1m pounds pledged for lap-tops in class

THE FIRST step towards a teaching revolution was disclosed yesterday when the Government pledged to provide more than pounds 1m to buy portable computers for schools, the largest project of its type in Europe.

The first lap-tops should be in use in primary and secondary schools and teacher training colleges in England by May under the scheme announced by Eric Forth, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Education, which aims towards an educational system in which the exercise book is replaced by the portable computer and the text book by a database.

Local authorities will be asked to submit applications for computers, although it is unlikely that the pounds 1m will buy more than a couple of thousand computers, even allowing for bulk discounts.