Kirsty Williams, Cabinet Secretary for Education
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
I am writing to update you on the Learning in Digital Wales programme and my commitment to ensure that every school in Wales has access to the right level of broadband for the modern classroom. Following my update in December 2016 on the availability of broadband to schools, I am pleased to inform you that the remaining primary schools have had their broadband service upgraded to meet the minimum speeds of 10 Megabits per second.
In addition, as part of my Progressive Agreement with the First Minister, I also committed to further investment in school broadband to ensure that all schools can embed the new Digital Competence Framework and take advantage of the tools and resources that we have made available through the Hwb platform. I also want to ensure that schools are ready for the new online adaptive tests when they are phased in over three years starting from 2018/19.
To support future increases in broadband speed, I announced £5million for the next phase of the Investment in School Broadband in November 2016. Over the past few months, my officials have been scoping this work with local authorities and BT and we will start ordering these services later this month.
I keep you informed through regular updates on this programme over the forthcoming months.