Govt prompted to help schools get computers

By CHRIS BARTON

The Government should use its bulk-purchasing power to help schools acquire not just computers but also internet access, according to the Minister of Information Technology.

Paul Swain was commenting on the country's latest information technology statistics. As well as covering the overall market, the annual survey includes information about the number of computers in schools and in homes, and the growth of the internet.

While the number of homes with computers continues to grow at 14 per cent annually, giving a projected figure that about 43 per cent of households now have them, the uptake of PCs in schools is not improving.

In 1999, there was one computer for every 14 students in primary schools (unchanged from 1998) and one per seven students in secondary schools (compared with eight in 1998). Use of the internet is also low, with only half the schools reporting that a quarter of their teaching staff regularly use e-mail.

Mr Swain said it was time the Government set some goals and achievable dates for improving the number of computers in classrooms, the networking of computers in schools, and greater internet access and use. He was concerned about the increasing "digital divide" between wealthy and poorer schools.

"We don't yet have a comprehensive strategy to smarten up schools' uptake of this," he said.

"The Government should be putting the weight of its purchasing power behind IT, rather than having schools trying to buy on their own advice."

Other statistics show:

* The total value of the New Zealand IT industry (excluding telecommunications) is $6030 million, up 7.2 per cent from the previous year. Adding in the value of telecommunications services - imputed from the Telecom New Zealand annual report - brings the total to $9464 million, a 4.9 per cent increase on the 1998 figure.

The gross figures include an unknown level of double counting of retail and wholesale sales. Excluding $1826 million reported in the survey as "other customer sales," sales to end users rose by 8 per cent in the 1999 financial year, which is similar to 1998.

* The 1999 year shows a 23.2 per cent increase in hardware imports compared with a 10 per cent increase the year before. Most growth was in telecommunications hardware (31.8 per cent) and wireless communications hardware (46.7 per cent).

* Hardware exports fell for the first time in a decade in 1999, by just over 8 per cent, from $258 million in 1998.

* Software exports continue to boom, increasing by 44 per cent in 1999 to $286 million.

* New Zealand ranks seventh in OECD countries in the number of internet hosts (computers permanently connected to the net), with 52 hosts per 1000 of population. Finland tops the list with 104 hosts, followed by the United States (79), Norway, Iceland, Canada and Sweden. Australia ranks ninth with 46 hosts.

* There are 49,230 internet domain names registered in New Zealand and 21,923 commercial and 3419 non-commercial web sites.

* The number of people in information technology occupations grew by 7.3 per cent to reach 40,830 in 1999.