The UK Government’s Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has just published its e-strategy for the next five-years. The document issued on 15 March is the DfES roadmap to promote eLearning and ITC in all areas in education and children services in the United Kingdom.

Presenting the e-strategy titled 'Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and children's services', the UKs Secretary of state for education, Ruth Kelly said: “We have proposed an education system for 14-19 which is tailored to the needs of young people, and offers more flexible learning opportunities. It is our goal to work towards ICT as a universal utility, creating more flexible learning opportunities for everyone.”

In the next fives year and beyond, the plan aims to tackle the potential digital divide existing among school children, their parents and/or their teachers. It aims to bring all of them to the same level of knowledge to be able to use the technology effectively.

In ten years, taking stock of the fact that the digital revolution has already begun, the UK government hopes to enable children but also teachers and their parents to jump on the bandwagon.

To achieve these goals the e-strategy set out the following six priorities:

• an integrated online information service for all citizens
• integrated online personal support for children and learners
• a collaborative approach to transforming teaching and learning
• a good quality training and support package for practitioners
• a leadership and development package for organisational capability in ICT
• a common digital infrastructure to support transformation and reform

The new UK’s e-Strategy can be downloaded here: pdf – word
Weblink: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/