Employers' group calls for laptops to replace school bags for secondary students within five years, writes John Downes.
Employers should actively discourage second-level students from working part-time during exam years, IBEC, the employers' group, has said.
Announcing its 10-point plan on the future of the education system yesterday, it also called for every secondary student to be provided with a laptop within five years, and for the establishment of greater links between teachers and the business sector.
This would help to ensure the current "ad-hoc" nature of teacher-industry discussions would be replaced by a formal structure allowing issues to be identified from a variety of perspectives.
Mr Brendan Butler, director of IBEC, said the body recognised that stopping students working part-time during term time would have an impact on employers in certain sectors.
But recent research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) clearly demonstrated that such work was to the detriment of students, and increased the likelihood they would drop out of school.
Given this, IBEC believed the benefit of such a move to students and, ultimately, employers would be considerable.
"A cohort of very young people are not realising their full potential," he said. "Ultimately, this means there is a smaller pool available to employers."
By calling for laptops to replace school bags within five years, Mr Butler said IBEC was conscious of the need for both Government and industry to work together on the issue.
Figures on the cost of such a move were not available, he said. But IBEC believed the final figure would be "manageable".
Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, director general of IBEC, said its "holistic"policy document aimed to confront the key issues facing the Irish education system.
The Government spent more than €5 billion a year on the education system. This represented an increase of over 100 per cent in the past seven years, he said.
"Despite this increase in spend, many people say education is underfunded," he said. "Whether increased expenditure is justified or not, the debate will continue. What is undoubtedly true is that Ireland has decided that our future is dependent on developing the 'knowledge economy'.
"IBEC's major policy document confronts the key issues. It recognises that hard choices will have to be made and that the business community cannot shirk its responsibility."
Among the report's other recommendations are the abolition of fees for part-time courses and the development of a national system to make modern languages compulsory subjects in primary schools.
