Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 5 Dec 2000

Vol. 527 No. 3

Written Answers. - Information and Communications Technology.

David Stanton

Question:

401 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Education and Science if any assistance is available from his Department or from any other State agency to assist families to purchase home computers for educational purposes; the plans he has to establish such a scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28569/00]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

My Department currently operates a number of schemes targeted at the provision of equipment and software to serve the needs of students, teachers and administrators within education. All these schemes focus on putting the requisite infrastructure in place in schools and colleges to integrate information and communications technology – ICT – into the classroom. At present no scheme assists the purchase of equipment in a home situation.

The schools IT2000 programme seeks to further develop the integration of ICT into first and second level education, providing in this regard a comprehensive ongoing capital equipment programme for schools and a training programme for teachers.

In addition some 70 pilot projects have been put in place in first and second level schools by the National Centre for Technology in Education, – NCTE – under the schools integration project, SIP. The SIP programme is focused on the testing of a broad variety of ICT-related strategies for future general application in the education sector.

A number of the SIP pilot projects are examining the efficacy of home-school linkages involving computers and the Internet. The SIP projects are ongoing and, when completed, will be evaluated with a view to best practice for the future.