Ms Caitriona O'Brien:

I will respond to Senator van Turnhout's comment about the parent being told not to teach their child. It is very easy for us to talk because we are not busy and frazzled teachers in classrooms. However, the Constitution provides that parents are the primary educators of children. What the Senator was discussing is the kind of thing that has come up in some of the DEIS-related PEIP programmes. Of course maths is now taught completely differently from how it was when I was at school. Parents are a resource. In particular, parents of children in DEIS schools want to be a resource but often do not have the capacity and are nervous about making the approach in the first place. In a number of cases there is an after-school programme - a school-completion programme - where there is either a numeracy or a literacy initiative or both. The parents are involved in that and the programme is explained to them. There is almost a parents' pack so they fully understand what is being taught and how. They can then do their bit at home.

There is a good outcome for children but the spin-off effect has been that parents have found a renewed interest in education for themselves, as they want to be able to follow their children up through the school system. In some cases parents have physically come back into the school building, which is a major achievement for parents who might have had bad experiences in school themselves. They find themselves back in the school atmosphere and have gone back to education themselves. Parents, some of whom barely completed primary school, are now back doing their junior certificate examinations at the same time as their children, which is very encouraging, although not enough of it is happening. One would expect that schools and teachers should see parents as a resource but often a certain amount of work needs to be done to equip them to become that resource. It is a challenge for teachers who have fewer resources and so on.