When the dust settled on last November's announcement of a £40 million investment in technology for schools, the challenge of overseeing its implementation fell to Mr Jerome Morrissey, former principal of Ballyfermot Senior College.
Mr Morrissey, an English teacher who helped make Ballyfermot one of the leading post-Leaving Cert colleges since 1981, offering skills in every area of multimedia production, was appointed director of the newly established National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) in January.
Set up with the aim of implementing the Schools IT 2000 programme, the NCTE is charged with the task of ensuring every primary and secondary school a total of 4,300 schools is equipped with computer hardware and software, and each has sufficient IT proficient teachers by 2000.
Based in Dublin City University, and managed by a Department of Education sub-committee, the NCTE team of just five has engaged in a meet-and-greet exercise over the past six months. From the outset, Mr Morrissey undertook to ensure the NCTE would not be yet another national centre located in Dublin. He has just concluded a tour of the State during which he endeavoured to meet the principal of every school.
"The early stages have proven to be a block-building exercise establishing relationships with schools and motivating people on the ground. It's proving a very interesting and exciting challenge trying to get everyone to buy into the IT-for-schools initiative," he says.
His tour, which involved 18 meetings at locations throughout the State, coincided with an allocation of £13.5 million to the schools in the first payout of the three-year investment. "There was a lot of debate as to whether the computer equipment should be centrally purchased and deployed, but we concluded this would not be an ideal way to get rural schools to take ownership of the initiative," says Mr Morrissey.
Through advertising earlier this year, the centre invited all IT suppliers to submit a listing of their hardware and software and discount rates to the NCTE. This has resulted in the publication of a weighty compendium to be issued to all schools outlining minimum hardware and software specifications and discount rates offered by nearly 400 IT suppliers.
Mr Morrissey believes this will ensure better support and service for every school which is supplied locally with its equipment. It is also good for business in all areas when each school has £2,000 with an additional £5 per student to spend on IT. The next big step has been to train teachers to a basic level of competence. "This is not about shoving boxes out to schools, if you don't train teachers the whole exercise is a waste of time. By Christmas we hope to have trained 8,000 teachers who were complete beginners," says Mr Morrissey.
The training programme aims to teach 20,000 teachers over the next two years basic and advanced computer skills. It involves a one-week intensive course conducted through a network of 20 education centres, with a full-time IT adviser soon to be appointed to each.
"We've discovered an overwhelming interest in embracing the new technology around the country. What is emerging as the biggest fear is that there is not enough relevant software for the current post-primary curriculum."
To counter this, the NCTE is engaging in discussions with around 40 multimedia companies about developing relevant software for the Junior and Leaving Cert curriculums. Forbairt grant aid will be made available to companies wishing to develop relevant software. Mr Morrissey suggests it could also be modified for the export market to make it more commercially viable. He accepts that there will be a reluctance to introduce IT skills to an already crowded curriculum creaking under the pressure of the points race. The NCTE is hoping to counter this by encouraging an evangelical approach within schools where technophiles gradually pass on their enthusiasm to more reluctant members of staff. The transition year period, now common in most secondary schools, has also been identified as an ideal window for IT education.
Eventually, however, Mr Morrissey believes the Government cannot be asked to shoulder the total burden of bringing education to its young people.
For every school in Ireland to have 24 computers and a printer would cost around £2 billion an investment that cannot be rolled out quickly enough at Exchequer level. Mr Morrissey suggests a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, similar to that announced recently for the construction of key infrastructural projects, might be a solution. "There has to be a partnership of local enterprise with industry somewhere along the way. There's a general opinion if the country doesn't get IT in at schools' level, we're all doomed, so there has to be a shared responsibility for ensuring this doesn't happen," says Mr Morrissey.
The NCTE plans to work more closely and establish greater relationships with industry as it moves into Phase II of its implementation next month.
ScoilNet, a schools intranet and Website will begin on September 8th. It will provide a school-support service, which will feature curricular material and advice, chat groups, and subject teaching groups.
Nearly 2,000 schools will be online by mid-September. ScoilNet's primary partner is Telecom Eireann and Eireann's presence as ScoilNet's primary partner, every school will receive free rental on its Internet phone line and five hours per week of free phone charges.
At least 40 schools will soon be selected for a special integration project with particular focus on Internet-based projects and communication.
Though satisfied with progress to date, Mr Morrissey knows there is a great deal of ground still to be covered. Some 20,000 schools may have received computers by the end of the year, but he is committed to ensuring everyone receives the same advantage.
"We don't want IT creating another elite universal access is critical. Those in disadvantaged areas must receive the same opportunities and support at school as others. If we can achieve this I have no doubt our children will be ready for the next century."
