The survey was commissioned by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) - the organisation primarily responsible for developing the government's Web-based National Grid for Learning.

Pollsters NOP carried out the survey by telephone in April, and say it suggested that 51% of primary schools were connected to the Internet, compared with only 17% in 1997.

The Schools Minister, Charles Clarke, said primary schools were "reaping the benefits of the Information Age" thanks to the way the government had "pioneered" arrangements with BT and the cable companies to wire up schools free of charge.

Free - at a price

Schools can get connected at no cost to high speed telecommunications lines - but do have to pay annual charges to use the lines.

The Becta survey dealt purely with connectivity to the Internet, not with what schools did with the connection. The Department for Education says the connections vary between simple dial-up access on a phone line, and fast ISDN2 - its recommended minimum.

Becta acknowledges that its scheme to give 10,000 portable computers to headteachers and senior teachers, many of them in primary schools, will have boosted the number of schools that are nominally connected - but that is not the same as pupils having regular Net access.

Shortcomings

"While targets for connection by the end of 1999 have not been set, our aim is that all schools, colleges, universities, libraries and as many community centres as possible should be online and able to benefit from access to the National Grid for Learning by 2002," Mr Clarke said.

To help achieve that, the government was supporting over £700m of information and communication technology-related expenditure in UK schools, he said.

Of this, £657m is going to schools in England, specifically to be spent on the National Grid for Learning. The rest is for schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to spend on ICT generally.

A more comprehensive picture on schools' Net use has yet to emerge - but a report from school inspectors earlier this month said there were worrying shortcomings in the teaching of information and communication technology (ICT) in primary schools.

Teacher training

One of the biggest problems is that teachers are unfamiliar with the technology - something the government is addressing through better training.

"We are also investing £230m through the New Opportunities Fund to train teachers in the use of ICT in the classroom," Mr Clarke said.

"This will help bring serving teachers up to the standard required of new teachers entering the profession from September 1999 who have followed the initial teacher training national curriculum, which includes the use of ICT in subject teaching."

The Department for Education says other estimates and surveys suggest that almost all secondary schools (90%) are online, and all universities and further education colleges.

Statistics collected late in 1997 found that 5% of public libraries offered public Internet access. There is a programme to link all public libraries, where practicable, to the National Grid for Learning by 2002.