Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I requested that the committee discuss this topic because there was a wide gap between aspiration and reality. The witnesses are speaking from the same page in respect of what can be done with ICT but the reality on the ground is very different. As the INTO representatives pointed out, implementation is patchy and varies between schools. The ESRI report on ICT use by children in school and at home also identified a wide gap. Children who are computer literate can perceive the traditional environment in some schools as alien to the way they are brought up. This issue should be a priority for us.

When I asked about the ICT strategy in the Seanad last year, I was told it was coming soon. The Department's submission indicates that it will be introduced in June. The key issue for the strategy will be funding and the provision of multi-annual funding in particular. We will only ensure a coherent strategy for ICT and avoid a haphazard approach by providing a multi-annual capital envelope. We will not develop a proper IT strategy if money is thrown at schools in a good year but then nothing happens for four or five years. We should instead be providing an envelope of funding for that five-year period. Schools could be given a commitment on the minimum amounts to be spent in each year and funding can then be increased if more money is available. The funding would be linked to clear targets based on an audit of school's ICT needs. The departmental officials indicated that funding would be made available but they also referred to the current economic context. If we are serious about education and the economy, particularly given the economic importance of ICT companies, this is an area we should regard as an investment in the future.

We should not have a stop-start approach to it depending on the overall economic context. We need to prioritise it. Judging from the delegates' presentations, it seems the strategy will be more conservative than I would have hoped. It needs to be ambitious. There is great potential in this area for differentiated learning, for children to learn at different paces and for children with special needs, and that will more than cover the cost of it. The potential for using the ICT properly is incredible if we were to do it right.

The Department's submission stated it was committed to the provision of enhanced broadband provision. That does not seem to give the sound clear-cut target we had for second level schools in respect of which it was stated that all second level schools would have a certain broadband speed. We worked towards achieving that. I would like to know how specific that target will be. It is rather pointless if we do not know that. The INTO magazine InTouchhad a good article on this aspect last year. It set out where a teacher planned to show a video to the classroom. The teacher sat down to show a three-minute clip, the first minute played and then the video stopped. The teacher did not if it had stopped for ten seconds or for five minutes. It is not possible to plan teaching in that context. Teachers need to know that the broadband connection will work. The ESRI pointed out that this was an issue in terms of how ICT was used in schools, that it depended on having consistent access to broadband and knowing that one will get the necessary broadband speeds.

I wish to raise with the delegates the issue of e-books, which is a bugbear of mine, as the members will know, as I have raised it with various witnesses from the Department of Finance, the Department of Education and Skills and other bodies which have appeared before the committee. It is crazy that in many cases e-books cost more than the printed book. The Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Finance will trot out the excuse about the EU directive, but what are we doing to change the directive? The VAT directive was written at a point when nobody had even conceived of the idea of e-books, but things change. It is a significant issue. I would like to know what the Department of Education and Skills is doing with its colleagues in the Department of Finance to pursue that issue at European level in terms of requesting that an amended directive be drawn up to address this issue.