Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 451: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of post primary schools that have dedicated classrooms used for the teaching of information and communication technology sciences; if all these classrooms are equipped with a sufficient number of individual computers to facilitate such education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9270/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Since its commencement in 1998, there has been significant investment generally in the ICT in Schools Programme, 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. Other recent developments include the introduction of the new Technology syllabus and the revised Design and Communication Graphics syllabus at Leaving Certificate level which were introduced this year with associated investment to schools to upgrade their facilities. Disadvantaged schools are also benefiting from the ICT Grant scheme for DEIS Schools from the Dormant Accounts (Educational Disadvantage) Fund. My Department does not have details of the number of post-primary schools with dedicated classrooms; however, 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 post-primary level, there was one computer for every 7 students. While the ICT facilities in our schools have improved considerably, I am conscious of the need for further investment to ensure that we are realising the full potential of ICT to improve the learning experience for our young people. Our 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 have now received the report of the Strategy Planning Group and I will shortly be publishing the report, together with my implementation plan.