Paul Crone
Director, National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals
Ireland’s youth face a fundamental inequity: access to the digital technology essential for their education and future success.
The Government must urgently invest in providing digital devices to all students, ensuring every child, regardless of background, is equipped for a world where digital literacy is no longer optional, but essential.
Investing in digital devices promotes learning equity
Digital literacy and technological competence form core components of both the Junior Cycle and the redeveloped Senior Cycle. Technology proficiency is essential for future studies, employment and personal growth.
Our students must develop critical thinking skills, resilience and digital fluency to navigate an increasingly paperless society where smartphones are required for travel, payments and information access. Schools embracing technology as a learning tool are building the competence and confidence young people need to thrive.
Yet many students lack access to devices at home, deepening educational disadvantage and limiting their capacity to engage fully with learning. This inequity is unacceptable when we demand digital competency as a curriculum outcome.
The paradox is clear: we must increase access to, interaction with and use of digital technologies while reducing exposure to the addictive and harmful nature of social media
Technology: learning vs. social media harm
We must make a critical distinction: using technology in schools and social media exposure are two different issues that must not be conflated.
Students don’t use social media to enhance learning. It doesn’t form part of their formal studies and is increasingly the source of the most serious harm affecting young people.
Data collected from Irish schools shows that bullying, defamation, impersonation and sharing of personal data online have risen dramatically. The last 12 months have seen a 97% increase in reported cases and a 61% increase in harm incidents. This online harassment devastates learning environments and students’ readiness to learn.
The paradox is clear: we must increase access to, interaction with and use of digital technologies while reducing exposure to the addictive and harmful nature of social media.
The Government must adequately resource schools to provide digital technology and teacher training in Technology Enhanced Learning. Investing in devices for all students ensures equity, builds essential skills and prepares them for the challenges of modern work and life, without conflating the educational imperative with social media’s documented harms.
