Mr. Steven Daly:

I am grateful for the opportunity to address the joint committee on the work of Camara. I am accompanied by Mr. John Fitzsimons, CEO of Camara, and Ms Maureen O'Donnell, who is the Europe and Caribbean service manager. I look after Camara's Irish programmes. Camara is an international charity and social enterprise which uses technology to improve education and deliver 21st-century learning skills to disadvantaged communities around the world. We work in Africa, the Caribbean and, obviously, Ireland. Those who engage with Camara subscribe to three core beliefs, namely, that poverty in the 21st century is wrong, that education is a key tool for breaking down cycles of poverty and that technology has the power to transform the way education is delivered.

Our vision is for a technology-enabled world-class education system that is accessible to all. In trying to deliver on that vision, we bring a package of information and communications technology, ICT, and education programmes to schools and youth centres around the world. We deliver packages comprising educator training, hardware, support and software to schools, community centres and youth centres in the countries in which we work. As we cannot deliver those packages on our own, we have been lucky over the last ten years to be partnered by a number of brilliant organisations, including Google, Facebook, PwC, ESB and Electric Ireland, to name but a few. Over those ten years we have managed to make a significant global impact. We have reached approximately 900,000 young people, trained more than 16,000 educators and supplied more than 62,000 computers. We have also been delivering a programme in Ireland since 2010. In the five years we have worked in Ireland, we have collaborated with more than 250 organisations, most of which are schools and youth centres, delivered more than 3,500 computers and trained more than 1,100 educators, including both teachers and youth workers.

Through our work on ICT education in Ireland, we have identified huge gaps in the integration of computers and technology into the education system. These gaps are indicated most clearly in statistics that emerged from the 2012 European Schoolnet survey on the state of ICT in education in Ireland. On average, 40% of students in Irish schools use computers less often than once per week, 45% of students attend schools in which support for ICT is classified as weak and 40% of students are taught by teachers with low confidence levels in using ICT. Despite the negative nature of these statistics, it is important to point out they are not due to the lack of a plan. In 2008, the Department of Education and Science released a fantastic five-year plan entitled Investing Effectively in ICT in Schools 2008-2013. The plan identified seven key areas of investment which chime closely with Camara's experience. Over the last ten years we have made many of the mistakes that can be made in integrating ICT into teaching and learning environments. The seven areas identified are key to addressing many of these mistakes. It is clear, therefore, that the issue pertains to implementation rather than planning or analysis. Where we are failing is in the execution of our plans.

It is clear that the top-down approach is not working particularly well. The reasons are myriad, from the country's financial position in recent years to difficulties in managing industrial relations. During that period, it is interesting that there was a significant groundswell in demand from the bottom up of the education system, with education leaders, teachers and principals wanting to integrate ICT effectively into their schools. This has been indicated by the success of the social enterprise model that Camara has been using in Ireland, a success that is mainly due to the fact that it is demand-driven. Rather than being a top-down approach, it is a participatory one in which stakeholders from across the system demand products and services from us. That we are a social enterprise means that we are not looking for a commercial market segment from which we can make money. Instead, we are driven to design a solution or a set of products and services that address an entire aspect of a particular social problem. In addition, the not-for-profit constitution of an organisation such as Camara Education means that the value for money and return on investment that we can offer to schools and youth centres are exponentially higher than those offered by the commercial sector, sometimes as much as ten times so.

I will conclude with a short example of how organisations in the third sector such as Camara Ireland can work with the Government to address the 40% of the system that is lagging behind. If the Department of Education and Skills were to co-fund a third-sector organisation to the tune of approximately €5 million, State IT assets were re-used in education and there were co-operation and joined-up thinking by a number of Departments, the third sector and organisations such as Camara could quickly put in place initiatives under which up to 1,600 of the schools most in need would be dealt with, up to 64,000 computers would be delivered into the education system, 20,000 teachers would be trained and, most importantly, up to 340,000 young people would receive an improved education.

My request is for the committee to work with the Departments of Education and Skills, Social Protection and Children and Youth Affairs and to push them to look towards the third sector and work with organisations such as Camara to address the issue of the final 40% of the system that is lagging behind. Without the committee's support and drive, there is the potential for the seven areas to remain just as plans instead of being executed. We have a duty to the young people in our education system to execute those plans and bring them to fruition.

I thank the committee for listening and we will be delighted to take members' questions.