A PLAN to ensure all pupils at Monmouthshire schools use the same standard of IT equipment was backed by senior councillors earlier today.

The project, which is subject to council agreement, will cost £885,000 and is particularly targeted at children at the authority’s primary schools because of the variation in quality of computers. The council said that difference is stifling pupils’ attainment, especially when children leave their primary school for secondary school.

Digital and technology manager Sian Haywood told today's’s cabinet meeting that it is vital all of the council’s schools sign up to a service level agreement to ensure none of them are left behind.

She said she had worked with governors when asked and was sure it was a “sustainable and viable” plan.

The council’s deputy leader Cllr Bob Greenland said increasing internet speeds by ten times than they are currently at some schools would be an important part of the work.

He said: “10MB is not sufficient even at the moment for most of our primary schools – they need to be much higher than that.

“Through that we can bring about further improvements to the infrastructure in those schools .”

Of the money that would fund the improvements, £250,000 would be taken from the council’s ICT Transformation reserve, £80,000 from its 21st Century Schools programme and £50,000 from a reduction in the County Farms capital maintenance budget. The other £505,775 will be borrowed.

All equipment would be standardised and schools’ data would be migrated to Blaenavon-based Shared Resource Services (SRS), protecting information should schools’ servers fail.

The cabinet member for children and young people Cllr Liz Hacket Pain also supported the proposal.

She said: “The head teachers I have spoken to have been very keen about this and very much want to buy into it. They feel it is something that is needed.”

Once the council approves the plan, it is hoped improvements will be adopted within six to nine months. They should all be completed by the end of 2017.