6 November 2019
By Bryan Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
Sean Sherlock is a Labour TD in Cork East
Over 5,500 school children in schools across Mallow, Fermoy, Midleton and Cobh are in schools with broadband speeds of less than 20 MBs, says Cork East TD Seán Sherlock.
“These numbers highlight a digital divide in this country with Dublin doing well but schools outside the M50 doing poorly” said Deputy Sherlock on the figures compiled by the Department of Education
“It is an indictment of how little attention this Government is paying to physical infrastructure such as broadband provision. Proper broadband is key to learning if we are to encourage learning and growth for all our school children, no matter where they live. “
“In an age where information is vital, speed of access to the web is a critical component of learning. Those 5,502 schoolchildren are practically offline compared to their more urban counterparts.
“We need to ramp up investment and future proof these schools with the broadband capabilities of today and tomorrow.”
