THE Government has announced a £30 million five year investment programme to bring more computer education into schools.
The scheme, which will also train 14,000 teachers in information technology education, is designed to get a computer with Internet access into every primary and secondary school in the State by the year 2000.
Called Schools IT 2000, it was described yesterday at its introduction by the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, as a way to allow Ireland to take full advantage of the economic, social and educational benefits of the information society.
"We need to be in the forefront" of these technologies, Mr Bruton said yesterday. The extra funding was to help Ireland move forward through three or four stages of technology development "in one leap".
The £30 million budget is divided, with half for computer equipment and half for the training of teachers and the development of practices and curriculum products to be used in school education programmes.
A pilot group of 40 schools is to be designated as a way to get education materials together quickly.
An Internet site, Scoilnet, is to be set up where teachers can get advice and curriculum materials for classroom use.
The Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, said yesterday the programme "will allow us to open the gates" to information technology in education.
The scheme arises as part of the Government's Information Society Initiative to foster the integration of information technology equipment into all aspects of domestic and business life in Ireland.
It is designed to allow Ireland to become the "virtual capital of Europe", according to the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton.
The Taoiseach also announced, as part of the initiative, the creation of an outreach centre for Cork RTC in Skibbereen. The centre will make extensive use of modern telecommunications to link computers, video and voice with Cork and further afield.
Mr Bruton said that Government had asked Forfas to develop proposals with industry for the establishment of a Digital Park. This would cluster indigenous and overseas companies which use advanced communications systems at a single location.
The Government, he said, had also asked the new Information Society Commission introduced yesterday to make recommendations on changes in legislation needed to remove limitations on the use of the new technologies and also to protect intellectual property rights.
Other proposals include installing Internet links in libraries to enable the public to access these services. Irish industry is also being asked to contribute to the development of computer facilities in schools.
Industry will be asked to contribute the computer hardware if no longer wants to schools as a way to get more computer equipment into schools.
The general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, Senator Joe O'Toole, welcomed the announcement as "something we have been calling for quite some time" and "a great advance to bring primary schools into the new millennium".
However, he pointed out that" one computer per school was not enough to provide an "adequate computer education" for large numbers of pupils, and said parents would still have to continue fund raising for more computers.
There was also a welcome from the general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland Mr Charlie Lennon.
He also noted, however, the results of the union's survey of schools last year which showed that only 38 per cent of secondary schools were connected to the Internet; only 37 per cent had an e mail facility; 26 per cent had no computer room; 10 per cent could not offer computer science because of a poor pupil teacher ratio; and 15 per cent had a shortage of qualified computer science teachers.
The registrar of Cork Regional Technical College, Mr Brendan Goggin, said the Cork RTC outreach centre at Skibbereen was "a hugely exciting venture" for west Cork and the college.