National Centre for Technology in Education

Clarification on media reports

Further to media reports that Irish schools are being provided with inaccurate Encyclopaedia Britannica reference content concerning the Irish Civil War, the NCTE can confirm that the content being referred to is not published in the Online Schools Edition available to all 4,000 schools via Scoilnet.ie and the Schools Broadband Network. 

The Irish Civil War article mentioned is contained within an older database of Britannica Concise content which was licensed some years ago to a manufacturer of hand-held reference devices. 

Encyclopaedia Britannica have confirmed that the “live databases of information being supplied to Irish schools through the offices of the NCTE do not contain this error. The databases for Irish schools are up-to-date, constantly checked, with new material regularly added covering Irish history and current events”.

The NCTE believes that the licensing of authoritative, quality, online reference content has created unique teaching and learning opportunities within Irish schools. As recognised leaders in the provision of reference content, both World Book and Encyclopaedia Britannica online encyclopaedias provide Irish students and teachers with access to thousands of age-appropriate, regularly updated articles, videos, audio clips, 3D simulations, quizzes and interactive, educational games, all of which are now available within their classrooms. 

An Irish primary teacher recently commented to Scoilnet.ie:

 "The potential [of the online encyclopaedias] is fantastic. I looked for info on Martin Luther King and within seconds I had enough to last several history lessons! In Maths the games/activities section looked fun and exciting. I looked up Antarctica in Geography and again I was given a huge range of info and images. For the classroom teacher having this resource to hand will be very useful especially as most classrooms are now going interactive."

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