McElduff wants rural students better connected

The West Tyrone MLA believes a lack of 'proper' broadband in rural areas of his constituency is not helping students there. He believes the Stormont Executive need to act quickly to address the disparity and move to set deadlines on when better broadband provision will be achieved.

Sinn Fein's Education spokesperson, Barry McElduff, wants to see "proper broadband provision" increased to rural areas.

The West  Tyrone feels current levels of service are hurting educational achievement for students and pupils living there.

Describing the current level of services as "inadequate" he feels it's not helping young people reach the same goals and targets as their peers in built-up urban areas.

The veteran republican sees this disparity as "a contributory factor in educational under-achievement" amongst school-goers here.

"Completing coursework, conducting research, doing homework - all of this is negatively impacted upon when pupils and students struggle with poor broadband connectivity," he said.

"All of this serves to drive stress levels, particularly at exam times. There have been improvements in our levels of educational achievement year on year since 2007 but more needs to be done," he added.

McElduff now wants to see the Stormont Executive do something about the issue. 

"I believe the Executive needs to set ambitious targets and deadlines for ensuring that people living in rural areas, including my own constituency of West Tyrone have equal access to proper broadband provision. The best educational interests of our young people demand this," he said.