Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Brian Hayes for sharing his time. I broadly welcome this report but I am concerned that Ireland was placed 19th out of 28 countries in terms of spending on schools and colleges. I wish to raise the question of IT for students in primary schools which is a shambles. Primary school students should be competent in this regard before going into secondary school and should not be learning ECDL, Word, Excel and ACCESS in secondary school. Trying to get teachers to learn ECDL and how to teach children computers during the summer is not working. The teachers find that children are smarter and more competent and they find it difficult to teach them. It is like asking an architect to teach French.

The Government is putting considerable amounts of money into IT training for students, but that money is being used for aspects of the school curriculum other than IT. Until the Department realises it must provide external experts and tuition in schools, IT for students will remain a disaster. I speak as someone who is involved in a successful IT training scheme for students in my area of Boyle, County Roscommon. However, it will not be replicated in every area unless external expertise is involved.