Deficits in school ICT infrastructure must be addressed

By piofficer, Tuesday, 1st April 2014 | 0 comments

Reacting to today’s PISA findings, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) stated that students must be provided with vastly improved access to modern ICT facilities with full broadband access. The union has long-held concerns about deficits in the ICT infrastructure in schools.

Comments from TUI President Gerard Craughwell:

‘TUI has long-held concerns about deficits in the ICT infrastructure in schools.

We look forward to the publication of the Department’s Digital Strategy for Schools, particularly given that the PISA findings suggest that a lack of familiarity with using computers for school-related tasks may have contributed to a lower performance. We hope that this strategy will be finalised and implemented as a matter of urgency and that it will be underpinned by the appropriate resourcing.

These findings also support TUI’s view that any reform of the Junior Cycle must ensure, among other things, that all students have full access to modern ICT facilities and broadband.  To date, we have not received anywhere near full assurance that this will be the case.

Clearly, adapting to the technical requirement of this online test would have been an initial barrier for some students.

Teachers have consistently sought to develop key skills in terms of critical thinking and problem solving and will continue to do so. What would be of particular use in this regard would be the reversal of cuts that have stripped schools of resources and made the achievement of targets considerably more difficult.

It is noteworthy that there is no significant difference between the performance of male and female students, while the performance of students from immigrant backgrounds in comparison to the OECD average is of huge credit to these students and their schools.

With regard to Project Maths, TUI is hopeful that will it will achieve its stated aims, but as of now nobody can be definitive in terms of passing judgement on its effectiveness.’
 

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