Web access left to schools

By RICHARD WOOD

New Zealand will leave decisions on general web access to individual schools, says the Minister of Education.

It has no intention of following New South Wales in giving its 1.2 million state students and 130,000 teachers regular email, filtered internet access and their own web pages.

Trevor Mallard said New Zealand had a less centralised education system than Australia.

"Schools, as self-managing bodies, have the responsibility to decide the learning programmes. Many have different needs and policies in relation to use of the internet."

But the Government was testing Think.com, an education web environment provided free by Oracle Corporation that did not connect to the internet.

It has similar functions to the internet but works in a closed system.

Mallard said the choice of Think.com did not reflect a preference for a closed system.

Some schools had chosen to provide a filtered web environment to the internet, and the Government was assisting others.

If the trials were successful, the system would be implemented from next January.