Hewlett-Packard (HP) warned the Government of an emerging "digital divide" among children yesterday unless it develops a new policy for technology in schools.

It also called for a re-think of education policy to ensure that Ireland's future workforce have the right skills to compete with people from other countries.

The US company, which employs more than 4,000 people in the Republic, said the level of investment in technology within schools was way below the level needed, if children were to learn the skills needed for modern life.

Mr Martin Murphy, managing director of Hewlett Packard, said there was a marked contrast between the approach taken by other jurisdictions and the approach take by the Republic.

"Unlike our counterparts elsewhere, in particular in Northern Ireland, there is no coherent vision or funding for the development of a managed learning environment for schools," he said.

"There is no policy for furnishing schools with an essential awareness of technology and there is no central procurement and distribution of technology by government to schools."

Mr Martin made the comments following a week long assessment by analysts of Hewlett Packard's Classroom 2000 project in Northern Ireland.

This initiative provides centralised purchasing and management of computers and technology services for all 1,200 schools in Northern Ireland. The contract, which is worth $100 million (€82 million )over five years to Hewlett-Packard, should be used as a model for the Republic, said Mr Murphy.

But he said it was not simply a question of introducing new procurement policies but rather adopting a different approach to teaching using new technology.

Hewlett-Packard is just one of a number of ICT companies that are currently lobbying Government to change the way it manages and distributes grants to help schools buy computers.

Microsoft has been in discussions with the Department of Education for some time about forming partnerships to make technology affordable, says Kevin Marshall, academic programme manager, Microsoft.

"I certainly think that in addition to looking at innovative public private collaborations that a centralised procurement process would reap rewards - not just in terms of cost efficiencies - but also in terms of introducing consistent standards in the system which would enable teachers to share expertise, content and teaching skills for the benefit of the entire educational community," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said up until now there was not an aggregated draw down contract with one single supplier, however, the Government had sought to secure competitive pricing while giving schools a degree of flexibility and individual choice.

She said potential approaches to hardware procurement are but one part of a wider set of policy considerations being examined by the department in terms of its future policy in relation to ICT.

Last year the Government allocated €19.7 million to schools for spending on technology and a further €7.9 million for training.