the full and efficicent use of ICT in secodnary schools. The conclusions raise important questions about the management of teaching hours, class organisation and the teachers' skills. The OECD states that the under-use of technology can, amongst other things, be explained by: -the difficulties in incorporating ICT into teaching in class; -problems finding a niche for information technology in timetables; -lack of skills and knowledge in this field on the part of teachers, raising the problem of recruiting teachers for the scholastic discipline of ICT (Info: Michael Davidson, OECD in Paris, Tel. +33 1 45249225. Internet: http://www.oecd.org ).