Vol. 523 No. 5
100 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans he has to apply more vigorous enforcement of the conditions applying to Schools IT 2000 Project, as recommended by the 1999 annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General; the reason his Department paid out phase II grants under the scheme despite the lack of accountability in respect of proper purchase conditions and proper use; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21427/00]
The overall objective of the Schools IT 2000 Programme, which has been in operation for almost three years now, is to further develop the integration of information and communications technologies into Irish primary and second level education. The programme is of major importance in supporting all of our young people in acquiring the ICT skills necessary for their full participation in this information age. Ireland was lagging significantly behind many of its European partners in this area when the programme was launched in late 1997. My Department felt it necessary to address this by supporting every school in making progress as quickly as possible. Grants were issued to all primary and second level schools in 1998 and 1999 to support them in developing their ICT infrastructure.
It was decided to issue the second instalment of grant aid to all schools in late 1999, even to the 25% or so who had not yet submitted a final return on their phase 1 expenditure, in order to maintain the momentum towards achieving the national objectives of the programme and in order to continue to stimulate ICT related activity in every school. My Department's judgment was that the need to make rapid progress was paramount in 1998 and 1999.
I am satisfied that the extent of the progress highlighted by a recent survey carried out by the National Centre for Technology in Education indicates that this approach was justified. Preliminary findings from this survey include the average primary school now has 8.7 computers, up from 3.8 in early 1998; the average second level school now has 42.7 computers, up from 31 in early 1998; more than 95% of schools state that they are using the Internet, up from only 25% in early 1998; and well over 30,000 teachers have attended one or more IT training courses since early 1998.
