Minister Foley publishes Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 and announces payment of €50 million in ICT grant funding for schools

Minister for Education Norma Foley TD today, 13 April, announced the publication of the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 and the payment of €50 million in grant funding for digital technology infrastructure to all recognised primary and post-primary schools.

This strategy will advance the embedding of digital technologies across teaching, learning and assessment, building on the work under previous strategies. It aims to further support the school system so that all students across our schools have the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills they need to navigate an ever-evolving digital world successfully.

Minister Foley said:

This strategy was developed following an extensive consultation process with all relevant stakeholders. This included students at primary and post-primary level, parents/guardians, teachers and school leaders as well as the education partners, initial teacher education institutions, disability groups, non-governmental organisations, the industry sector, EU colleagues in a number of member states and other relevant Government Departments.

Minister Foley said:

The high level objectives of the strategy are set out under three pillars, which aim to ensure that the school system is prepared for and continues to progress the embedding of digital technologies in teaching, learning and assessment. They also address inclusion, supporting curricular reform, online safety, technical support and include consideration for areas, particularly emerging technologies, where further research is required.

Schools have received the first payment to support the implementation of the strategy, which totalled €50 million across schools.

The Department’s capital budget was increased in 2021 to facilitate the early payment of the first tranche of funding from the overall commitment under the National Development Plan of €200m over the lifetime of this strategy. A full table of this funding is set out below.

The Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 and the associated reports are available at https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/69fb88-digital-strategy-for-schools/

The circular outlining the criteria applying to the Digital Strategy Digital Technology Infrastructure Grant Scheme will issue to schools after the Easter break.

Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027

The strategy has been developed around three pillars, which aim to ensure that the school system is prepared for and continues to progress the embedding of digital technologies in teaching, learning and assessment:

- Pillar 1: Supporting the embedding of digital technologies in teaching, learning and assessment

- Pillar 2: Digital Technology Infrastructure

- Pillar 3: Looking to the future: policy, research and digital leadership

Pillar 1: this is about ensuring that digital technologies are embedded in teaching, learning and assessment. It focuses on how best teachers and school leaders can be supported to ensure they have the necessary skills and confidence to equip our students with the knowledge and skills required in the modern world. It also addresses learners and their needs, inclusion, school planning, digital skills and competences and the curriculum.

Pillar 2: The second pillar focuses on the technology itself and broadband connectivity in schools. It sets out the funding committed to under the NDP and also considers how to support schools in purchasing and maintaining digital devices and other technology related purchased through procurement frameworks and other possible solutions around the important area of technical support.

Pillar 3: Successful implementation of this strategy will require system alignment. Given the number of EU and Government policies relevant to this strategy, the Department commits to helping schools better understand these relationships. This pillar also looks at the important aspect of online safety, new and emerging issues in the area of digital technologies in education, engagement with parents and the wider school community as well as with industry.

Each pillar contains overarching objectives, which will be supported by a more detailed Implementation Plan. The first Implementation Plan will run from 2022-2024. Towards the end of this phase a midterm review will be carried out to inform the next Implementation Plan from 2025-2027.

The first plan is currently in development and will be published in the coming weeks.

It is intended to develop appropriate oversight and measurement processes and procedures to provide for effective implementation of the strategy. This will include establishing relevant groups to provide oversight and inform ongoing implementation over the lifetime of the strategy including ongoing developments to avail of emerging technologies.

Consultation process

The consultation process included an online questionnaire for school principals, teachers and students, an open call for submissions, focus groups with school principals, teachers and students (from both primary and post-primary schools), higher education institutions delivering initial teacher education programmes, disability groups, non-governmental organisations and the industry sector. There were 100 submissions received under the open call and 9 focus groups were held. Reports on all of the elements of the consultation process are available on https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/69fb88-digital-strategy-for-schools/

A consultative group was also established which consisted of representatives from school management bodies, teacher unions, parent and student representative bodies and industry to inform the ongoing development of the strategy.

In addition to the extensive consultation process, a report was also commissioned and prepared by Professor Deirdre Butler and Dr. Margaret Leahy which includes an analysis of the implementation of the previous strategy and highlights areas for consideration for inclusion in the new strategy. This report is entitled Towards a Successor Strategy for the Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020: Baseline Report and the findings and issues raised in this provided vital input to the development of the digital strategy. The report is available at https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/69fb88-digital-strategy-for-schools/

Funding

The strategy will be supported through a capital investment of some €200 million over its lifetime under the National Development Plan 2018-2030. School leaders, guided by their digital learning teams, will continue to have autonomy and flexibility in how they invest this funding, given the significance of each school’s own context. Expenditure should continue to be aligned to the identified aims and objectives of the school’s Digital Learning Plan and School Self-Evaluation processes. In addition to this funding, the Department funds the School Broadband Programme at an annual cost of €13m to provide broadband connectivity to schools.

ICT grant funding of €50 million

Breakdown of funding by County

This funding is the first tranche of the overall package of funding (€200m) for digital technology infrastructure as provided for under the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027. These grants issued automatically to all schools December 2021, in respect of the 2021-2022 school year.

In the case of a primary school the digital strategy ICT grant will consist of a €2,000 basic grant plus €41.10 per mainstream pupil, €49.32 per pupil with special educational needs attending a special school or attending a special class attached to a mainstream school, and €45.21 per pupil in DEIS schools (as of 30 September 2020). For example, a 60-pupil primary school will receive €4,466 and a 300 pupil school will receive €12,330.

In the case of a post-primary school the ICT grant will consist of a €2,000 basic grant plus €49.32 per mainstream student and €54.25 per student in DEIS schools (as of 30 September 2020). A 500-student school would receive €26,660 and a 1,000 student school would receive €51,320.

The circular 0027/2022 sets out the requirements around the expenditure under this grant. Schools are required under Circular 0074/2020 to have a digital learning platform in place. The circular allows for an additional allocation to DEIS schools to meet the challenges faced in supporting their learners.

Fee charging post-primary schools receive funding at 50 per cent rate, that is, a lump sum of €1,000 and €24.66 per capita.

National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP)

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) has been developed by the Government so that Ireland can access funding under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. Ireland is expected to receive more than €900 million in grants over the lifetime of the facility. The Recovery and Resilience Facility is the largest component of NextGenerationEU, the European Union’s response to the global pandemic. The aim is to help repair the immediate economic and social damage brought about by the pandemic and to prepare for a post-Covid Europe that is greener, more digital, more resilient and fit to face the future.

In late 2021, €50m in grant funding issued to all recognised primary, special and post-primary schools in the free education scheme, as part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan This funding is intended to enable schools to put in place particular interventions to support those learners at risk of educational disadvantage through the digital divide. Schools in the DEIS programme at the time of issue (late 2021) received double the level of funding in view of the known concentrated level of disadvantage in those schools. The funding issued directly to schools as they are best placed to understand and identify the needs of their learners.

Broadband

The Department provides broadband connectivity to all recognised primary, special and post-primary schools through the Schools Broadband Programme at an annual cost of some €13m. All post-primary schools are provided with 200 Mbps connectivity as standard, with some on speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Upgrades are provided to schools based on evidence of usage.

Many primary schools are on 100 Mbps or greater connectivity currently, with an early priority of the strategy being to provide all primary schools with high speed connectivity by 2023. This will be achieved through the ongoing implementation of the National Broadband Plan Intervention Area, commercial provision, and for those schools not in either of those categories, a project underway as part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility

Some key achievements under the previous Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020

- €210million issued in ICT infrastructure grants to schools

- Digital Learning Framework available to all schools, supported by teacher professional learning (TPL) programme

- Digital Learning Planning guidelines published online

- Broad range of professional learning opportunities including differentiated models of TPL, are available to teachers and school leaders on the effective use digital technologies in teaching and learning practices

- Development by PDST of extensive supports and resources including quality assured exemplars of effective and highly effective practice.

- Over 23,000 high quality curriculum tagged digital resources available at www.scoilnet.ie

- Extensive support and advice for teachers, parents and students on online safety available at www.webwise.ie

- All new and revised curricular specifications include clear statements that focus on the development of digital learning skills and the use of digital technologies as a resource in achieving specific outcomes across the curriculum

- Junior Cycle Framework continues to promote digital literacy skills through eight Key Skills (all skills have an ICT/digital component) and through Statements of Learning

- The introduction of Computer Science as a Leaving Certificate subject

- ‘Digital Skills’ is now included as a core element of initial teacher education programmes

- Under the Schools Broadband Programme the Department directly funds the provision of broadband connectivity to schools at an annual cost of some €13m

- Schools Excellence Fund – Digital initiative enabled creative and innovative ways of embedding digital technologies in learning, teaching and assessment. Circa 40 clusters of schools, across some 200 schools, supported by €1m investment

- All post-primary schools have high speed broadband with minimum connectivity speeds of 200 Mbps with some on speeds of up to 1 Gbps.

- Work is continuing to ensure that all primary and special schools will have minimum connection speeds of 100 Mbps or greater by 2023