asked the Minister for Education (1) the total grant for audio-visual aids for the last school year to primary and secondary schools; (2) the percentage of this grant that was paid to primary schools; (3) of the percentage paid to primary schools, the amount that was spent on equipment such as projectors, tape recorders etc.; (4) the percentage of the primary grant that was spent on slides, filmstrips, cassettes etc.; and (5) the amount under (4) that was spent on non-Irish materials and the amount that was spent on Irish materials.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Audio-Visual Aids.
30.
The scheme of annual grants for audio-visual equipment relates to the financial year rather than the school year. For 1977 the sum of £126,134 was paid for primary schools and the sum of £76,392 for secondary schools. The proportion of the total provision which was devoted to primary schools was 62 per cent.
In regard to the type of equipment which was purchased, the amount of work necessary to compile this information in the form requested by the Deputy would not be warranted.
Is the Minister aware that a very substantial amount of the money spent on audio-visual equipment has been spent on imported goods and can he, as Minister of State at the Department of Education, do anything about this?
I am not so aware, but the Deputy will appreciate that, having regard to the miscellany of items in schools and to the urgent need for teachers applying themselves to their role of teaching, it would not be fair to ask them to spend an inordinate amount of time classifying the country of origin of every item of equipment in schools.
I was not asking whether teachers should spend time doing this but whether the Department saw any responsibility on their part to encourage schools to buy more Irish materials?
Such instruction is given to all schools in respect of any equipment they purchase. They were advised and even warned that, where suitable equipment is available, it should be bought at home.
Is this a recent warning?
No, it has been there all the time.
Would the Minister agree it is a reasonable request to try to encourage the maximum amount of materials of Irish origin for use in classrooms and in audio-visual aids generally in education? Would he accept that the initial reply to the question, indicating that compilation of statistics on this important question was not warranted, is, to say the least of it, very unhelpful from that point of view?
I do not think that teachers should be required to indulge in what I regard as rather fruitless exercises because there is so much else for them to do.
That is the Department's job. That is precisely the point I am making.
I do not think civil servants should be asked to do it either.
Who is supposed to do it then?
Question No. 31.