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Government delaying schools' IT funding: INTO
Wednesday, January 02 2008
by Bryan Collins


Teachers' union INTO has accused the Minister for Education,
Mary Hanafin, of delaying funding to schools by sitting on a
report into ICT in education.

Union general secretary John Carr has warned the Government
that failure to invest properly in ICT for education will
have repercussions for the economy in the future, and
described it as tantamount to neglect. 





The report, from the expert advisory group on computers in
schools, has yet to be published, and the union has called on
Minister Hanafin to do so as soon as possible. 





The expert group was established to investigate how best to
spend the funding allocated to schools for IT under the
National Development Plan (2007-2013). Under the NDP, EUR252
million was allocated for investment in ICT at primary and
post-primary level over a seven-year period. The NDP was
published in January last year, and to date the funding has
yet to be spent, according to INTO. 





Carr said that in the past five years, primary schools have
had no government funding for the purchase, upgrade,
maintenance or repair of computers. "This is the digital
equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burned," he said,
drawing a contrast between this situation and the level of
investment in other OECD countries. 





"We are being left behind and without a substantial
investment we will fall further behind," he said. "We have
one of the lowest rates of ICT usage in education in the
developed world. This is unsurprising given that one in five
of all school computers are clapped out."





In 2005, Carr said that only EUR2.3 million was given to
schools to fund IT equipment, compared to a EUR100 million
plan that schools in Northern Ireland are currently subject
to. Under the Northern Irish plan, children will have access
to up to date computer equipment in schools in a bid to
familiarise them with the technology. 





Carr is laying the blame for the situation at the
Government's door, warning that the failure to invest in IT
in schools and develop skills necessary for the economy will
ensure that companies will seek alternative locations where
the skills are readily available. He also warned of a digital
divide between "computer rich and computer poor schools and
pupils", as there was no policy in place to give schools a
minimum standard of equipment.  



The INTO's criticism is echoed by Kerry e-learning group
Fluirse. Co-founder of the firm Tomas Finneran described it
as a frustrating situation and accused the Government of
tokenism in what amounted to a pre-election promise. 



"For every year this is delayed, another child misses out,"
he told ENN. Finneran said it was an uphill battle, and the
proposed funding was inadequate. "It's very thinly spread,
vastly inadequate and now it's delayed."





The stinging attack on the Government comes at the same time
as high-tech business group ICT Ireland warned once more of
the possibility of a future skills shortage and tried to
encourage potential third-level students to take up a
high-tech course.