Intel is to make a laptop for the education sector in Britain as part of a push to get into this lucrative market sector.

The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Specialist Schools and Academics Trust to train 265,000 teachers in interactive learning skills by 2011.

Intel will also set up a web-based teaching resource with lesson plans, digital media and advice for training students.

The laptop for pupils will be priced at around £500 per unit, according to reports in the Sunday Times.

The laptop will be ruggedised for use in schools and will have a cloth cover that can be printed with the school's logo to deter thieves.

According to the report, the laptop is the brainchild of Sean McGuire, Intel's UK-based head of education and government, who has convinced Intel's management to go ahead with the plan.

Intel has a long record in the education industry in this country. In 1998 it formed the Oxford-Intel Education Initiative to develop software teaching aids for schools, and set up a specialist education division in 2003.