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258 chapter 7: school contexts
Given the increasingly widespread availability of literacy materials on
the Internet, access to computers that may be used for instructional purposes
can be a crucial school resource. Exhibit 7.7 provides principals’ reports on
the availability of computers for fourth-grade students in 2006, as well as
changes since 2001. Results are presented in terms of number of students per
computer—fewer than 5 students, 5–10 students, 11–20 students, more than
20 students, and students in schools without any computers. Although on
average internationally, more than half the students (53%) were in relatively
well-resourced schools (fewer than five students per computer), the situation
varied enormously across countries. More than 90 percent of students in
Denmark, England, Iceland, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British
Columbia, and Ontario were in such schools, as well as 80 percent or more
in Scotland, the United States, Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, and the Canadian
province of Quebec. In contrast, however, less than 10 percent of students
were in such schools in Moldova, Macedonia, Indonesia, Georgia, and
Iran. In these countries, the majority of students attended schools with no
computers at all.