AOL offers free Net access to schools

The UK teaching community has welcomed AOL's offer to supply schools with Web access for free, but remains sceptical of the Internet service provider's (ISP) motives.

AOL has offered to provide all schools registered with the UK NetYear Initiative with single-point Net access, to the value of £200 per year.

A NetYear spokeswoman said: "This offer will appeal most to small secondary schools and primaries. Larger secondary schools are looking more for multi-user networked access." AOL estimates that 3,800 schools registered with NetYear will want single users access.

The NetYear consortium, which also includes Cisco, ICL and Sun, is taking advantage of the National Grid for Learning Initiative set up by the Government to help all schools connect to the Internet by 2002.

Teaching Unions agree that the Internet is a useful aid to learning, but are wary of AOL's offer. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) are anxious to find out how long the connection will remain free of charge.

Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: "It seems a reasonable deal. But I wish there was a better system set up for IT companies wanting to tender offers. The Government should coordinate these things so schools are given a more comprehensive choice, so they wouldn't be forced to take up the first free offer."

A spokesman for AOL could not confirm that the connection would be free forever. "The service will be free for the first 12 months and then continue to be free until our policy is changed," he said.