Commercial schemes in schools are replacing educational content with advertising messages and turning blackboards into billboards, according to the head of a campaign aimed at achieving commercial-free education.
To coincide with an initiative by the National Council for Technology in Education warning teachers to be alert for pop-up ads on computer screens, a campaign group entitled Commercial Free Education has said there is a growing volume of "educational spam" clogging up classrooms with commercial messages.
Chairman Joe Fogarty said that while schools could download anti-virus software to eliminate pop-up ads, there was no such measure for dealing with the "permanent fixture" of commercial schemes in schools. "Unlike pop-up ads which children can simply click to make disappear, the logos, brand names and company slogans that are emblazoned on sponsored materials find their way on to school walls for weeks on end, into classrooms and students' schoolbags."
Mr Fogarty urged schools to adopt a clear policy on commercialism to "filter out this educational spam and remove the marketing that has no place in schools".
A website, which is to be launched by the group next month, will offer guidance and support to schools on the merits and disadvantages of individual commercial schemes.
"It will give an objective review of individual schemes as they arrive, and allow parents, teachers and interested individuals a forum to express their concerns," Mr Fogarty said. "The campaign is currently seeking teachers in second-level schools to review schemes targeted at Irish teenagers in schools."
He said recent promotions such as the "Pot Noodle: Write a Radio Commercial" and AIB's "Build a Bank Challenge" might be the focus of discussions within the group, of which parents, teachers and principals are members.
"If school computers should be advertisement-free, surely the very classrooms and buildings children study and learn in must be free from commercial clutter. A growing number of commercial interests are targeting children as a captive audience to be exploited; the Campaign for Commercial Free Education believes that what goes on in schools should be none of their business."