IT-Business

In the 2007 Election I had the opportunity via an RTE online question and answer session to ask several politicians if they thought it was a good idea to have computers as a leaving certificate subject.

The answers I got were varied from Tommy Broughan of the Labour Part agreeing that it was a good idea to Noel Dempsey from Fianna Fáil stating “As a separate subject, it is useless for the future for young people.”  Just to keep everything in context you can see all of the questions and answers here http://www.rte.ie/news/elections2007/debate/

As somebody working in the IT industry I’m bound to advocate a greater use of computers in our educational system and personally I think it should be taught as a subject in its own right.  Almost everybody is exposed to IT at some level when they commence their working lives but beyond this educating children in school creates a real opportunity for Ireland to take the lead in computing technology.

One good example of this was the recent announcements of 450 jobs that are being created by Irish e-learning company HMH see, http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/0910/jobs.html  

I feel however now that the economy is starting to slow down that there will be less rather than more being spent on IT in our schools.  What a shame if this is the case.