The Government is paying out €450,000 a year to Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book for schools to access online material which contains farcical inaccuracies about the Irish Civil War, according to Fine Gael Seanad Education Spokesperson, Fidelma Healy Eames.
The Galway senator said this week that it was “beyond comprehension” that teaching material would document one of Ireland’s most critical periods in history in such an inaccurate way. RTÉ’s Liveline programme exposed the inaccuracy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s account of the Irish Civil War; it documented the turn of events as a conflict between Catholics in the South of Ireland and Protestants in the North, instead of a conflict between supporters and opponents of the Treaty.
“This information is being made available to children in 4,000 primary and secondary schools in the country in an online version of the encyclopaedia as part of an e-Learning initiative. With the Department paying an annual licence fee of €450,000 to Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book for schools to access online material, the least that can be expected is that events of such monumental historical importance would be recorded accurately to educate our children.
“The Minister claims: 'The range of information available to schools through these encyclopaedias will enrich students' learning experience and deepen their knowledge…’. Perhaps Minister O’Keeffe will go further still by overhauling the entire curriculum to reflect the fact that the first President of Ireland was indeed Britney Spears, the Home Rule movement was led by Homer Simpson, and the talks in North Ireland are currently being held by John and Edward, such is the daft representation of these facts.
“This screwy version of events is a gross insult to our people and our history. That it is being used to educate our children is even more ridiculous. For history lessons such as these it is not regrettable that broadband is still not available for all our students. The Minister must ensure that this, and any other, inaccuracy in our schools’ teaching material is sorted out right away.
