Warning on ‘digital divide’ in schools

Government and industry must invest heavily and soon to improve internet speeds nationally or risk schools, businesses, and the country lagging behind the rest of the world, a minister said.

Ciaran Cannon, the training and skills minister, said children in many areas are being disadvantaged by a growing digital divide.

As minister of state in the Department of Education, he hears regularly from primary teachers unable to use their technology skills in class because of inadequate broadband speeds.

As highlighted in the Irish Examiner on Saturday, some primary schools are limited to less than three megabits-per-second (mbps) internet connectivity, but all 730 secondary schools will have high-speed 100mbps by next September.

“As we see schools across the country and the whole of education provision, moving over time to digital, those children who have no access to proper broadband will be educationally disadvantaged, there’s no point saying otherwise,” said Mr Cannon.

But, he said, the Department of Education does not have the technology or expertise to deliver proper connectivity to schools. Rather, he said, the issue is to get service to every community in Ireland.

“There’s an emerging digital divide, and it doesn’t necessarily break down as an urban-rural one,” he said.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has committed to getting at least 30mbps to every rural home in the country by 2016, and Mr Cannon is cautiously confident it can be delivered.

“It would be well worth the considerable investment, although it’s difficult to see it in the next 24 months. There’s a big difference between getting to every exchange in the country and to every home, school or business,” he said.

However, he said, the significance of doing so cannot be underestimated.

“It’s for a combination of collaborative efforts — by the departments of public expenditure, finance, communications and education — and Government as a whole to take a collective decision fairly soon. Because this is as important as electrification was in the 50s and 60s, and it will take a very significant investment.

“When you think the last community to get electricity was in Kerry in the mid 1970s, we can’t be that slow responding to the challenge with broadband,” he said.

Mr Cannon said the telecommunications sector that provides phone and broadband services must also step up.

“We [in government] need to work with them and say ‘we will partner with you investing in less profitable areas for benefit of our people and the country’. The technology is there but it needs the collective will of all, including Government, to make it happen,” he said.

The Department of Education tries to provide at least 12mbps to primary schools, but costs of up to €6,000 mean it is not always possible, particularly in harder- to-reach areas. It expects much faster speeds for primary schools to emerge from talks with providers about availing of the rollout of fibre on Eircom’s wholesale network.