Every primary and secondary school in the State will have broadband internet access by the end of next year under an €18 million programme announced by the Minister for Communications and the Minister for Education today.
The scheme, covering some 4,100 schools, will be jointly funded by the Government and a number of telecommunications firms. Eircom, Esat BT, O2 Ireland and Vodafone are helping to fund the project.
Broadband connectivity will allow faster download speeds for internet use and will allow schools greater access to multimedia applications. A central helpdesk will be set up to provide support for schools and teachers using the new technology.
Safeguards will also be put in place to protect children from undesirable internet content or unsolicited outside contact via the Internet, the ministers assured.
All schools in the country already have internet access. But around 75 per cent currently use dial-up flat-rate internet access, which is often extremely slow and which does not allow certain multimedia applications to work to the best of their capacity.
Where high-speed access via a cable connection (DSL) is available in a given area, the schools will be connected through that technology. However, some schools in remote areas will be connected via wireless satellite technology.
The Minister for Communications, Mr Dermot Ahern, said he believed broadband technology will keep the State and its future generations "at the keen edge" of development in the world in terms of technology.
He admitted Ireland was starting from a position where it was somewhat behind over countries in terms of broadband access. However, he believed there had been a "dramatic change in the landscape" over the past year or so. He said the availability of broadband in schools would eventually drive demand for the product from generally.
Mr Ahern said he applauded the telecommunications sector's vision and "tangible support", which would ready our young people for participation in the knowledge economy.
The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, said it was a "great day" for primary and secondary schools and that the broadband technology would be of great benefit to students and teachers. He said today's announcement was an example of the priority that had been given to the promotion and development of ICT in schools over the past five or six years. Some €150 million has been invested in this area, he said. We were just beginning to tap the enormous potential of ICT and broadband in education, Mr Dempsey added.
Fine Gael's spokeswoman on education and science, Ms Olwyn Enright, said she broadly welcomed the initiative.
"However, in order to exploit this broadband connection, schools must have a proper supply of up-to-date computer equipment. A recent report by the OECD found that Ireland was close to the bottom of the pile for access to computer equipment at secondary school level, with one of the lowest levels of computer use in schools of all the countries surveyed," she said.
She expressed concern at the average pupil/computer ratio, at 13:1. She said the three-year ICT programme to equip schools with computer equipment finished next year and that funding for new equipment had been "cut considerably".
Mr Dempsey said today he expects to publish a new ICT programme very shortly. He also expressed his commitment to further reducing the pupil/computer ratio.