Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to the Irish Primary Principals Network and the INTO. I attended Tech Week last week and was blown away by the level of expertise and work. I saw everything from robots to CoderDojo projects. This brings me to the point I want to make, which is that ICT in national schools was built on the back of teachers who innovated in their own classrooms with their principals, who hounded businesses, parents and others to obtain funding to put a school ICT strategy in place. I say this with the greatest respect to the departmental officials present. I do not believe there is central joined-up thinking occurring on ICT anywhere in education, which is really sad.

I have mentioned as a teacher and must repeat that the IT world in parts of Europe and the United States is such that corporate IT companies supply software and computers directly to schools. We have never tapped into that. If we have, it has been done on a very local basis. I wonder why the Department has not put together a centralised procurement process similar to that of Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education Training Board, whereby a tender is offered at the beginning of the year and various companies compete to supply computers. The schools within the ETB area can draw down computers. Many of the computers that are bought halfway through the year are of a much higher specification than those bought at the start and their purchase price is the same as the original tender price. I do not know why we do not allow the principals around the country to buy from a central body. They would be getting the best value for money all the time. The specification must be the equivalent of or better than a specification set out at the beginning of the year.

Consider the idea of pooled technical support. I do not know why the Department does not contract in regional areas a number of companies that would provide technical support directly to the schools. Thus, school principals, instead of trying to fix problems themselves or trying to find a few bob in order to drop equipment into a local shop to have it fixed, would have proper ICT organisational backup.

The ICT strategy appears to be one of monitoring and managing rather than supporting teaching and learning. I am open to correction on this. The return system, whereby we can record teacher absence, etc., through ICT, is all good and dandy but teaching and learning are what the people on the ground are interested in. That is a concern for me.

The Irish Primary Principals Network will want to support curricular development in the schools. Is this being done on the backs of teachers working at home in the evenings? Is there joined-up thinking and is time made available? Can a substitute be provided to allow a teacher a certain number of hours per week to work on a specific project for a specific period in order to develop a curriculum that can be shared around the country?

In regard to the use of ICT for teaching Irish, is any work being done, perhaps by teachers on secondment, to prepare teaching materials given the status of Irish as a core subject at primary level?

I am acutely aware of the collapse of management in the school system. We need a champion for ICT in schools but unfortunately this area is being developed largely on a voluntary basis. Is the INTO seeking to formalise ICT teaching through in-service training for those who take up the post of ICT co-ordinator in a school? Has research been carried out into the use of freeware and shareware in schools? Finland has made the decision to source all of its software needs as freeware, for example, Moodle and Open Office, whereas Ireland tends to go down the proprietary route and we spend considerable amounts of money as a result. I understand the cost of licensing Microsoft software is €50 per machine. Is the IPPN or the INTO aware of any freeware being used in schools? Can the witnesses identify any example of blended learning, which involves using an application like Moodle to deliver the curriculum at home as well as in the classroom? Did I hear one of the witnesses refer to the computer trolley? Are schools still using computer trolleys in 2015?