Abstract :
The rise in UK government funding for information and communications
technologies (ICTs) since 1997 has created a large capital infrastructure,
which schools are required to support with their own funds. Simultaneously,
both nationally and internationally, the model of self-managing schools
gathers momentum. In the UK, the government supports the key principle of
local management of schools, which points towards the leadership team and
governors as the body best placed to make decisions on how funding will
support school improvement. The complexity of policy formation with respect
to e-learning funding in schools is further compounded by the requirement to
address the needs of a range of stakeholders in the state and commercial
sectors.
This goal of this paper was to explore this potential paradox between
centralised funding of school ICTs and local planning and decision-making.
Five possible funding policy models were suggested and discussed, and key
questions in relation to policy formation were identified
