The plan is to encourage schools to use their "online networks" to provide parents with more information about their child's performance. That's stuff like achievement grades, attendance records and assigned homework.
Leaving aside the desirability of young people's growth and development being monitored behind their backs, there seems to be a largish hole in the minister's "radical plan". We know there are a large number of young people disadvantaged by having parents who don't take the slightest interest in their education. Their numbers are about to be increased by those who don't have an internet-enabled computer at home.
Official statistics suggest that 44 per cent of households around the country have access to the internet at home. Of course, coverage will be patchy. The BBC quotes one head teacher from a school in Hackney as saying that only about one in four pupils has an email account at home.
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