Call to scrap school e-mail scheme
- Published: 31 December 2008
Source: Irish Times
By HARRY McGEE and MICHAEL O'REGAN
THE MINISTER for Education Batt O'Keeffe and the Fine Gael spokesman on education Brian Hayes have clashed over the benefits of a departmental pilot scheme to encourage technology in education.
Mr Hayes yesterday called on the department to scrap an e-mail server which it hosts and which is designed to encourage broadband access to the internet and e-mails. He said it has cost €842,960 to run since 2005 but has reached only 21 schools.
He said in a statement that the service was a wasteful use of taxpayers' money as it had cost almost €1 million to run a service that most schools can access independently at a very moderate costs.
"Considering the abject failure in extending it to a significant number of schools and the availability of other cheaper services, it must be shelved. "The service appears to provide little more than an e-mail address and account for students and teachers who have access to it and, apparently, nothing has been done to progress it since 2005," he said.
But later yesterday Mr O'Keeffe issued a statement sharply rebuking Mr Hayes for criticising the scheme. Mr O'Keeffe charged that the Fine Gael spokesman was being "misleading and vacuous" in his claims. "Deputy Hayes is issuing so many micro-level press releases that trying to digest them is a bit like drinking water from a fire hose," said Mr O'Keeffe in the statement.
"In this case, his latest target is a legitimate e-mail system which my department is piloting in schools to establish whether it can help in the transmission of materials such as circulars and other online information," he said.
Mr Hayes later countered that Mr O'Keeffe should debate the issue openly.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
