Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Group 5
The Celtic Tiger roars, but does it roar for all socio-economic areas of Ireland?
Like all countries, Ireland must juggle the past, present, and future to meet the needs of
its students who will drive the future economy of the country. The unique aspect of
Ireland’s school system is the changing face of the economy and the socio-economic
divide within its region. The small country of Ireland is experiencing growing pains in
terms of the social impact of educational technology and the strategies used to implement
Educational Divide
The economic boom in Ireland is known as the Celtic Tiger. It is this very
economic boom that has brought many of Ireland’s sons and daughters back home from
abroad. These people have not only brought money, but they brought many new skills
and youth back into the country. This has put a strain on the education system to live up
to already high expectations and understandings of what is needed from the schools. This
also gave the entire island of Ireland an opportunity to share ideas through technology.
North and South of Ireland and jointly funded by the two governments.” (DB, 2006. Para.
1) What was once a very separate island; Northern and Southern Ireland are attempting to
Still, the divide among the rich and the poor within Ireland continues to trouble
the education system. In a country that has seen tremendous growth in wealth and
stability, there remains the educationally disadvantaged. “310 primary schools are
Ireland’s Technological Development 3
areas with 293 additional ex-quota teaching posts in 250 of these schools.” (DES, 2006)
The disadvantaged schools are a major concern in the school system. The Educational
professional development for teachers, and leadership and management development for
principals, linked to the strategic goals of educational inclusion and equality (for example
active learning methods, using ICT, classroom interaction, group work)” (EDC, 2006)
Within the EDC’s strategy to help these schools, it states that their 35 page plan must be
carried out using “… existing resources and expertise to best effect, and adequate
is most effective when resources are employed flexibly, concentrated in priority areas,
and not spread too thinly.” (EDC, 2006. p. 35) The need for a technological
implementation is obvious to the planners, but they have limited resources to rectify the
plan.
Ireland has steadily made its already demanding K-16 education system more
rigorous, creating links between industry and education and formalizing and supporting
work-place education. The disadvantaged schools will have trouble not only graduating
their students, but they will also have trouble putting their students to work in the
lucrative IT sector of Ireland’s economy. “Designated schools also fared better in terms of
with 75 pupils to each computer in non-designated schools.” (Weir, 2004. p.19) The IT
sector is the heart of Ireland’s economic growth, and if the growth is to be sustainable, the
Implementing Strategies
is increasingly linked to the globally networked economy. The conflicting innovation and
social practice discourse reflect the growing pains Ireland is enduring during its economic
While public funds have been invested in numbers as high as forty-eight million
dollars in some programs, the discourse of the public is not unified. Historically, Ireland's
establish the values and structure of education programs. With the development of new
college offering post-graduate teacher education courses, controversy has further divided
views of Ireland's educational future and the role of ICT. A portion of the discourse
dissention is reflected in the diverse needs of the public. "Results of literacy surveys are
difficulties. Approximately 10% of Irish 15-year olds scored at the lowest level of literacy
in the recent PISA survey of reading literacy." (Carr-Chellman, 2005, p. 72) This has
increased the government focus on the inclusion of disadvantaged people and regions in
focused on possibility. The result of a census following the implementation of two major
Ireland’s Technological Development 5
programs provides solid evidence against the social practice counter-argument that their
policy, Schools IT2000 originally implemented in 1997 with a 50 million dollar budget
integration of ICT into the curriculum. A second policy targeted broadband access, and
the third is directed toward advancing online learning through improved school
networking. To monitor the progress of these programs a 2004 ICT School Census was
effected which notes that "75% of all Irish teachers have availed of ICT courses."(Carr-
Chellman, 2005, p.74) Both policies were considered a success with regard to improving
2005, p. 74) These statistical results form part of the governments current functionalist
different perspectives, or the more radical humanist voices concerned with cognitive
limits to social fulfillment. David Noble's perspective that "the technology education
education as a commodity to be sold on the free market" is thinly disguised, if at all in the
government’s agenda.
Despite the governments promising census results social practice discourse can
find strength in the counter argument by noting that access in primary schools is still only
39%, post-primary 66%, special schools 33% and that internet service "typically provided
through a standard telephone, thus limiting users to having one computer online at a
Prohibitive costs of leased lines "means that satellite is often the only realistic
Ireland’s Technological Development 6
option" which "depending on the location can be 20 times higher than the comparative
cost in Dublin." "This imbalance of access to broadband services, alone with price
differentiation, puts rural areas at a disadvantage, exacerbates the digital divide, and puts
an additional cost burned on Irish companies, affecting adversely their ability to compete
Conclusion
Ireland's drive to integrate ICT's into its education system reflects the economic
rationale inspired by the increasingly dominant functionalist global market order. It's
incentives and approaches are similarly echoed in other countries around the world.
Implementing ICT’s fairly and effectively to all of Ireland’s populace is the greatest
challenge for Ireland. The eyes of the international community are watching Ireland, as
their struggle and success gives hope and direction to other countries striving to
References
http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?pcategory=17216&ecategory=34279&la
nguage=EN
http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/edc_moving_beyond_educational_dis
http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?pcategory=17216&ecategory=34354&la
nguage=EN