Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 June 2018
298. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the €4.5 million allocated to foreign languages, STEM school policy and digital learning programmes for schools as outlined in budget 2018; the amount of the allocation that has been spent; the way in which the funds were spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24306/18]
View answerApproximately €1.5m of the €4.5 has been allocated to the Post Primary Languages Initiative (PPLI) to implement the actions assigned to it under Languages Connect, Irelands Foreign Language Strategy 2017 - 2026. In order to put in place the capacity to deliver on actions assigned to PPLI, due process has been followed and 4 additional staff are now being recruited to the PPLI, two of whom commenced work in May. The first PPLI action was an audit of foreign languages provision in post-primary schools and this was completed with minimal cost. An awareness raising campaign on the value of learning foreign languages, languages upskilling courses for teachers, the promotion of language exchanges abroad and an awards scheme for businesses with good practice in relation to foreign languages are among some of the projects currently being planned during 2018. With the need for appropriate resourcing, advance planning and adherence to best practice, funding is only now being drawn down. The only costs to date are one month's salary for two new members of staff and the creation of videos which will be part of the awareness raising campaign. In all about €35,000 has been spent to date from the €1.5m allocation for foreign languages.
€1.5m has been allocated for STEM. This has not yet been drawn down but will be spent in 2018 on the following:
- STEM clusters
- Promotion of STEM to include Awareness campaign
- Support for STEM to include PDST STEM team
Funds were also allocated to The School Excellence Fund (SEF) – Digital. The funding for the SEF – Digital has not as yet been allocated to the successful schools owing to the fact that the clustered schools are still working on finalising their budget submissions. It is expected that over the next few weeks all budgets will be submitted from the clusters. The submissions will then be reviewed and, when approval has been given by the working group, ICT policy unit will begin processing the payments to each cluster group. The majority of the cluster projects will be up and running at the start of the coming school year.
