Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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150. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he accepts the findings of a recent report by the OECD (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7227/20]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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PISA aims to measure how well students, at age, 15, are prepared to meet the challenges they may encounter in future life, including education. In PISA 2018, 5,577 Irish students completed the assessment in Ireland. In addition to the 3 the tests of reading literacy, mathematics and science, questionnaires administered in Ireland included:

- the core student questionnaire

- optional short questionnaire for students on ICT

The information in the report referred to by the Deputy stems from responses from both students and teachers across the OECD countries to the optional short questionnaire on ICT for students. My Department notes and accepts the data in that context. There are no specific findings in the text accompanying the tables from the PISA survey relating to Ireland. The report concludes:

“In this moment of crisis, digital technology holds great promise to provide learners with access to high quality learning. However, most education systems need to pay close attention to ensure that technology does not amplify existing inequalities in access and quality of learning further. This is not only a matter of providing access to technology and open learning resources, but will also require maintaining effective social relationships between families, teachers and students, particularly for those students who lack the resilience, learning strategies or engagement to learn on their own. Technology can amplify the work of great teachers, but it will not replace them.”

As the Deputy will be aware, the Digital Strategy for Schools outlines my Department's vision to realise the potential of digital technologies to enhance teaching, learning and assessment so that Ireland's young people become engaged thinkers, active learners, knowledge constructors and global citizens to participate fully in society and the economy. A central theme of the Strategy is Teacher Professional Development, and a Digital Learning Framework, supported by an extensive programme of CPD, is now available. This Framework will enable teachers and schools to progress in their usage of digital technologies depending on their own circumstances and to identify their particular support requirements. My Department recognises that the embedding of digital technologies can enhance teaching and learning, through appropriate supports grounded in informed pedagogical best practice.

From the outset of school closure,s required under Covid-19 measures, schools and teachers were advised of the requirement to effectively engage with parents and learners to ensure continuity of teaching and learning for all their students. To enable this, extensive support material on distance learning has been made available through the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), including the delivery of Webinars on relevant topics. My Department has published guidance for schools and teachers, to support remote learning and the continuity of teaching and learning for all students including students with special education needs and those at risk of educational disadvantage. Guidance has also been published for parents and is available on my Departments website in 12 languages. Schools are advised to ensure that in their approach to providing for the continuity of learning due consideration is given to put in place alternative arrangements where solutions involving digital technology may not be appropriate or available, to the learner. Key to this guidance is the requirement for ongoing engagement between schools, teachers, parents and learners.

€50m ICT grant funding has now issued to schools, and this can be used by schools to prioritise requirements arising out of the Covid-19 school closures, to support remote learning. This can include arrangements to loan school computing devices to teachers and learners who experience difficulties in accessing appropriate devices as well as putting in place appropriate learning platforms to deliver remote learning.

My Department continues to engage with stakeholders including management bodies, teacher representatives, parent and students representatives during the current period of school closures to provide supports to enable the continuation of teaching and learning.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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151. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the monitoring undertaken by his Department of the number of children that do not have access to broadband or to high enough quality broadband to engage in digital learning initiatives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7228/20]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Since the announcement that schools would close and the extension of that closure, my Department has provided guidance to schools and teachers in the education sector to ensure that they continue to work and to engage with their students to continue the delivery of education. A series of guidance notes to support schools to effectively support and engage with their students are published on my Department's website at: . Further guidance will continue to be compiled to address the various challenges that arise for schools in providing programmes of continued learning in the remote learning environment. Various surveys and studies has conducted across the education system has informed the development of guidance.

Schools have been asked to be conscious of students who may not have access to online facilities and to consider this actively in their responses. As part of reopening of society roadmap and the lifting of current restrictions, school and college buildings are now opened for access by teachers for the organisation and distribution of remote learning in line with public health advice and restrictions.

Officials in my Department have liaised with colleagues in the DCCAE to raise the issue of barriers to connectivity impacting access to remote learning. Minister Bruton has announced a package of additional supports from the telecoms companies including that access to healthcare and educational resource websites identified by the Government will be zero-rated for all customers where technically feasible. The Telecommunications industry has also introduced update for data limits for consumers to assist their customers during the Covid-19 to access online services without exceeding their data limits.

The Department will continue to work with the education partners to address challenges where digital and remote learning options may not be possible.

Information as to the broadband connectivity available to individual children in their homes would not be available to the Department. In the context of the National Broadband Plan Intervention area implementation, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment are addressing the needs of those areas with poor connectivity.