Mr. John Curtis:

I have been in this room on many occasions and I have never seen such unanimity. We all agree the system is underfunded. It is very difficult for us at a school level. A survey we did a number of years ago indicated that approximately 30% of funding in voluntary secondary schools comes from parents. That is unacceptable and it is very difficult at the start of the school year for parents to manage costs, whether they are voluntary contributions, books or something else. We are very cognisant of that and it is very frustrating for us as well. Schools are charities too and we engage with charities. We have a system with money coming in and going out. The only reason we ask for money is that we have been systemically underfunded over the years.

As the Senator said, perhaps we have put up with it too much. I hope that following the deliberations and conversations here, there will be a concerted effort to look at the issue of funding. All our schools are underfunded. If the Department gives the schools the money. they will not ask as much of parents. It is as simple as that. We are governed and regulated as charities. At local level, people realise that schools will do their level best to look after the children in their care. We have spoken about the student and parent charter, the Bill for which was published yesterday. This reinforces the fact that there is significant engagement between parents, students and management in schools in dealing with some of the issues such as uniforms and the e-learning debate.

The e-learning debate is interesting. We all have to acknowledge that we are at the cusp of something here, but we are not quite sure where we are going with it. Some years ago, a lot of schools got tablets but this has slowed down a little since. Part of this due to the fact that one cannot buy e-books with the grant. This presents a problem. The devices are also expensive. In an ideal world, we would ask the Government to give extra funding to schools to just look at the issue of e-learning. Marvellous work has happened in schools through the digital strategy revolution over recent years. We started a process some ten or 12 years ago whereby every classroom was given a computer and a projector, and every school was given broadband. This has helped to revolutionise teaching. It has sowed the seeds for what has occurred at junior cycle. I believe that we need to build on that. Deputy O'Sullivan has made the key point that we need more study on this. Even other jurisdictions are not quite sure what the balance should be between books and e-books. We are all in a learning space in that regard. The professional development service for teachers, technology in education, does marvellous work in directing and helping us in schools. They need to engage in more in-service training for teachers because, ultimately, e-learning and digital learning will only work if teachers are equipped in that space. In recent years, we have been very caught up in junior cycle reform, and perhaps we also need to look at e-learning strategies in the context of in-service training for teachers.