Schools forced to raise €17,000 for computers

STATE-FUNDED schools are forced to raise up to €17,000 a year to supplement computers and technical support funding from the Department of Education, major research has found.

Almost 90% of the country’s 4,000 schools took part in the National Council for Technology in Education (NCTE) census on information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure last year.

On a positive note, there were just nine pupils to each computer at primary level, compared to 11.2 pupils per computer in 2002. At second level, the ratio improved from 7.4 to 7.1 pupils per computer since 2002.