New targets to reduce the number of children who share a computer in school have been set to support higher standards in primary and secondary schools. The targets for 2004, which use a 1998 baseline, are to reduce sharing in secondary schools from one computer to nine children to one to five and in primary schools to reduce from one computer to eighteen to one to eight.The new computers will be used to raise standards across the board and not just for teaching Information, Communication and Technology skills. New technology will be brought into everyday lessons and enhance teaching in traditional subjects such as Maths, English, History and Geography. Computer learning has an impressive record in raising basic skills – in one study a literacy class packed over five months of progress into just one month when new technology was brought into lessons.

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A Modernisation Board for the NHS has been set up to steer the 10 year Plan announced last July. Membership of the Board will include doctors, nurses, managers, people from the RCN, UNISON, the BMA and the medical royal colleges. There will also be representatives from patients groups and frontline staff.Other announcements made by Health Secretary Alan Millburn include pledges to create 7000 extra beds and build 100 new hospitals by 2004 and to make progressive cuts in maximum waiting times for hospital treatment from eighteen months to three months.

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Antonacopoulou E, Kandampully JThe Learning Organization, (UK), 2000 Vol 7 No 1

Start page: 13. No of pages: 10

Argues that the widespread recognition of the importance of employees in delivering high quality service to customers has shifted the focus of the debate concerning service quality from the tangible components of service (the product) to the intangible, i.e. the way that the product is delivered. Examines this shift, focusing on the role of employees in delivering the level of service which will gain the company advantage over its competitors. Suggests that employees can only make a personal difference to service quality if they are empowered to do so. Considers how this empowerment can be achieved, discussing how employees can be given the necessary encouragement to work creatively, and the ability and motivation to do so. Illustrates this with examples of US firms that have achieved this. Concludes that learning is central to empowerment and the achievement of service excellence, and points to the overlap between this analysis and the concept of the learning organization.

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