Ministerial endorsement of the emPowering Schools Strategy

I am glad to see the strongly positive response to emPowering Schools, published in March 2004 by my predecessor Jane Kennedy MP. I am pleased to endorse the new strategy framework and to thank all those responsible, especially teachers and those who support them, for getting us this far.

It is recognised that what has been achieved here sits on a world stage; it is of interest beyond Northern Ireland how we make best use of the excellent resources and opportunities provided.

I want to see leaders at all levels work with us in partnership to embed education technologies into the vision, strategy, budgets, development and action plans for those parts of the schools service for which they are responsible. We need to see energetic, well-coordinated efforts to make the best of Government’s major investment in school technology infrastructure.

We will use the positive responses reported here to inform development of regional projects which will trigger change. We will make better use of resources in existing budgets to make sure that technology is used appropriately to help us achieve our educational goals.

The Department of Education and the Department for Employment and Learning will continue to work together to ensure that we have a more unified approach to e-Learning, and to standards and quality in the use of technology to deliver teaching.

Government will seek strategic opportunities to drive forward collaboration – both within the school service and with the private sector – and to build capacity as widely as possible. e-Learning needs to become part of the professional competence of all educators.

We will also need to embed e-Learning in the experience of pupils, staff in schools, parents and their local communities to make education more flexible and more personal.

The next stage is to prepare action plans with priorities for implementation, taking account of the resources available. We will need to manage programmes to monitor, evaluate and report frequently on progress made against the targets and milestones.

We will ensure that suitable governance and management arrangements with our key partners are in place to implement the agreed actions.

The strategy and the report of the consultation should indeed provide us with a strong basis for the work to transform learning and teaching through education and technology change.