The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) today accused the Government of delaying investment in school computers and called on the Minister for Education to immediately publish the report of an expert advisory group on the issue.
The teachers' union said the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, had not yet spent a "red cent" of the €252m ear-marked in the National Development Plan 2007-2013 last January for IT investment across the State's primary and post-primary schools and insisted she was "sitting on the report and delaying much needed funding to schools".
The expert group was established by the Minister to advise on how best to spend the €252m budget for schools IT systems.
INTO general secretary John Carr today strongly criticised the Government's failure to allocate the funding saying it demonstrated its "sheer neglect" of schools and students in the digital era.
Mr Carr said Ireland had one of the lowest rates of IT usage in education in the developed world, but insisted "this is unsurprising given that one in five of all school computers are clapped out".
"Government knows how important investment in schools IT will be for future economic development," Mr Carr said.
Ms Mary Hanafin said the expert group had not reported though its conlcusions were expected by the end of the year. She told TRE radio she expected the repoirt "soon".
She said €200 million had been spent in recent years on computers, IT networks and ensuring all schools have broadband. The money allocated under the NDP would be spent but it was important to ensure it was used properly, she added.
She said teacher training and IT support services would be the focus of spenidng this year though there would also be more hardware purchased.