The ICT in Education Report, undertaken by the independent market-research organisation Redshift Research on behalf of Stone, included over 100 ICT decision-makers in the UK primary and secondary education sectors, including academies.

The report articulates frustration within the UK education sector, where ICT budgets are being dramatically reduced, despite ICT access being widely recognised as fundamental to pupils' ability to learn. Over eighty percent of respondents anticipate an ICT budget decrease in the next financial year, a third of whom expect to lose more than a third of their budget. Furthermore, seventy percent of respondents expect the cuts to have a negative impact on their pupils' ability to learn.

With such a reliance on ICT within UK education - 81% of respondents believing that the quality of the learning environment is actively improved if pupils are provided with dedicated access to a laptop/ PC at school - the imminent budget cuts are all the more destructive to pupils' ongoing ability to learn as effectively and rapidly as possible.

Despite the growing expansion of ICT use and dependence in all areas of the curriculum, even before the budget cuts, 91% of schools are still unable to provide dedicated access to a laptop/ PC for all of their pupils. Over half the respondents admitted that they are only able to provide a laptop or PC to fewer than 25% of their pupils.

The findings highlight that the main challenges to delivering technology in schools or colleges in 2012 will be in upgrading existing hardware. As a result, 45% of respondents will prioritise spending on desktops to accommodate their budget reduction.

James Bird, Chief Executive of Stone, concludes, "No school wants to see its investment reduced or endure a decline in teaching standards as a result of poor ICT equipment and infrastructure. There is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach. The IT industry therefore needs to be innovative and more forthcoming in explaining the range of financing options that will support the very diverse needs of the UK's education system, moving towards offering services rather than simply selling hardware."

Stone has therefore developed the UK education sector's first long-term PC rental scheme, specifically designed to enable schools to invest in new ICT hardware via their revenue rather than capital budgets.

Rent-a-PC allows schools to break away from the standard procurement processes that rely on access to substantial capital budgets, including traditional one-off investments and operating leases. PCs can now be rented from Stone for a period of three years, during which time devices can be returned, upgraded or swapped out at any time, subject to a ninety-day notice period.

Rent-a-PC is supported with the dedicated Stone customer-service offering, developed in tandem with customers, to implement a flexible agreement suiting the institutions' individual needs. Educational institutions can also opt for additional support where necessary to supplement any resource gaps that may exist internally.

Specific benefits of the Rent-a-PC scheme include

• maintaining or improving your PC estate, with less capital
• getting the latest technology, sooner
• technology that can be scaled up or down to match new curriculum requirements
• personalised service packaged in a monthly rental cost
• as a rental offering, there is no need for the usual Local Education Authority approval process
• refunds for existing capital kit
• overall complete monthly cost for the device.

The research results are available to download free of charge by contacting David Beesley.