Computers in Schools 02/01/2008
Press Statement by John Carr, General Secretary, Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, on Computers in Primary Schools
2nd January 2008Publish ICT Report Now! Further delay inexcusable!
The INTO today called on Education Minister Mary Hanafin to publish without delay the report of the expert advisory group on computers in schools. The union said the Minister was “sitting on the report and delaying much needed funding to schools”.
The expert group was established by the Minister to advise on how best to spend the money allocated to schools IT in the National Development Plan (2007 – 2013). The NDP was published last January. It provided for €252m to be spent on ICT in education at primary and post-primary level over the next 7 years.
“Nearly a year after the NDP was published to great fanfare,” said union general secretary John Carr, “not a red cent has been spent.” He said primary schools have had no government funding whatsoever towards the purchase, upgrade, maintenance or repair of computers for five years. “This is the digital equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burned,” said Mr Carr.
“This is in complete contrast to the level of investment in technology in education in almost every other OECD country. We are being left behind and without a substantial investment we will fall further behind”
“We have one of the lowest rates of ICT usage in education in the developed world,” said Mr Carr. “This is unsurprising given that one in five of all school computers are clapped out.” He said the blame for this lay squarely with government.
Government knows how important investment in schools IT will be for future economic development. The Department’s failure to invest in schools IT amounts to sheer neglect. Failure to develop the computer skills that this sector of the economy needs will see them go elsewhere for a skilled workforce.
In 2005 a mere €2.3 million was spent on supporting schools for the purchase of Information Technology (IT) equipment. This stood in marked contrast to the north where a €100m plan for schools IT is being rolled out. Northern Ireland is making sure that all children will have access to the latest computer equipment in schools. There, every child will soon be as familiar with technology as their parents were with pen and paper.
In the Republic, only the children of the wealthy get the same exposure to computers, either in school or home. Where schools have computer facilities they are the result of local fundraising or support from businesses in the community. There is no policy to give schools even a minimum standard of computing equipment. In Ireland, we have the classic “digital divide” between computer rich and computer poor schools and pupils.
The level of government investment in computers for schools is way below where it needs to be. There is no national plan, no coherent vision and critically little funding for the development of IT in our schools. Immediate action must be taken by government.
Ends.
ENDS