“It is surprising that books matter,” says Steve Hurd, the research leader from the Open University, in The Times Educational Supplement (May 19). Hurd and his team had not expected the amount spent on books to impact on results. But they found that average test scores for Key Stage 2 pupils in schools that spent £100 per pupil on books rose by 1.5 per cent.

“Looking back I think things have gone overboard on ICT. Schools pick up the message that they will be clobbered if their technology is not up to scratch but no one looks at books,” Hurd says.

The findings, which are based on analysis of data collected by the school inspection watchdog, Ofsted, reveal that two thirds of primary schools did not have enough money to spend on books. Heads said this was due to the high proportion of school budgets that was earmarked for staffing.

Figures from the School Book Spending Survey show that spending on books has fallen from £21.84 per pupil in 1999 to £16.65 per pupil in 2003-04.

Hurd does not want to see money for books ringfenced, though. “I think the Government should treat teachers as professionals,” he says.

But some education professionals still believe that book is best. “There is no substitute for what books do: they give you a complete experience,” says Bethan Marshall, a senior lecturer in English education at King’s College London.

And books offer much more than computers, argues Geraldine Brennan, the literary editor of TES: “Choosing a book is an act of citizenship for a child in the way that clicking on a menu is not.”

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