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

I thank Chairman and committee members. I will speak to the paper I have prepared, which has been circulated, and go down through the headings rather than read it formally into the record, but I presume it can be taken as being read formally into the record.

The first issue is literacy and numeracy. In 2009, this State got a wake up call in regard to our presumption that we had one of the best education systems in the world. It was a presumption that was based on an internal form of arrogance because we had nothing with which to compare it. It was a case of if one says it often enough, one begins to believe it. We dropped from fifth place to seventeenth place. We had a similar but not as precipitous a drop in terms of mathematics. The Department got word of it in August, did some research and when the results were published in October, it had started to create a response. There was a change of government in March 2011. A draft literacy and numeracy strategy was prepared and it was finalised and formally launched by me in June of that year. It is appropriate to say to this committee that much of the reform and change in the system, and I can get details on this if people want it, was based on some of the experience in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Department of Education had started to reform the way in which it was teaching literacy and numeracy. There is very close co-operation between the inspectorate in the North and in the South. There is co-operation with Wales and Scotland as well because they have separate education systems under devolution. We have now put in place a literacy and numeracy strategy on which we will probably get some results later this year because we are into the new cycle. I would be happy to answer any questions on that.

One of the changes we made in the context of the literacy and numeracy strategy is around initial teacher education, and this is confirmed in a document that will be published later today. We have had 19 centres of teacher education for both primary and post-primary in the country. We realised that there needed to be a change in the way teachers were educated. The changes, which I can speak to in detail, are, in summary, that the 19 colleges - most of them privately owned by the Catholic Church or the Church of Ireland which reflects the history, our system of primary education being 182 years old having been established in 1831 - are being reorganised into six clusters of education provision. A primary school teacher will now study for four years rather than three years. The fourth year will be focused very much on pedagogic skills, namely, learning how children learn.

The post-primary secondary school teacher will now do a two year H.Dip course rather than the one year course, and again there is an emphasis on the way people learn, learning techniques and so on. I can go into the detail on that.

I have already referred to PISA. There are two other literacy testings - TIMSS and PIRLS - in which we have participated. The results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, known as PIRLS, and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, TIMSS, are very positive from our primary school point of view. Primary school students scored above average in literacy, mathematics and science. In mathematics, Ireland was placed 17th out of 50 participating countries, and in science we were placed 22nd out of 50 participating countries.

The PIRLS report shows that in reading, Irish students were ranked tenth out of 45 participating countries. Students in only five countries performed significantly better than Irish students. They were Hong Kong, Finland, Singapore, the Russian Federation, and Northern Ireland. As I said, we are learning from our colleagues in Northern Ireland the way they have been able to improve their performance, and there is very good co-operation between both systems at institutional and ministerial level between myself and John O'Dowd, and also at a personal level in terms of individuals on this island.

The second aspect I want to discuss is the change in our junior certificate. The most significant development is our plan to reform the post-primary junior cycle for children from ages 12 and 13 to 15 and 16 in our secondary system. The framework published in October 2012 sets out the principal statements of learning and key skills that will underpin the new junior cycle.

We have concerns about the literacy and numeracy standards achieved by students. Consequently, the key tenants of the literacy and numeracy strategy are integrated within and complement the framework. The framework is designed to provide schools with flexibility rather than restrict them as they develop a junior cycle programme that reflects the educational and personal needs of their students.

In addition to its own range of literacy initiatives provided through the school system, the Department has had some involvement in the prevention and early intervention programme in Dublin through the work of the Department's inspectorate. These projects, undertaken in Tallaght, Ballymun and Darndale, involve a range of pilot programmes to improve outcomes in areas such as literacy, speech and language, parenting, health and pro-social behaviour. The projects, which are now concluding, are currently being evaluated by national and international experts.

In Tallaght west,the emphasis was to ensure that the initiatives complemented existing education disadvantage initiatives. In Youngballymun,the Department participated in the Write Minded Implementation Team, which, in partnership with local schools and other key stakeholders, developed a local literacy strategy which focused on two strands: school-based literacy support to complement Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, and family and community-based literacy support. Overall, the principal strength of the Youngballymun interventions is that they built on and enhanced the work of existing mainstream services in an integrated manner.

The Department has also participated in a number of education-related initiatives to support Limerick Regeneration. These have largely been run by the Programme Innovation Development Fund, which is a joint initiative of Government and Atlantic Philanthropies, and Strategic Innovation in Education, a project set up by the University of Limerick to support the education sector in responding to Limerick Regeneration.

My colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, recently announced a new area-based poverty initiative, which will be jointly funded by her Department and Atlantic Philanthropies, and will seek to implement programmes which have been proven to work in improving outcomes for children and families at risk of disadvantage. The new initiative reflects the programme for Government commitment to adopt an area-based approach to child poverty in co-operation with philanthropic partners, drawing upon best international practice and existing services, to break the cycle of child poverty where it is most deeply entrenched.

In the context of the literacy and numeracy strategy, it is particularly important that learning from previous and current literacy initiatives being delivered in schools can be mainstreamed to ensure the widest possible benefit from the considerable investment that has been made.

It is important to note that in all cases PEIP literacy initiatives are being implemented locally alongside schools which are part of DEIS, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, the Government's main policy initiative for tackling educational disadvantage. This means that they can all avail of the considerable additional resources allocated to DEIS schools in those areas where disadvantage is most concentrated. Smaller classes and support programmes, one of which is the home-school-community liaison officer, usually a teacher, who makes contact with families that are having difficulty of one kind or another. The other is the school completion programme, which is an attempt to ensure young people stay in school for as long as possible.

We believe it is important that we operate an inclusive school system where all children feel welcome. The Education Act 1998 sets out clearly that schools are required to operate admissions policies that provide for maximum accessibility to the school. Most schools in Ireland, most of the time, are inclusive and welcoming of all children. The Education Act, however, is light touch in terms of providing ways and means of ensuring that all schools welcome all children. Other than appeals under section 29 of that Act, which have become cumbersome and often adversarial both for schools and parents, the Department is of the view, and I share the view, that the current legislation does not include an adequate set of provisions to deal with this matter, which is the reason we will change the system. I will shortly bring to Government the draft heads of a Bill entitled the education (admission to school) Bill 2013. In bringing forward legislative proposals, I do not want to unnecessarily intrude into the way schools do their business. The aim is to ensure that schools decide on applications for enrolment in a structured, fair and transparent manner. The proposals will be published in draft form along with the statutory instruments to give them effect. They will be referred to the Oireachtas committee here. I hope to have a fairly comprehensive debate and then bring back the final proposals.

Turning to North-South co-operation, specifically on literacy and numeracy, I am pleased to note the ongoing dialogue which takes place here under the auspices of the Good Friday Agreement between the education authorities in both jurisdictions on a range of issues of mutual interest, but particularly in relation to measures to improve educational outcomes in our schools. In particular, I note that the last meeting of the North-South Literacy and Numeracy Working Groupdiscussed the prospect of a joint report by the two inspectorates, focusing on best practice in both literacy and numeracy in post-primary settings.

Encouraging an appreciation of the value of learning is a key task for all of us who are interested in raising educational standards. Last year's promotional media campaign in Northern Ireland - Get Involved Because Education Works - emphasised the fact that education does not begin or end at the school gate and that families and the wider community can contribute to and enjoy education.

A current initiative in this jurisdiction is "The Family Project", a weekly television programme which showcases the educational tools and techniques available to all families. It demonstrates how families can work together to improve collective learning. Since 2000, the National Adult Literacy Agency, NALA, has been using the mass medium of television to highlight literacy issues, outline supports that are available, motivate people to return to education and provide opportunities for learning in the privacy of their own home. NALA has also developed a website to help parents support their children's education. Entitled Help My Kid Learn, it is a website where people can see that supporting a child's literacy and numeracy development is a natural, easy and fun activity that can be integrated into any part of their day.

Although there are a number of marked differences between our education systems, we face similar challenges North and South when it comes to raising standards, particularly in the area of literacy, and I believe that we have much to gain from a sharing of learning and experience in order to develop sound policies for future action in this important area.