Flúirse Education Solutions donates its Anois children’s interactive titles with unlimited site licences to over 600 disadvantaged schools nationwide.
Kerry – 12th November 2007 – Teachers, children and parents across Ireland will be welcoming an early Christmas present this November as Flúirse continued their commitment to enhancing the learning and teaching experience for parents, teachers and children by donating software with unlimited site licences valued at over €200,000 to some 600 disadvantaged primary schools throughout Ireland. The software will be selected from Flúirse’s Anois series of titles, which were developed last year by the company and were the first interactive titles based on the Irish curriculum.
Approximately 20% of primary schools are classed as “disadvantaged” in Ireland, a startling figure considering Ireland has the third fastest growing economy in the world. With little sign of any change in this Government’s policy on investment in education, Flúirse Education Solutions, a Kerry based company, decided to take a proactive approach.
“Like many of the schools in Ireland, we are tired of waiting for the government to step up to the mark and provide schools with adequate funding, so we decided to be more proactive” explained Kristian O’Donovan, co-founder of Flúirse. “Even though over 600 schools are classed as disadvantaged, the reality is that the majority of schools are disadvantaged. Teachers are clearly lacking the support and training necessary to effectively use what limited ICT resources are available to them in the classroom. Our donation is relatively small considering the sustained investment that is required, but at least it proves our commitment in tackling the issue.” he added.
Kristian O’Donovan, together with Tomás Finneran, established Flúirse in 2005. The company has grown steadily since then delivering educational software, supports and online courses for primary school teachers.
Flúirse has consistently campaigned on behalf of the primary school sector for increased investment from the government, to fund the introduction of an ICT infrastructure in each classroom in the country. The government responded earlier this year with the announcement of €252m specifically for ICT in the Education sector as part of the National Development Plan 2007 – 2013. However, many organisations, including Flúirse, were quick to point out that this was effectively a token investment and a fraction of what children in UK and US schools receive annually.
“We welcomed the announcement last month that €3.3m from the dormant accounts fund would be used to assist disadvantaged schools in developing an ICT infrastructure. However, even combined with the commitment by this government to allocate €252m for the use of ICT in schools as part of the National Development Plan, it remains largely inadequate at less than €45 per child.”
Tomás Finneran outlined Flúirse’s budget submission. “We’re calling on the Minister for Finance to once and for all address the lack of funding in our primary education system. Schools require a substantial once off investment to kick-start a functional ICT infrastructure in classrooms. More importantly, this ‘catalytic’ investment must be succeeded with sustained investment in training, support and maintenance where necessary. Whilst every sector, from health to justice will be looking for an increased share of the budget, it’s time this government started taking education seriously. Surely an investment in our future is the most sensible investment of all.”
Flúirse is no stranger to success with nominations for Digital Media Awards and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards. More recently, Flúirse have been short-listed for the Munster Emerging Company Category final of the InterTradeIreland All-island Seedcorn Competition.
With big plans for the future and a clear vision on ICT’s role in primary education, O’Donovan concluded. “We have spent the past few months planning a major initiative to benefit the primary school sector with support from Enterprise Ireland. Last month we launched our B.E.S investment opportunity and so far we have had great interest. We intend to truly enhance the learning and teaching experience for parents, teachers and children with this investment.”
