Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the subject of special needs assistants, we are undertaking a major review of the whole area of special needs education for the first time since 1993. We are looking at the breakdown in the allocation of time for resource teachers and special needs teachers, as well as the role of the SNA. It is time to review it and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and the section within the Department with responsibility in this area are undertaking that study. I will communicate with the committee on the outcome of that and perhaps members might like to engage with the NCSE directly on it.

There is no change to the pupil-teacher ratios in small schools. They are as they were announced last year and we are not doing anything more in that area. On the issue of technology, the rate of change in the world of technology is such that most young people probably know more than a middle-aged teacher about technology as it stands. It is probably the case that the pupils could teach the teachers, rather than the other way around. However, in so far as we have an up-to-date position on it, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA's, ICT framework, which offers a structured approach to the use of ICT in curriculum and assessment, has been made available to all primary and post-primary schools. It deals with digital literacy, which is an integral part of a student's ongoing education. To be honest with the Deputy, at a family gathering last August, a grandniece of mine, who is 18 months old, picked up a Nokia mobile telephone, which was not a smartphone. She kept running her hand over the screen and was wondering why nothing was happening.

It is a bit like the book rental scheme. We could invest an awful lot of money in a book rental scheme and find that, in ten years time, the iPad has replaced all of them. Books are very expensive. We spend €50 million per year on the book grant and it is of limited value. Therefore, I would hesitate to invest in a technology that could be replaced very quickly. We are at what I call the Gutenberg tipping moment, which. looking back in history, occurred at one point in time, but we all know with technological change that things get phased in and phased out.

Senator Power asked about the languages initiative, which was a pilot programme involving about 800 schools teaching modern languages to pupils in fifth and sixth class. It was not rolled out or mainstreamed because it was not considered by the NCEA to be very effective. There is an argument that for many primary school teachers, there is already curriculum overload.
Deputy Ó Ríordáin spoke about the special cost of reform policies, particularly with regard to literacy and numeracy. The total full-year cost for literacy and numeracy programmes was €19 million, which I had to find last year by various means, one of which was closing down the languages initiative. Apologies - the cost this year was €6 million, next year it will be €7 million and in a full year, it will reach €19 million. That figure includes the cost of the extra year's education for primary school teachers and the extra year for the higher diploma too.

On the issue of the roll-out of broadband, 200 secondary schools will get the full 100 Mb connection this year, another 200 will be connected next year and a further 200 the following year. There are many schools in urban areas that are already connected so every school at second level will be fully connected by the end of the programme. That capacity will enable them to deal with an enormous amount of traffic. The cost of that will be €10 million in a full year. The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has the capital to install the broadband and is maintaining the service charge for a number of years, after which it will be the responsibility of the Department of Education and Skills.

Senators referred to comments made by PayPal and others regarding recruitment difficulties. PayPal representatives have admitted - I have this second-hand, so it is subject to a health warning - that in many cases they were looking for native speakers of a foreign language because of the nature of the transactions being processed. We are still receiving their income tax and their spending in the economy. I would prefer if the jobs were filled by local people here, obviously, but there is an economic gain from their presence here.

Members referred to the Teaching Council. Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001, which requires that a teacher must be registered with the Teaching Council in order to be paid from public moneys, will be activated. There are some edges of ambiguity as to who is qualified as a teacher, particularly in the further education and VEC sectors. There is no ambiguity in primary and secondary schools. I do not want anybody to be arbitrarily cutoff the payroll as a result of not being qualified and we are in active discussions with Tomás Ó Ruairc of the Teaching Council to sort that out. As and when the section is activated, a teacher, in order to be paid, will have to be registered with the Teaching Council, and a condition of registration will be continuous professional development. In other words, teachers will be in the same category as accountants, doctors, architects, solicitors and others. It will be up to the new Teaching Council, appointed earlier this year, to set the priorities in continual professional development but I hope it will concentrate on upskilling and ensuring that teachers who are in the system for some years are properly trained to do the job they are supposed to do. The council has a lot of money at its disposal because of the charges it collects, although it has reduced the charge to teachers recently. I am working with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to try to overcome the impediment that is the employment control framework to enable the council to employ extra staff, which it would be in a position to pay for itself.

Members asked about the fee-paying schools and we are waiting to see what they are doing with the money. We have a growing school-going population. In some cases, fee-paying schools have not been receiving capital grants for school accommodation. I want to ascertain whether they have large amounts of cash they are using for extra teachers or whether, in fact, they are paying off large mortgages for school buildings. As soon I get that information I will publish it so it will be a matter for public discussion at that point.

A question was posed regarding the possibility of lengthening the school day and the potential impact that might have. We have 730 post-primary schools. The new schools that we are building now have a population of between 800 and 1,000. That enables a full curriculum menu to be made available. In secondary schools with fewer than 300 pupils, if one disimproves the pupil-teacher ratio, one could potentially remove a subject from the menu of options. It is a truism, as the Senator knows, that primary school teachers teach children while secondary school teachers teach subjects. The impact could be quite arbitrary with the last-in, first-out system, so there is a sensitivity issue. A longer working day is a matter for negotiation with the education stakeholders and the teachers' unions and the management bodies have been extremely flexible and co-operative, from my point of view. I value that relationship and do not want to make arbitrary changes that would damage it. At the same time, we really do need to get greater productivity and that is a true for everybody, whether in the private or public sector. There is greater productivity in the public sector as we speak because the same delivery of service is occurring with far fewer staff. If memory serves me, 18,000 have left the public service yet services are being maintained.

It is just a fact of life that we are-----