Category: News

A very interesting article in the Irish Times today regarding ICT investment in education. This brings some well needed press attention to the delay in the investment of €252 million allocated in the NDP 2007-2013 for primary and secondary schools.

John Carr of the INTO warned the Government that failure to invest in ICT for education will have repercussions for the economy, in the future, and described it as tantamount to neglect. “We are being left behind and without a substantial investment we will fall further behind,” he said. “We have one of the lowest rates of ICT usage in education in the developed world. This is unsurprising given that one in five of all school computers are clapped out.”

The delay in funding is also damaging the Irish software industry who develop software for the Irish curriculum. As many schools do not have the money available to purchase software or hardware, or are holding off on upgrading or purchasing new software. This has been conveyed to me over the past four months by school teachers who are starved of ICT money. This is and will have the knock-on affect of starving Irish companies of money needed to invest in new technologies and future r&d for ICT education.

It worries me that no other industry would be dealt such a blow, our customers have been promised money for ICT investment, and they are thus holding off for that money before doing so. With this investment being delayed it puts increasing pressure on future investment in Irish software for schools and curriculum focused software and hardware. We hope that the current minister fast tracks the investment in ICT for schools.

On the Irish technology website SiliconRepublic.com there is a very interesting article on the progress, or lack of progress on ICT in the Irish education system. There is still no news on the progress of the ICT grants which were earmarked in the National Development Plan (2007-2013) to a sum of €252m. Although €252 million appears like a large sum of money when spread out over five years and amongst the 4,000 schools (850,000 students and teachers) it quickly dwindles.

One point the article does not cover and something I am strongly in favor of, encouraging educational software development at third level. Each year thousands of Irish computer science students complete Final Year Projects, they should be encouraged to produce Irish educational titles and an award system set up for the best project each year, successful entrants should be encouraged to establish businesses and financing should be made available for commercially viable projects.

Math Week begins today, 15th – 19th October 2007. There are many events organised around the country and you should visit http://www.mathsweek.ie/ for further information about an event near you.

The concept is to make maths more interesting to students and more relevant to their every day lives. Stay tuned to our website as we hope to offer a math mini game soon.

As part of the celebrations of the International Year of the Planet Earth, which begins on 1st January 2008, Minister Eamon Ryan today announces the launch of a Schools’ Competition: “How Erratic is Your Block?” The competition is being organised within his department by the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), Departments Website.

For more information visit their website about how your school can take part, the competition is aimed at Transition Year students in the Republic of Ireland and Year 11 and 12 students in Northern Ireland. For more information visit the GIS website.

Today the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued their annual report on education among OECD countries, Education at a Glance 2007. The report found that Ireland spends less on education than most industrialised countries with class sizes among the largest, at 25 student per class.

Overall, Ireland spends 4.6 per cent of its GDP on education compared to the OECD average of 5.8 per cent. “We should be near the top of the league, not at the bottom,” John White of ASTI said.

The Irish Times article, and the OECD report is linked here and you can download the full PDF of the Education at a Glance 2007 report.

Today we updated our website with a fresh new look to the home page, this should make it easier for you to access the information you want. It is also quicker now to access our free online games from the home page via the new Free Online Games section, we hope to add some more mini games over the coming months.

Don’t forget to sign-up to our e-mail newsletter which is e-mailed out every 3/4 months, this way you can keep up to date on our products and latest developments.

We have also updated our blog so it is now easier to read and access from our website, we will continue to update our blog with the latest EdWare news and relevant educational news.

Today siliconrepublic.com, has an excellent article on ICT in schools and the lack of progress and funding that has been made over the past decade, “Educating the educators”.

The article highlights the low level of funding available to schools and explains further the tiny €252 million budget allocated to ICT over the next five years, which will be split up between each primary and secondary school.

The government strategy group has yet to report back on how the money should be spent, which was due in May. The article is an interesting read and highlights some very important points.

We are currently working on a number of new projects and additions to current titles for the new academic year 2007/08. We hope to introduce these in September / October 2007 so please check back then. We will of course look after our current customers and offer discounts for any product updates to current users.

Over the summer months please feel free to contact us via e-mail relating to any questions or suggestion for current or future titles.