Mr. Robert O'Leary:

ICT can enhance, enrich and extend children’s learning in primary school. It can transform teaching and learning when deployed appropriately, substantially changing the traditional classroom where the teacher in general has control over pupils’ learning to one where students learn collaboratively and construct and discover knowledge for themselves. Learning is facilitated by ICT in ways that were not possible in the past. ICT should subserve the three general fundamental aims of the curriculum. It should enable the child to live a full life as a child and realise his or her potential as a unique individual. It should enable the child to develop as a social being through living and co-operating with others and thus contribute to the good of society and prepare him or her for further education and lifelong learning.

ICT in primary education must also serve the pedagogical principles of the curriculum such as activity and discovery learning, child-centred authentic learning, integrated and environment-based learning, developing a child’s sense of wonder and curiosity, developing existing knowledge and experience, language being central to the learning process, the development of higher order thinking and problem solving skills, collaborative learning, catering for individual differences and supporting assessment. ICT must be integrated into all aspects of the primary school curriculum. It should not be viewed as a stand-alone subject or topic requiring the development of separate skills needing distinct curriculum time but as a tool and a means for accessing the curriculum and supporting, enriching and extending teaching and learning. ICT in schools must emphasise teaching and learning, not technology skills.

All pupils in primary schools should be able to benefit from the integration of ICT in every area of the curriculum. ICT must become an integral part of the teaching and learning process in every school and classroom and every area of the curriculum. The use of ICT in primary schools can be seen to reflect directly the uneven, haphazard and unstructured approach adopted by successive Governments. Reasonable expectations among teachers in the use of ICT have been built up and dashed time and again.

That has come from sustained underinvestment at school base level. There is the lack of a coherent implementable developmental national strategy and a failure to invest sufficiently in and provide recognition for teacher professional development. In the main, implementation in many schools relied on the good will and expertise of a small number of dedicated teachers. There is insufficient capacity to allow teachers to develop their professional practice and a lack of investment in colleges of education.

Many issues, including planning for information and communications technology, ICT, and its use in supporting the curriculum, the professional development of teachers and ICT infrastructure in schools, range along a continuum, from basic to innovative and creative. It is essential, therefore, that the scale of the challenge be fully recognised. It includes reigniting teacher enthusiasm, recreating a place for ICT in every primary classroom, re-educating the teaching force, re-equipping classrooms and reconfiguring schools for the use of ICT. This will require engagement and discussion with teachers to learn what supports they require and it will demand much more research into how teachers are using technology today. Equally, we must ensure the different needs of diverse groups of pupils are envisioned within the plan. One size will not fit all. Particular attention must be paid not only to the pupils in mainstream classes but also to the needs of pupils with special needs, children in need of learning support, reluctant learners, Traveller children and children for whom English is a second language. There will be a need for particular investment to support the language needs of children in gaelscoileanna and scoileanna lán-Ghaeilge.

With regard to the digital schools of distinction programme, the programme for Government asserts that we should all be ambitious for education and fully develop a knowledge society. Apart from being an engine of sustainable economic growth, education is at the heart of a more cohesive, equal and successful society. Investment in ICT and primary education will pay significant economic and societal dividends.