Pupils’ technological education grinds to a halt due to low-speed broadband

Technology should open up the world to curious young minds — but crawling broadband speeds mean a Waterford primary class can not make best use of their fancy gadgets.

Like hundreds of primary schools, the staff and pupils of Scoil an Bhaile Nua in Newtown, Co Waterford, have very slow internet access.

For principal Mary Foskin, there is huge frustration most weeks when her fifth- and sixth-class pupils bring in their own tablet computers, laptops, and smartphones to try and make learning more fun.

She is one of hundreds of teachers who invest their personal time in finding ways to get the most out of information and communications technology (ICT) in class. However, when it comes to applying those skills, the school’s internet access regularly leads to disappointment, including foiling efforts to talk to schools around the globe on Skype.

“We never even get the maximum download speed of up to three megabits- per-second [Mbps], but uploading video or talking on Skype it’s even slower,” said the principal of the 103-pupil school.

“It’s impossible to all get on the internet at the same time with such third-world technology in our classrooms.”

Its broadband is delivered — like many others — through a standard phone line and a speed test yesterday evening showed a 0.37Mbps speed.

Her 26 pupils try using web apps and sites on their devices to follow clues and guess where the other schools are, but she had to abandon the exercise three times last month alone because of internet failings.

The school also has €5,000 interactive whiteboards — bought after fundraising — in each of its four classrooms but they are mostly limited to use for offline lessons despite a wealth of internet-based resources being available.

“Children are so familiar with computers before even coming to school, but then it’s impossible for everybody to get on the internet at the same time,” said Ms Foskin.

When she encourages them to write short essays online in the form of blogs on topics they covered in class, they often have to revert to using copybooks because they cannot even open the homepage of the blogging site.

The Government hopes to have 100Mbps broadband in every second-level school by September, but the Irish Primary Principals’ Network said their schools must be given the same opportunities, with Government commitment to clearly-defined funding over a number of years.

“The use of ICT in primary schools is an extremely powerful vehicle for implementing the fundamental principles of the curriculum, supporting the numeracy and literacy strategy and Government’s objectives to raise attainment levels and build a digital society,” said IPPN executive director Sean Cottrell. “But all schools must have access to a consistent and reliable broadband service.”