Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 May 2020
151. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the monitoring undertaken by his Department of the number of children that do not have access to broadband or to high enough quality broadband to engage in digital learning initiatives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7228/20]
View answerSince the announcement that schools would close and the extension of that closure, my Department has provided guidance to schools and teachers in the education sector to ensure that they continue to work and to engage with their students to continue the delivery of education. A series of guidance notes to support schools to effectively support and engage with their students are published on my Department's website at: https://www.education.ie/en/covid-19/#guidance. Further guidance will continue to be compiled to address the various challenges that arise for schools in providing programmes of continued learning in the remote learning environment. Various surveys and studies has conducted across the education system has informed the development of guidance.
Schools have been asked to be conscious of students who may not have access to online facilities and to consider this actively in their responses. As part of reopening of society roadmap and the lifting of current restrictions, school and college buildings are now opened for access by teachers for the organisation and distribution of remote learning in line with public health advice and restrictions.
Officials in my Department have liaised with colleagues in the DCCAE to raise the issue of barriers to connectivity impacting access to remote learning. Minister Bruton has announced a package of additional supports from the telecoms companies including that access to healthcare and educational resource websites identified by the Government will be zero-rated for all customers where technically feasible. The Telecommunications industry has also introduced update for data limits for consumers to assist their customers during the Covid-19 to access online services without exceeding their data limits.
The Department will continue to work with the education partners to address challenges where digital and remote learning options may not be possible.
Information as to the broadband connectivity available to individual children in their homes would not be available to the Department. In the context of the National Broadband Plan Intervention area implementation, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment are addressing the needs of those areas with poor connectivity.
