8. IT Use in New Zealand Schools
The previous report included information provided by the Ministry of Education from a survey of all New Zealand schools conducted in 1996. This survey has not been repeated.
This report also draws on two other sources of information: a survey carried out by the Information Technology Advisory Group (ITAG) in August 1998, and earlier research carried out by the Telecom Education Foundation (TEF) between 1993 and 1996. The ITAG survey was carried out as continuation of the TEF surveys but also included questions about the use of computers in schools and other issues. The full report of this survey (IT in Schools, November 1998) is available on this site.
The Ministry of Education research is derived from returns from 98% of New Zealand schools. It is possible that this survey underestimated the total number of computers because further information received from schools indicated that a number treated the survey as relating to only those computers used for administration and did not include computers used in classrooms. Additionally, some schools did not include computers considered to be `useless' or obsolete.
The ITAG survey research is from a sample of 276 primary and 164 secondary schools and the earlier TEF surveys were of similar size. These surveys may be biased towards schools with a higher than average interest in IT issues and will therefore tend to slightly overestimate numbers.
8.1 Computers in Schools
The Ministry of Education survey indicated that there were just under 52,000 computers in schools in 1996. Extrapolation of the results of the ITAG survey indicates that there were around 75,000 computers in schools in 1998, an increase of 44% in two years.
The chart below shows the number of students per computer combining the results of the TEF and ITAG surveys to give a time series, with the 1996 Ministry of Education figures superimposed.
The ITAG survey asked for information about how computers were being used in schools. When administration computers are excluded, in 1998 there was one computer for every 14 students in primary schools and one per eight students in secondary schools.
The chart below shows the main uses for computers in New Zealand schools in 1998.
Both the ITAG and Ministry surveys asked for information about the types of computers in use in schools. The results are shown in the following chart.
The proportion of PCs, Apple Macs and Acorn/BBC Micros in all schools in 1996 is about the same as for primary schools in 1998. However, when secondary schools are included with the 1998 data, it is clear there has been a move to the greater use of PCs compared with other types of computer over the period. Older machines included in the `Other` category almost disappeared by 1998.
8.2 Internet Connections in Schools
The overwhelming majority of schools now have some form of connection to the Internet. Combining the TEF and ITAG surveys provides the time series in the chart below. The TEF surveys from 1993 to 1995 asked if the school had a modem, the 1996 survey and the ITAG survey asked about Internet access.
Levels of access for classroom computers is substantially lower: in 1998 only 55% of primary schools and 60% of secondary schools provided access to the Internet from at least one classroom.
The number of schools, especially primary schools, with their own domain name is low. There are about 2750 schools in New Zealand and only 445 registrations in the .school.nz domain as of March 1999 (see Section 7).
Back to Top