Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their responses. Every time one does any research into literacy, parental involvement is mentioned. All too often, however, I hear from parents' groups that when they bring their child to school they are told by the teacher not to teach children reading because the school has methods for doing that. Parents may be told to ensure that their children can tie their laces and eat lunch in the allotted time, but we need to embed a culture of bringing parents into the classroom as well. In that way, parents will not be seen as doing the extras while teachers educate, because education is in all aspects of a child's life.

Regarding the success of the universal pre-school year, I am delighted that Ms O'Mara is here because she was the architect of that success. She ensured that it was done in an appropriate way. We have a high take-up rate and have the names of children in the free pre-school year. I do not understand why the National Educational Welfare Board, schools or the Department of Education and Skills are not empowered to track those children through primary and secondary school. The difficulty is that when we examine drop-out rates between primary and secondary school we are looking at numbers. We are not actually looking at whether the drop-out rate could be attributed to emigration, moving elsewhere within the country or registering in their name as Gaeilge. The situation is not always clear. Perhaps some of that data could be used positively to get the evidence - as with the longitudinal study - and thus understand what is happening.

I also wish to comment on special needs with regard to the universal pre-school year. I welcome the earlier comments on seeing how different things work. To add to the mix, I have heard from early child care providers that the difficulty with some special needs children is that five days a week is too much for them. Inspectors are saying, however, that if the child does not attend five days per week he or she cannot avail of the scheme. I can provide evidence of this from different parts of the country. The early child care providers have said they will spread the attendance over the year for a child in order to ensure they get the scheme, even though five days a week may be too much. They may need to be eased in gently. Perhaps we could have some flexibility to ensure that the Department that is funding the scheme gets value, while also ensuring the desired outcomes for children, even if they are not on the roll on a given day. That issue has arisen.