Meath Schools to benefit from Broadband pilot scheme – Wallace

26th June 2009

Meath East TD Mary Wallace is delighted that St Peters College in Dunboyne and Dunshaughlin Community College are to get high-speed wireless broadband connectivity as part of the Government’s pilot plan to give students instant internet access anywhere in the school.

Under the existing schools broadband programme, primary and post-primary schools in Ireland can access a basic level of broadband.

St Peters College and Dunshaughlin Community College have been selected from a total of 78 post primary schools nationwide to receive 100 mega bits per second (mb/s) wireless connections.

Students in these schools will be able to benefit from high-speed wireless broadband meaning that students will be able to upload and download material faster, access high-volume digital educational content and connect instantly to websites from any part of the school. It is expected that the speeds will be similar to those offered to high-end national and
multinational companies operating here.

Deputy Wallace welcomes the enormous strides the government are taking in developing our schools information communications technology (ICT) capacity. This governments pilot plan for second level schools how the government is committed to building our schools’ ICT capacity in today’s increasingly knowledge-based society.

Deputy Wallace understands the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has now begun a tender process for broadband service providers.