Future economic and social prosperity is being put in jeopardy because of under-investment in key areas of education, the INTO claimed last night.
Responding to the release of the Annual Competitiveness Report by the National Competitiveness Council, the union said the under-investment problem was particularly acute in primary and pre-school education.
John Carr, the union's general secretary, said the Republic was continuing to languish behind other OECD countries in key areas, including:
Early childhood education: fewer than half of four-year-olds are in education compared to all French and Spanish children and more than 90 per cent of children in Denmark, Britain and Hungary
Class size: the OECD country average for the ratio of students to teaching staff in primary schools is 16.0 compared to Ireland's 18.7.
More than 111,000 Irish primary school pupils are in classes of 30 or more.
Computers in schools: Ireland does not perform well in comparison to the OECD average, with only half as many computers per students.
Mr Carr said what this report does not highlight is the quality of those computers in Irish schools.
"There has been no Government funding whatsoever towards the purchase, upgrade, maintenance or repair of computers for four years.
"This is in stark contrast to the level of investment in technology in education in almost every other OECD country.
"We are being left behind and without a substantial investment we will fall further behind."
He said it was no wonder that Government coffers are overflowing.
No support whatsoever has been given towards technology in Irish schools for the last four years, he said.
Under-investment is increasingly the main issue on the education agenda.
Earlier this week, John White of the ASTI pointed to OECD figures which show the Republic close to the bottom of the international league when it comes to State spending at second level.
