The department for Education and Skills and the local education authorities face an immense problem. Amazingly, it is not a lack of money. The department's capital budget for next year is ￡5.1 bn -more than seven times the budget of 1996/07, including ￡2.2bn earmarked for rebuilding or renewing secondary schools in 14 local authorities No, the problem faced by Britain's education authorities at national and local level is that, over the past 20 years or so, hardly any secondary schools have been built. As a result, expertise in their procurement and design has all but vanished. In any case, the 1970s school, with its dog-eared log tables and slide rules, bears no relation to the high-tech schools of today, with their computer networks and after-hours community services.
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