Ambitious plans to connect thousands of Britain's schools to the Internet have been announced amid concerns that the huge investment in new technology may be misplaced.

The project, called Netyear, forms part of the Government's policy to connect every school in the country to the Internet.

BBC correspondent Pallab Ghosh looks at Microsoft's role in connecting Britain's schools to the Web (Dur: 4' 54")

The private-public sector partnership is designed to raise awareness of the potential of the Net as an education tool.

But experts have criticised the plans saying that connecting children as young as six to the Internet is inappropriate.

"There is no credible evidence that computer technology and the Internet itself enriches learning," said Todd Oppenheimar, an Associate Editor of Newsweek Interactive.

He argued funds would be better spent providing more teachers, more class time, more field trips and other 'real life' experiences.

The Netyear chairman David Wimpress countered these charges. He said that while the Internet could not replace more traditional methods of teaching it did "represent one of the most rich and dynamic learning resources available to us.

"It is absolutely key that this up to date information is accessed by pupils and teachers as part of the learning process."

Financial backing for the year-long initiative comes from education authorities, local communities and the private businesses including Cisco Systems, ICL, Sun Microsystems and the Telegraph Group.

At present only about 6,000 schools are connected to the Internet. Netyear aims to increase this to 17,000 by the end of 1998, and 32,000 by 2002.

Nearly 400,000 teachers will be need to receive training in using the Internet if Netyear is to be successful.

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