Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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213. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to address the gap in ICT education as shown in the recent programme for international student assessment study on 15 year old students; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16481/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South 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 only ranked 17th of the 28 OECD countries who took part in the study, and 22nd out of all 44 participating countries. Ireland performed less well than expected in computer based problem solving. The findings suggest a lack of familiarity with using computers, at home and school, for school-related tasks, and this may have contributed to a lower performance.

The integration of ICT into teaching and learning and assessment in schools remains a major priority for the Government.

The new Digital Strategy for Schools will address the new policy challenges and opportunities arising from major developments in curricular reform, digital publishing, digital content, cloud services, portable computing and student devices and broadband for schools. It will address future proofing, making specific recommendations and detail an implementation plan.

Analysis is currently underway of a comprehensive survey of teachers and principals on the use of ICT for teaching and learning and will be completed shortly. Themes include the impact of ICT in teaching, learning and assessment, school-wide planning for integration of ICT in teaching and learning, access to ICT equipment and curriculum-relevant digital content, integration of student devices for learning and understanding pupils' access to ICT for learning outside the school context.

I expect to publish the Strategy later this year.