Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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7. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views of the results of 15 year olds on the computer based assessment of problem solving in PISA 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16467/14]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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The latest PISA report from the OECD's programme for international student assessment, PISA, shows that 15-year-old students in Ireland performed at the average level of participating countries on computer-based assessment of problem solving.

Ireland ranked 17th of the 28 OECD countries that took part in the study, and 22nd out of all 44 participating countries. Countries like the United States, Norway, Denmark and Sweden performed similarly to Ireland, while Canada, Australia, Finland and the United Kingdom performed significantly better than Ireland.

The top six performing countries are in Asia, with Singapore ranked first. The performance of Irish students on problem solving in this PISA study is good but there is considerable room for improvement.

Project Maths and the emphasis on skills development in the new junior cycle student awards, JCSA, offer students and teachers new ways of thinking and learning that should improve our 15-year-olds' problem-solving capabilities.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. The Educational Research Centre's analysis of the result makes the point that students in Ireland have lower levels of familiarity with using ICT in schools and at home for school-related tasks than on average across all 34 OECD countries. This suggests a lack of familiarity with school-based computer tasks which has contributed to lower performance on the computer-based assessment by PISA.

The ERC also suggests that Ireland's relatively weaker performance in problem solving appears to be compounded by a more general weakness on computer-based assessments. I know the Department is due to bring forward a digital strategy for schools, but when will this be finalised? What is the timeframe for its implementation and what will the strategy's budget be? Has the Minister of State assessed, more deeply than his initial answer would indicate, the reasons behind our relatively average performance in this particular result?

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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As has already been articulated in other answers by the Minister, Deputy Quinn, we are moving away from a rote learning framework to one which is inquiry-based and which puts the student at the centre of problem solving. Therefore a paradigm shift is going on.

I cannot give the Deputy an answer regarding the cost of the digital strategy but I will revert to him with that information. There will be significant improvements in ICT infrastructure with the roll-out of broadband being available to all second-level schools in the autumn. The priorities and challenges of the digital strategy are currently being examined as part of an ongoing consultative process.

There is a school of thought that says we may have to look outside the Department concerning the digital strategy and maybe incorporate more stakeholders, including students themselves, in meeting head-on the challenges of PISA and learn from them.

As regards the methodologies involved, there is a marked difference between paper-based and computer-based problem solving. We have done extremely well vis-à-vis PISA on paper-based problems. However, there is clearly a deficit in the presentation of scenarios to students for the purposes of PISA marking.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He said that paper-based problem solving shows us way ahead of the average, while computer-based problem solving shows us very much at the average level. That is an important point because it shows that students currently have the ability to think through and solve such problems. The reform of the junior certificate will be important in terms of trying to enhance that ability.

The key point emerging from these results, however, focuses on IT services and facilities in schools. We have heard a lot from people who have concerns about what is planned under the junior certificate reform plans, including what ICT tools teachers will be given. Such facilities will help to deliver and expand new ways of learning. Can the Minister of State elaborate on any plans he has to improve the ICT-based facilities in schools, including computers, apart from the ongoing broadband improvements?

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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One needs broadband provision in the first instance in order to give effect to a digital strategy. That strategy is not yet under way and work remains to be done both internally and externally. The key purpose of this is to ensure that students have a proper understanding of the dynamic involved. People in Ireland are digital natives and instinctively interface with the technology both in schools and elsewhere. However, when certain scenarios were presented to them it showed a deficit, so we need to discover why and tackle it. That is not merely a matter of giving more iPads or tablets to schools, it is a question of how the learning process can be enhanced as a result of interaction with technology. That is part of the digital strategy which needs to be further interrogated. I want to give the Deputy a proper answer. It is not just about throwing money at the problem, it is also about properly interpreting the PISA dynamic and comparing the experiences of other countries. We can take Finland as an exemplar and see how it is done there. We may adopt some of those models into an Irish system. We are getting there but we need to get the ICT roll-out completed in the first instance.