Poor exam results blamed on slow broadband
Tuesday 27 May 2008
A regular reader and contributor to watchdog website www.ispreview has submitted a report looking into the correlation between poor exam results in Hastings and poor broadband performance.
Reporting from his website www.thecaretakers.net, it has been suggested, "an estimated 3500 pupils could find that their education has been affected by a lack of broadband speed in Hastings and St.Leonards." Comparing the results to neighbouring schools whose pupils can happily surf the net at speeds of around 4-8Mbps, pupils who lived in the catchment areas of The Grove School, Filsham Valley School, West St. Leonard's Primary School and Saxon Mount Schools are reported to only be able to achieve speeds of around .5-1Mbps.
TheCaretaker revealed that three of the main secondary schools in the Hastings area (all of which can only connect to slow broadband connections) had been put into'collaboration' under a private company following poor performance results.
"More worrying, part of the plan to improve exam results at all 3 schools, involve communications links for pupils between school and home. Although East Sussex County Council has equipped its schools with super fast dedicated broadband lines to cope with the future, nothing has been done to help pupils in these areas get faster speeds," said TheCaretaker. "In fact many are still using dial-up connections which are totally useless for any multi media experience."
However, as well as lack of option the report went on to suggest that due to low income many may not have looked into acquiring the 'slow broadband' at all, instead choosing to save the money on a quarterly fee for a BT phone line.
"The Site Manager/Caretaker at Filsham Valley School actually shares his broadband connection wirelessly with families in the area who have chosen to take this route," it was reported on
www.thecaretakers.net. "With some special modified equipment to his telephone line, he has achieved a 2Mbps connection and shares this speed with families in the area."
Installation of fibre optic cables has been suggested to be the most efficient way of resolving the broadband speed problems in the Hastings area.
Source:
The Caretakers' Website,
ISPreview
