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Our intrepid reporter Rowena Orejana ventures into the valley that time forgot.

Henderson Valley School is in a semi-rural neighbourhood, but it's hardly a rural school. With more than 400 students, the primary school is only half an hour from Auckland City.

It is, however, 3.3km away from the nearest Telecom cabinet and 5.2km away from the Henderson exchange. This means internet connection comes through an old copper telephone line at a download speed of 0.1Mbps (megabits per second).

"It's really, really frustrating," says principal Maree Stavert. "We just happened to be at the end of the hose and what we get is a trickle."

Pupils can't download what they need and, often, the computers drop internet connections.

Recently, one class set up to do online research, but the connection dropped out, forcing the children to abandon the lesson.

"We've got a computer room but if we have more than 10 users online at the same time it slows everything down," says Ms Stavert.

What frustrates the school more is this: the national broadband map offers the information that a fibre optic cable runs just outside the school, but the school cannot use it.

Ms Stavert has written to Education Minister Ann Tolley and Waitakere MP Paula Bennett seeking their help. Ms Bennett forwarded the plea to Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce.

The best these ministers have done is assure the school it will have an ultrafast broadband connection ... one day.

The Government is launching the $300 million, six-year, Rural Broadband Initiative which aims to deliver high-speed broadband connections to 97 per cent of rural households and schools.

In a letter to Ms Bennett, Mr Joyce says most schools will get broadband within two to three years.

In the meantime, Mr Joyce advises the school to look for other alternatives, such as talking to Telecom about the possibility of putting a cabinet near them for a faster internet connection.

The firm has no plans to do that.

"[Mr Joyce] suggested that perhaps we should look at satellite broadband, which we have done. But we can't get a connection because we don't have a clear vision to the western sky," says Ms Stavert.

And because of the large number of students in the school, the cost -  between $30,000 and $150,000 - would be prohibitive.

"We don't have that sort of money sitting around. Besides, why should we have to pay for that?

"Other schools are getting not only ultrafast broadband, but they are also getting their school networks upgraded. The ministry is paying for that.

"But we can't get our school network upgraded because we don't qualify because we don't have ultrafast broadband. So we're stuck in the middle," she adds.

So, the children miss out on quality e-learning and day-to-day administration suffers as the connection falters.

"We go to seminars and they talk about e-learning and e-portfolios," says Ms Stavert.

"We can't use any of that at all. We're just totally stuck. And three years? It's just really too long."

He says

"Henderson Valley School will be included in the Government's Rural Broadband Initiative as it is outside of Telecom's current cabinetisation programme. Officials believe it is highly likely that Henderson Valley School will receive a fibre connection under the RBI as there is currently fibre within the vicinity of the school."
Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce

She says

"I am advised that no viable solution is available to you in the short-term but that the roll-out of ultrafast broadband will address the problem in the longer term. The Ministry of Economic Development has advised that Crown Fibre Holdings is currently preparing a shortlist of private sector partners and intends completing negotiations for the first local fibre companies before the end of the year."
Education Minister Ann Tolley