Schools need ‘to raise use of computer’

Schools are failing to match students’ rising home access to computers and the internet, an international report reveals.

While more than one- in-three Irish teens’ homes now have at least three computers, nearly half do not get to use the internet on a typical school day, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

As the Government waits to publish a delayed digital strategy for schools, the report reveals the average 15-year-old spent just 16 minutes online in an average day at school in 2012. This is well below the OECD average of 25 minutes, as counterparts in Austria, Australia, Greece, and Hungary spend half an hour to an hour a day online at school.