The Relationships and Sexuality Education programme was the most costly in-service teacher training course ever undertaken in the State, a report from the OECD has shown.
The programme cost £1.8 million, making it over £1 million more expensive than the second most costly in-service programme, that for the revised Leaving Certificate curriculum.
The report, on in-service teacher-training and professional development in eight OECD countries, details the "complex and time-consuming preparations" for the RSE programme, which involved in-service training for all 21,000 primary and 1,700 secondary teachers.
It was introduced in Dublin yesterday by the Minister for Education, Mr Martin, and the OECD's head of educational research, Mr Jarl Bengtsson. It was compiled by the Irish Independent education editor, John Walshe.
Mr Bengtsson said there were "still far too many older adults in OECD countries who have not acquired the basic educational foundations at the start and who have worryingly low levels of literacy."
He said too much of the education debate "remains fixated on what goes on in schools and colleges for young people. The lifelong learning message has still not fully been grasped."
He added that searching questions needed to be asked about continually expanding expensive higher education for young people, and that "alternative investment in scarce learning resources, whether for younger children or older adults, should be considered."
He warned against reforms or drives to introduce new technologies which left teachers "out of the picture" or downgraded their importance.
Information technologies did have a huge potential role to play, but "the educational benefits are still far from established. A key factor in determining that those benefits can be realised are highly expert teachers."