Slow internet connections have been blamed for poor school exam results.

A report reveals a relationship between broadband connection speeds and results in Hastings and St Leonards.

It has been suggested 3,500 pupils' education has been affected.

While pupils of neighbouring schools enjoy speeds of 4-8Mbps, pupils who live in the catchment areas of The Grove School, Filsham Valley School, West St Leonards Primary School and Saxon Mount Schools are lucky to achieve speeds of 0.5Mbps or 1Mbps.

Many schools on the outskirts of the town find broadband speeds are limited.

British Telecom will introduce broadband speeds of up to 24Mbps in areas close to the exchange in Hastings in November but little improvement is expected to be seen over longer telephone line distances.

The report, by Paul Cockerton, caretaker at Filsham Valley School, St Leonards, said: "It does seem an uncanny coincidence that three of the main secondary schools (Hillcrest, Filsham Valley and The Grove) in the Hastings area put into a collaboration under a private company, Ninestiles Plus, by East Sussex County Council are all on the outskirts of the town and suffer the same slow connections.

"More worryingly, part of the plan to improve exam results at all three schools involves improving communications links for pupils between school and home.

"Although East Sussex County Council has equipped its schools with super fast dedicated broadband lines to cope with the future, nothing has been done to help pupils in these areas get faster speeds.

"In fact, many are still using dial-up connections (at home) which are totally useless for any multimedia experience."

The caretaker at Filsham Valley School shares his broadband connection wirelessly with families in the area. Modifying the line, he has achieved a speed of 2Mbps.

Mr Cockerton, said: "Dare one suggest that it is not just the schools that need to collaborate but education leaders need to try to resolve the many issues that collectively are affecting the ability of our young people to learn.

"If we want our children's learning ability to move out of the slow lane, then somebody needs to provide a motorway for them to do it."

A spokesman for East Sussex County Council said: "We appreciate providing schools with faster broadband connections is a key element in learning.

"That is why we are introducing new high speed broadband connections for all our schools.

"The new system will provide secondary schools with an initial 8Mbps and primary and special schools with 2Mbps capability.

However, the technology is capable of providing up to 100Mbps for secondary schools and 10Mbps for primary/special schools when required."

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