Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 212: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when schools can anticipate funding from the National Development Plan in respect of schools information communications technology in view of the substantial under-investment by her Department in this area for many years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22038/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The ICT in Schools Programme commenced in 1998 and aims to provide all pupils with the opportunity to achieve computer literacy and acquire the necessary skills for participation in the Information Society. There has been significant investment over the period in providing computers to schools, professional development ICT courses for teachers, improving the availability of digital content, integrating ICT into the curriculum and in supporting schools to integrate ICT into their teaching and learning. The recent priorities under the Programme have been the development of schools' internal networking facilities and the provision of broadband connectivity for schools, which my Department has pursued in partnership with the Telecommunications and Internet Federation within IBEC.

There has been considerable progress since the Programme commenced. The number of computers in schools has increased substantially. In this regard, the latest available Census undertaken by the NCTE in 2005, found that at primary level, there was one computer for every 9 children, while at post-primary level, there was one computer for every 7 students. Schools have been grant-aided to develop their internal networking facilities and broadband connectivity has been provided to schools via a National Broadband Network. Over 130,000 training places have been provided for teachers to improve their ICT skills and assist them to integrate ICT into their teaching practice, while ICT has been included within the pre-service training provided by our teaching training providers. Scoilnet has been developed as a comprehensive resource for teachers and students and a range of relevant digital content has been created specifically to complement the curriculum. Schools have been supported to plan for the integration of ICT into their teaching and learning by the National Centre for Technology in Education and the ICT Advisory Service.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has developed a draft ICT Framework as a practical tool to support teachers in planning and providing opportunities for students to develop their ICT literacy across the curriculum from primary to the end of compulsory education. New syllabi have been developed for the four technology subjects at Leaving Certificate level, in which ICT is a compulsory integral part of both curriculum and assessment. Two of these, Technology and Design and Communications Graphics, which involve the use of Computer Aided Design have now been introduced and will be examined in June 2009. A new Technology Subjects Support Service has been established and schools' have been funded to upgrade their facilities.

The Programme for Government sets out our commitment to implementing a comprehensive Schools' ICT Strategy. This strategy will be underpinned by the investment of €252m in the National Development Plan 2007-2013.

I appointed a Strategy Planning Group to advise me on the prioritisation of measures under the planned investment over the period of the NDP. Among the issues which the new strategy will address are the upgrading and renewal of hardware, the provision of software and digital content for learning, teacher professional development, curriculum development, the maintenance of the national broadband network for schools and technical maintenance and support requirements. I expect to receive the Strategy Planning Group's recommendations shortly.