Technology - E-Registration in Schools to tackle absence problem
- 3-G Technology will revolutionalise e-life
28 November 2001
'British E-commerce Minister Douglas Alexander said that the telecoms sector needs to market effectively the massive potential of 3G technologies which offer the potential to change the way we communicate, work, shop, and get our news. He explained that a key part of this challenge must be to boost confidence in the industry through improving communications with local communities and the implementation of the 10 Commandments on mobile phone masts.He will tell a conference of the mobile communications industry later today that there are four main challenges facing 3G:
- marketing the benefits 3G to the public and to business;
- development of 3G infrastructure;
- stimulating 3G content; and
- boosting consumer confidence in the communications industry.
Mr Alexander said: "There are certainly no shortages of challenges. But the scale of
these challenges is matched by the scale of the potential benefits. "3G offers the potential to change the way we communicate - we work - we shop - we get our news - we conduct business. "But the sector needs to sell 3G to the public and businesses alike. "Today the UK communications industry is one of the strongest in the world. "75% of the population now own a mobile phone - a total of 35 million subscribers. This is higher penetration than in France, Germany and the United States.
"And the price of calls is continually dropping. Since 1994, the price of mobile calls has fallen by approximately 50% - and just in the last 18 months, prices have fallen by 20%."
And on the issue of mobile phone masts Mr Alexander continued: "Experience has clearly demonstrated that trying to drive ahead remorselessly with mast installation without first working to ensure local understanding and support leads, over time, to the build up of
resentment, misunderstanding and opposition.
"So the challenge for the industry is to build the public confidence upon which the public support for the industry infrastructure must be built. Since March, the operators have accepted an obligation to implement the jointly agreed 10 Commandments. These include a range of undertakings - from improved consultation to criteria for site sharing. "I challenge the industry to implement and maintain these commitments with vigour and determination. Confidence and trust needs to be secured street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, community by community across the country.- E-Registration in Schools to tackle absence problem
- The UK Department for Education and Skills will be writing shortly to
- all Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to ask them to recommend high
- truancy schools to take part in an #11.25m electronic registration project
- - tackling truancy at source.
Building on the success of existing projects already getting tough on
truancy, Estelle Morris will ask LEAs to make contact with schools
from a designated list of schools in their area known to have absence
problems. The schools will then be able to choose whether to opt into
the scheme. Possible methods of e-registration include: swipe cards,
hand-held registration pads or computer-based systems.
The Government is committed to reducing unauthorised absences at
secondary school level, and e-registration schemes such as this are
seen as one way of addressing truancy. The benefits of e-registration
include:
- A reduction in unauthorised absence levels by 10 per cent within
two years, according to an independent evaluation;
- Freeing schools from the time-consuming manual recording of
attendance twice a day;
- A reduction in the amount of time spent by teachers and
administrative staff on contacting parents about unexplained
absences;
- Schools can use lesson-by-lesson registration where
post-registration truancy is an issue; and
- More accurate and speedy information is generated so that schools
and Education Welfare Services are able to track absence and
consider wider measures to tackle truancy.
Education and Skills Secretary Estelle Morris said:
"Every parent knows that a good education is the building block for a
life full of opportunity. But we know that there are too many
children - around 50,000 every day - who are missing school without
good reason. This can only damage their life chances, and we want to
tackle that at source.
"Many schools are already using schemes such as electronic
registration systems to reduce unauthorised absence. I know Falmer
High Secondary School in Brighton has reduced truancy levels by 40
per cent using a series of innovative truancy-busting measures.
"Not only does the use of modern technology in monitoring absence act
preventatively to reduce the number of lost days, but it also frees
teachers from the burden of time wasted on checking up with parents
about a child's attendance. Learning mentors and other administrative
staff are also increasingly supporting teachers in this role.
"This #11.5m project will target 500 of the secondary schools we and
Local Education Authorities see as facing the toughest truancy
problems. This - on top of the #174m this year to help tackle
truancy, improve discipline and educate excluded pupils - will help
us ensure that we do not turn our backs on a single child."
The scheme will introduce electronic registration systems into
selected secondary schools over two years commencing from April
2002. Schools taking part in the scheme will receive the funding
via a weighted grant through next year's Standard Fund.
A range of potential providers of e-registration systems to
schools is being identified via a Department for Education and
Skills tendering process, and a series of framework contracts will
be made available from which individual schools can choose the
service that works for them.
An independent evaluation of projects supported by the
Department for Education and Skills to tackle the problem of poor
behaviour and attendance in schools in 1995 - 'More willingly to
school' by James Learmouth - showed that introducing electronic
registration can reduce levels of truancy by around 10 per cent
within the first two years of implementation.
