Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and the members of the committee for the invitation to attend today to discuss the important issues of the review of out-of-school education provision, and education and supports for Ukrainian students. We are joined today by a number of officials from our Department, including Tomás Ó Ruairc and Ms Martina Mannion, assistant secretaries general, and by Ms Anne Murray, Ms Mary Cregg and Mr. Neville Kenny, principal officers.

I will speak first about the review of out-of-school provision report. Out-of-school services are typically a provision of education, outside of the mainstream school setting, for children and young people who have encountered difficulties staying in mainstream education. This sector has expanded over time and most often as a response to a local need. For these students, out-of-school education provision is generally the final option within the education system, when all other supports, options and pathways have been tried and have not proved successful in maintaining their engagement with mainstream education.

The Department committed, as part of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, plan, to review the current provision of out-of-school education to inform future supports in this area. The aim was to research current provision, to identify how best the sector should be served, and to make recommendations for future policy development. This review encompasses the out-of-school education sector in general, nationwide, and is not specific to any one particular setting.

The report, which was just published on 12 May, acknowledges the need for out-of-school provision for a small number of students, for whom the mainstream school system faces challenges in meeting their diverse and individualised needs. It also acknowledges that education provision for students, both in school and out of school, is best delivered by ensuring the voice of the child or young person is at its heart.

The next steps will involve the establishment of a working group to consider and work through the recommendations. It is important to state that this is very much a first step in providing a policy platform for the out-of-school sector. The working group will be tasked with considering the recommendations of the review of out-of-school education provision, and, critically, engaging with relevant stakeholders as part of this process. The recommendations allow for consideration of possible approaches and funding models to be developed. The working group is tasked with developing criteria for structure, governance and level of education provision, including scoping out costs associated with the implementation of the recommendations. I am keen to progress this work and can assure the committee that these students will be supported.

I will turn now to the second issue the committee referred to in its invitation, namely, education and supports for Ukrainian students. First, I want to highlight the fantastic work that our schools have done in welcoming so many children and young people from Ukraine into their communities over the last three months. As I visited schools around the country, I witnessed first hand this exceptional effort by all members of our school communities from principals, teachers, special needs assistants, SNAs, staff, students, families to their wider communities.

I want to assure the committee that meeting the educational needs of children and young people from Ukraine is a priority for me, as Minister, and for my officials. We are determined to continue our support for those huge efforts we are seeing from our school communities on the ground. Members will appreciate the scale of the response needed, given that well over 30,000 people have arrived in Ireland from Ukraine since the beginning of this war. Figures show that just under 6,000 children from Ukraine have now enrolled in schools in every county across the State. To date, approximately 4,000 children from Ukraine have enrolled in primary schools, while almost 1,900 have enrolled in our post-primary schools.

From the early days of the crisis, the Department has moved quickly to respond appropriately. This is why, in the early phase, we moved to establish regional education and language teams, REALT, across the country to co-ordinate school enrolment for Ukrainian families.

The primary role of REALT is to build on existing regional education support structures and the initial focus is on assisting families in securing school places when they are ready to engage with the school system. REALT will also support schools in the area to meet the needs of these children as they emerge, to advise and support the Department in developing new capacity where required, and to co-ordinate the provision of education services to schools and families across their defined areas.

The Department is aware, through the work of the REALT co-ordinators and inspectors on the ground, that some Ukrainian pupils are accessing Ukrainian curricular material - for example, through the all-Ukraine online school, which is supported by the ministry of education and science of Ukraine. I would like to thank those schools which have facilitated a pragmatic approach for these pupils.

The issue of appropriate language supports is an important one. All children in the education system are provided with the supports they require to fulfil their potential. The allocation of specialist resources to schools takes account of the needs of pupils, including where appropriate, English as an additional language, EAL, needs. Figures show that 724 primary and 194 post-primary schools have applied for, and are now receiving, EAL teaching resources.

The Department and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science have collaborated, in conjunction with SOLAS and ETBI and in wider consultation with other management bodies and stakeholders to agree the recruitment of additional capacity for ESOL tutors, that is, English for speakers of other languages, in every ETB. This capacity will be flexibly deployed into post-primary schools, adult education centres, or wherever intensive English language development classes need to be facilitated for Ukrainian adults and post-primary age students. This resource will be available to Ukrainian children and young people over the summer period.

I thank the committee for the invitation to attend today and to provide an update on the review of out-of-school provisionreport and on the actions being taken to support the educational needs of students arriving in Ireland from Ukraine.

I now invite the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, to address the committee.