Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 105: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on the possibility of introducing a laptop computer to all students; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21843/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is determined to ensure that all students have the opportunity to acquire good information technology, IT, skills that will stand to them throughout their lives. Equally, we are committed to realising the potential of information and communication technology, ICT, to improve the educational experience across the broad range of subjects taught in our schools.

The investment of €185 million in the schools' ICT programme from 1998 to 2006 has delivered significant improvements. The number of computers in our schools has increased significantly. By 2005, there was one computer for every nine primary school pupils, down from one for every 16 in 2000. At post-primary level, there was one computer for every seven pupils in 2005, down from one for every 11 in 2000. The National Council for Technology in Education has provided over 130,000 training places for teachers in a wide range of areas, including technical courses, subject specific courses, web use, web design and digital media courses. Through Scoilnet and other initiatives curriculum-mapped on-line resources have been made available and schools have been networked and given broadband access.

Considerable improvements have been made but we are conscious that challenges remain and have set out an investment of €252 million in schools ICT under the national development plan. A new strategy is being developed that will be comprehensive, well considered and informed by best practice in other countries. This will ensure that schools have the right package of hardware, software, training, curricular content, maintenance services and other necessary supports available to them.

The Deputy's question refers to the provision of laptops to all students, but I will take it that he means only second level students. This would be an extremely expensive development and one that, for a number of reasons, I do not believe would be a wise investment. To start with costs, ultimately the price of each laptop would depend on the extent to which it is possible to standardise requirements and agree volume based prices with vendors. The machines would need to have a good suite of software included, a good memory capacity and be small enough to be relatively portable given that children would have to carry them around. Assuming one could get all this for €500 per unit, which may well be ambitious, the total purchase cost alone of providing laptops for all 334,000 second level students would amount to about €167 million.

There would of course be other very substantial costs for items such as insurance, maintenance and networking. The issue of replacement costs would also arise as would the risk of viruses being brought into the school from home systems.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

It should also be noted that an OECD survey conducted in 2003 found that 87% of Irish young people had access to computers at home anyway. I absolutely accept that our schools need a major investment in computer hardware but I believe that rushing out and buying 334,000 laptops would be misguided.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Given the chronic level of funding for technology in our schools, the fact that most schools must depend on Tesco vouchers to obtain additional PCs and that in Northern Ireland an interactive whiteboard is standard, which is not the case in this jurisdiction, will the Minister recognise that the proposal I have set out is sensible not only from a cost, but an environmental perspective and also in terms of encouraging greater interconnectivity within our secondary school system?

Is the Minister aware of a recent project introduced under the connect programme in south Dublin in my area, in respect of which a school has been given laptop facilities, which is showing a phenomenal success rate in terms of fostering interest in school and efficiency in terms of the way time is used between pupils and teachers? Will she give this proposal a more considered view as I believe the costs it would involve as she outlined in her reply are exaggerated? If we were to move towards the introduction of such a project over a period, it would be cost efficient as opposed to the amounts of money she mentioned in her reply.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I genuinely do not believe that the provision of a laptop for every student is the best use of resources or the way to promote an e-learning culture in a school. It is as important to ensure there is proper teacher training, proper technical support and good software and hardware that is relevant to the whole school.

I am not convinced of the value of the provision of an interactive whiteboard for every class. I have seen them in action in some places. A good teacher is a good teacher with a blackboard or a whiteboard and a bad teacher is a bad teacher with a whiteboard or a blackboard. All of this must be part of an overall strategy. The strategy group, which is due to report to me, has been examining not only the aid of the computer in the classroom, but other aids such as digital projectors and how they can be incorporated into the curriculum. A broader e-learning culture is important and cannot be achieved by giving each student a laptop.

I am familiar with the case of the school to which the Deputy referred because I launched that project in Tallaght. It is an exciting one but also a demanding one because, equally, the staff must be trained. I know those involved find it a positive experience and much work has been invested in the project by the council and the staff of the school to make sure it works.