Minister rejects pilot e-book project for schools out-of-hand

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Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe is missing a golden opportunity to reduce the weight of school bags, familiarise children with new technology and drive down household costs by categorically refusing to explore the use of e-books in schools.

E-books allow hundreds of books to be stored on a lightweight handheld e-book reader. The introduction of e-books into schools could slash the annual cost of schoolbooks for parents, reduce the weight of heavy schoolbags and help to familiarise pupils with new technology.

However, Minister O’Keeffe has ruled out any possibility of introducing e-books into schools. It is disappointing that the Minister has turned his back on the use of a future technology such as e-books, on the basis of an 11 year-old report.

When I suggested to Minister that he should at least consider using e-books in schools, possibly on a pilot basis, he referred back to the Report of the Working Group on the Weight of Schoolbags. This report was published in Jul8 1998 when e-books were the stuff of science fictions. Yet the rapid advance in technology means that schools around the world are now exploring e-books as a learning tool.

Hard-pressed families are already dreading the prospect of meeting back-to-school costs in the midst of the economic crisis. An e-book initiative could help to reduce these costs significantly.

At the same time, Minister O’Keeffe is condemning school children to the prospect of lugging heavy bags into school for the next few years. The long term damage this may be doing to the health of these young people should not be underestimated.

What’s more, Ireland desperately needs to educate itself out of the current crisis. Introducing into schools e-books would be useful tool in this regard.

Minister O’Keeffe’s excuse is that decisions on books are taken at school level, and that the publication and sale of school books are in the hands of independent commercial enterprises. He says it is not open to him to compel these enterprises to produce texts in a particular format. But he seems to have forgotten that businesses in this recession are crying out for new commercial opportunities, and would welcome the opportunity to produce books in an electronic format.

The Minister’s response to this positive proposal from Fine Gael is yet another example of how the Fianna Fáil Government is bereft of new ideas, and is the wrong party to solve Ireland’s deep economic crisis.

Deirdre CluneWhat did you think about this article? I would love to hear your opinion, please leave a comment below. Thank you!

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4 Responses to “Minister rejects pilot e-book project for schools out-of-hand”

  1. Nia Says:

    This is my first time visiting this site and, being a secondary school student, I of course clicked on Education to see what is going on. I was going to base a project on the need for ebooks in schools. Now I can see that I should have done that! This is apalling! On an average day my schoolbag is literally a stone weight (I’ve measured!) and sometimes it feels even heavier. Everyone complains about the weight of bags, even my dad who deals with heavy material every day. I feel that students would be more interested in using ebooks as technology is more inviting to them. Ebooks have been a success in many areas, I read of how they increased academic interest in a school in New Jersey. Why does Fianna Fáil continue to deny school chilren these wonderful opportunities?! They should have been gotten rid of last year! Absolutely ridiculous, as if I didn’t dislike the current government enough as it is!

    June 25th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
  2. Deirdre Clune Says:

    The Government’s unwillingness to even consider the impact the introduction of ebooks would have on the weight of school bags, the cost of school books and the benefit of using technology is disappointing but not surprising. The Minister for Education seems happy to pass up on the opportunity to push Ireland to the forefront of the use of technology in schools. How can we talk of being a smart economy or a knowledge economy with an attitude like this?

    June 30th, 2009 at 9:32 am
  3. Claire Says:

    I have put some research into this as a secondary school student and I think it is thoroughly dissappointing that these are not in use. I spend an hour a day walking to and from school, and I honestly think this year will be the death of me. An ebook reader seems to be, in my opinion, the solution to all our problems. It is light enough to carry without noticing the weight, and 289 euro is less than what my books in first year cost, and every year from then on it has been approximately 100 euro. As well as solving cost and weight issues, I would find it much more suitable for schools as lockers would not be needed, there would be no time wasted in rushing to collect your books, you’d simply press a few buttons and you can have any subject you want. I think this simply makes sense, and it is an awful waste not to use them.

    September 16th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
  4. val butterly Says:

    Hi Deirdre,

    i am on the parents assoc. of my local secondary school, two of my children are current pupils. I am bringing the matter of e-books to our AGM tomorrow evening for discussion – for all the reasons you’ve stated on your web page. I’ve no idea of the cost implications, or any other issues with regard to e-books, but I certainly feel its the way forward and having spent over 600Euros on books for my two children in secondary school this year, I feel this money could have been put to better use.

    If you have any information I could bring to the meeting tomorrow evening I would be very grateful.

    Thanks,

    Val Butterly

    September 21st, 2009 at 1:36 pm

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