Education is a natural hunting ground for over-ambitious futurologists, and there has been no shortage of predictions that teachers and even schools will soon be redundant. The ubiquitous computer, it is said, will deliver all we need to know in the comfort of our homes.

The reality, for the foreseeable future at least, is likely to be less spectacular. Schools perform a social as well as an educational function, and even the most sophisticated ``learning packages'' are more effective with a human instructor at hand. It is a safe bet that there will be too few teachers, not too many, early next century, says a report in The Times.

A more modest revolution is under way, however, with technology as its driving force. The businessof teaching will change radically as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) transforms the resources available to schools, colleges and universities. Ministers are anxious to spread the benefits to the adult population, where home-based learning is a serious proposition.

The government has put its faith in technology as a vital element of its standards agenda, pouring millions into the National Grid for Learning. With schools already benefiting from initiatives such as Tesco's Computers for Schools Scheme, which has provided 44 million of equipment since 1992, the potential is obvious. The grid will enable teachers to access top-quality material on every subject, as well as share successful classroom practices.

British classrooms are already well provided, compared with other countries, for sheer numbers of computers, but many are becoming obsolete. Other private firms are following Tesco's lead in helping to modernise the stock to take advantage of new opportunities, recycling redundant businesscomputers as well as supplying new ones. Cable companies and Internet providers have been chipping in with free connections and Internet accounts.

Next week's BETT exhibition, at London's Olympia, will demonstrate the breakneck pace at which educational technology is changing. Last year's show attracted more than 20,000 visitors from 67 countries, and its total of 360 exhibiting companies will be exceeded comfortably this year. Education has become an important market for ICT firms, as next week's launch of a host of products confirms.

As in other areas of communications, international boundaries will cease to be an obstacle. EU governments are already cooperating on European Schoolnet, which will facilitate projects between schools in different countries, support a Virtual Teacher College and develop common technical guidelines for teachers.

With the end of UK NetYear, the government-backed initiative to raise awareness of ICT in schools, has come a spate of mainly optimistic analyses of Britain'sprogress. Research Machines, one of the main participants, judged that schools were responding enthusiastically, although many teachers remained confused about how best to use ICT in lessons.

The most successful schools were spending about 4 per cent of their budgets on ICT, the report said, whereas the average was less than 1 per cent. With half of all schoolchildren expected to have access to a home computer by 2002, RM suggests incorporating ICT into homework assignments.

Before long, the RM report argues, the Internet will become the single most significant source of information for pupils. ``The ability to manipulate complex information will become, in itself, a core skill with the same level of importance as literacy and numeracy.''

However, Phil Smith, director of business development at Cisco Systems, another UK NetYear participant, says Britain still has a long way to go to match the use of technology in American schools. ``Free local calls mean that there is no need for schools to log on andoff all the time,'' he says. ``Using the Internet ceases to be a bit of a chore and becomes a convenient and natural way for teachers to illustrate a point or for kids to look something up.''

Lord Puttnam, the film director and government education advisor, has been arguing for the maximum possible investment in educational technology. He told the Further Education Development Agency that equipment had to be ``future-proof'' as well as fast and reliable. Like David Blunkett, Lord Puttnam sees the promotion of lifelong learning as at least as great a challenge. However, at the same meeting, he bemoaned the fact that only 23 per cent of adults in Britain were engaged in any formal learning.

``No matter how many brilliant training and retraining schemes we implement for adults,'' he said, ``no matter how much money we pump into colleges, and no matter how many rigorous inspections we employ to ensure high standards, at the end of the day, if we can't enhance that natural instinct for learning with which allyoung people are born, the future of our economy and society are in great peril.''