It's in the bag: the high-tech, light way to pack schoolbooks

The Irish division of a British firm aims to transform a beleaguered schools system with cheaper and less back-breaking e-books

PUPILS IN up to eight Irish post-primary schools will be at the vanguard of technology when the new term starts, clutching Intel mini-laptops preloaded with e-books that cover the Junior Cert curriculum rather than a bag full of textbooks. A small but significant step in integrating technology into Irish classrooms, it came about because of the work of two former employees of IT multinationals.

Greg Tierney and Conor McGrogan were at Dell and HP respectively before establishing an Irish division of Steljes, a UK distribution company that counts Smart interactive whiteboards as its flagship products. Steljes Ireland opened for business in 2007 when Smart had about 5 per cent of the Irish whiteboard market. Now it has just under 40 per cent and has seen its annual turnover rise from €400,000 to €4.5 million. Education accounts for 70 per cent of its business and two of its five staff are former teachers.

Not content with meeting a growing demand for whiteboards – about half of all primary school classrooms in Ireland now have one – the two directors had ambitions to innovate. They brokered a deal with Intel and Irish educational publisher Edco to deliver the preloaded hardware. Crucial to the concept was making it affordable to cash-strapped schools.

“We wrapped a finance model around it so parents pay a small incremental fee that gets them away from having to buy schoolbooks and burden their children with heavy schoolbags,” says Tierney, commercial manager for Steljes Ireland. “They end up with technology that facilitates traditional teaching methods as well as 21st century education.”

The model for the one-stop bundle, first trialled at St Fintina’s post-primary school in Longwood, Co Meath, spreads the combined cost of the content and hardware over at least three years with parents paying an annual contribution. At the end of the period, the pupil gets to keep the hardware, an Intel Fizzbook.

A genuine ambition to transform a somewhat beleaguered schools system is evident in the way the two run their operation. Sales director McGrogan puts the phenomenal growth of its whiteboard business down to working closely with schools.

“What helped us enormously was taking on two full-time teachers. Unlike our competitors, we provide training for free,” he says. “When a teacher has another teacher showing them how to use a whiteboard, they get it in a way they wouldn’t from a salesman who doesn’t have the pedagogical background.”

Tierney believes a lack of professional development is one of the biggest obstacles to the modernisation of the Irish school system. “The National Centre for Technology in Education [NCTE] has done a fantastic job with principals, and there’s a good roadmap on planning for ICT in schools,” he says, “but what I don’t believe is in place is any effective professional development for teachers after the equipment goes into the classroom.”

Following a report commissioned by the NCTE, the last government made €92 million available to put a projector and laptop into every classroom. Tierney fears it is a job half done.

“In some ways it has been effective, but there were aspects of the original report that triggered the investment that weren’t taken into accounts. We have to make professional development mandatory. If we don’t create the environment for using ICT in the classroom, then all we have done is put in expensive screens for showing video.

“There is no point in putting technology in schools unless it relevant and aligned with what the teacher is teaching.”

He is also concerned that not all the money allocated for technology has been spent on technology. Part of the problem is that the new Government is still finding its feet and has yet to show its hand where classroom technology is concerned.

“Savvy principals out there will see that the NCTE is on its way out and a new Minister has come in and decide that it’s better to hang on to the money rather than spend it on technology,” Tierney adds.

The programme for government outlined plans to merge the NCTE with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, but it is unclear when the new body will come into being or what its priorities will be. It is also unclear where these changes will leave NCTE plans to build a national portal for schools to share and distribute electronic content.

Tierney feels momentum has been lost. He is also concerned about a disconnect between government policy and aspirations to turn Ireland into a digital economy. Schoolbooks are Vat-free, yet electronic versions still carry a 21 per cent surcharge. He argues that e-books are typically 20 per cent cheaper than traditional text books and could be made available with a 40 per cent saving if they were zero-rated.

“I don’t know if it’s an oversight or a lack of joined-up thinking,” Tierney says. “There is a lot of talk about Ireland as the next Silicon Valley but we’re not backing it up with policy; we’re not looking at it seriously. It’s just political rhetoric as far as I’m concerned.”