Ireland has one of the lowest levels of computer use in upper second-level education, a new survey of OECD countries has revealed.
The survey of second-level schools in 14 countries shows that while Ireland is among the top three for the provision of career guidance counselling, it lags behind in the use of computers as an educational tool.
Furthermore, Irish schools experience above average difficulties in hiring teachers, although at least 95 per cent of pupils here attend schools that fill vacancies with fully qualified staff.
The survey examined the situation of schools in Europe, Asia and South America.
Its objective was to review the structural barriers preventing effective use of computer technologies in upper secondary schools.
According to the authors of the report, its findings raise important issues for the scheduling of teachers' time, classroom organisation, and the professional development of teachers.
Major investment over the past 20 years, it says, has brought modern information and communications technologies into nearly all schools in the most advanced OECD countries.
However, the lack of day-to-day use of computers in these schools remains disappointing, with 11 of the countries surveyed citing a shortage of computers for students as one of the biggest obstacles to greater use of information technology.
Information gathering on the Internet is the most common way of using computers in schools.
On average, principals in approximately 20 per cent of schools in the countries studied reported that computers were used "a lot".
However, the report's authors stress that these figures are surprisingly low given the widespread use of information technology in other walks of life.
Among the most common reasons cited for this underuse were difficulties in scheduling enough computer time for classes, a lack of computer skills among teachers, and problems recruiting teachers trained in information technology.
Responding to the survey Mr, Derek Dunne, president of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, said the statistics showed Ireland was lagging far behind other OECD countries in providing quality information technology facilities to pupils.
"It is not acceptable that we have a lower proportion of computers per student than countries with which we are in direct competition for IT investment," he said.
"The relatively low take-up of IT courses at third level among Irish students can be at least partly attributed to poor facilities at second level."