Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 February 2004
25 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Education and Science the action he will take to address the problems highlighted in the recent OECD report in terms of computer use in secondary schools and difficulties in hiring teachers. [5299/04]
Amharc ar fhreagra30 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the recent figures produced by the OECD showing this country close to the bottom of a survey on access to computers in second level education; the steps being taken to ensure that all pupils have access to computers in view of their importance in education and career opportunities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5238/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 25 and 30 together.
The OECD report to which the Deputies refer is based on an international survey of second level schools carried out in the period November 2001 to May 2002 across 17 OECD countries. Some 255 Irish school principals participated in the survey. While the survey portrays Irish second level schools as having an average pupil to computer ratio of 13:1, substantial additional funding has been provided for schools' ICT since the survey was undertaken resulting in further reductions in pupil to computer ratios in Irish schools. In late 2002-early 2003, the national centre for technology in education conducted a full census of schools' ICT infrastructure on behalf of my Department, a key finding of which was that the average pupil to computer ratio in second level schools had fallen to 9.4 :1.
While significant progress has been made in providing ICT access and support to teachers and students in schools, there is still some way to go before ICT is fully integrated in the teaching and learning process. My Department is currently preparing a new strategic plan which will address a range of issues aimed at enhancing the potential of ICT for the benefit of both teacher and learner, including: provision of networked computer facilities in schools; broadband Internet access for every school in the country; teacher training and support programmes focused on practical ICT applications in the classroom; advancement of ICT as a central teaching and learning tool across the curriculum; development of quality digital content for use in the curriculum; promoting a participative e-learning environment within the school; industry-school collaboration on ICT issues; and evaluating the impact of ICT at school level.
In regard to the OECD survey's findings on hiring teachers, it should be understood that two sets of questions were asked in this regard the first related to the principal's perception as to the difficulty of hiring qualified staff across a range of disciplines, the second to experience of how teacher vacancies were actually being filled and by whom.
While Irish principals responded to the first question by expressing that it was difficult to find fully qualified teachers in specific disciplines, in regard to the second question the overwhelming majority of schools reported that vacancies were being filled by fully qualified teachers. This means that while principals perceive a particular difficulty in finding fully qualified staff or indeed that it is becoming a more difficult task, they are still managing to do so in a huge majority of situations. In fact, the findings in the Irish situation show that we have the highest filling of vacancies by qualified staff of all countries polled in the survey.
