Mr. Paul Rolston:

On behalf of the NPCPP, I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak today and to discuss this issue. Much research and numerous studies over many years now confirm that we do not look after many of our young people very well. The NPCPP welcomes the current debate in the hope that this will trigger productive action to support our young people in society, prepare them better to manage life issues now and in the future. These days, it is the whole school community that educates our children and not just our schools. Our children and adolescents learn and are influenced in class in school but also in our communities and online.

Many of the causes of mental health issues among our children stem from our non-focus on areas of personal well-being. Our education system needs, as its core purpose, to prepare, support, protect and empower the child, adolescent or student through their educational journey and for the journey to prepare them effectively for their future lives. Part of our problem is that we have too often focused on traditional education and our institutions rather than on our pupils.

We must provide an education system in which our children actually live and learn about respect, dignity and self-worth through what we teach and what they learn by way of adult and peer example. Our education system and surrounding discussions have begun to understand the critical importance of teaching about matters other than traditional subjects. Knowledge of these traditional subjects is of little value if one’s mental health is compromised and a lack of learning around any of those subjects will not result in the potential devastation or tragedy in a young person’s future that ignorance of life skills, respect or coping mechanisms might bring.

The pace at which we introduce more learning for life subjects and topics and put in place the knowledge, mechanisms and funding in our school communities necessary to address these issues needs to increase significantly. The stress and anxiety that children and adolescents experience through their youth damage their ability to live happily and will affect them for the rest of their lives. Our focus must therefore address these shortcomings as an integral part of our education system.

I will provide some hard and cold facts and statistics for consideration around adolescent stress, anxiety and suicide. Some 24% of our young people are experiencing high levels of anxiety and 14% are suffering from depression, a high proportion of them by the time they are 13 years old. A Dublin City University, DCU, research survey and study in 2019 found that four out of ten adolescents self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety, while 57% of our leaving certificate students have experienced a physical or mental health issue as a result of the examination cycle. It has been found that 75% of students experience a lot of extreme stress around the leaving certificate and 71% have indicated anxiety as the chief issue. Stress is consistently associated with suicide ideation. Among Irish males aged under 25, suicide was the number one cause of death in 2019. For females in the same age bracket, suicide was the third highest cause of death in the same period.

On bullying prevalence and the short- and long-term effects, the NPCPP's recent survey of parents indicates that 40% of respondents have at least one child who has experienced bullying in school. This NPCPP survey also indicates that while 82% of respondents' schools have an anti-bullying policy in place, 43% of parents do not find the school policy accessible or easily understood and 35% have found their schools' response to bullying to be unsatisfactory. In childhood and adolescence, peer victimisation is frequently associated with internalising problems, such as anxiety and depression, and a decrease in self-worth and self-esteem. Children who have been the victims of bullying have been consistently found to be at higher risk for internalising problems and, in particular, concerning diagnoses of anxiety disorder and depression in young and middle adulthood.

On educational curriculums and methods of assessment, this committee and most of us at the education table have been reminded on numerous occasions that in 2016 the UN Committee on the Rights of Children recommended that Ireland reform the leaving certificate as the terminal examination was found to be causing a disproportionate level of mental stress to young people. We can remind ourselves again that education experts say that a combination of a high-stakes examination and a hugely competitive points system means there is little emphasis on a more rounded education. Our current system is lacking in crucial areas and is the cause of significant problems for many of our young people. Our third level colleges indicate that school-leavers are emerging from our exam-obsessed second-level system taught to the test and not having learned how to think or explore for themselves.

In summary, school and home must work closely together in today’s educational world. A whole-school anti-bullying programme must be implemented in all schools as a matter of urgency, and at latest by September 2023. Models are implemented in some schools and are readily available to assist roll-out. Subject and curriculum changes must create fit-for-purpose senior and junior cycles and they must be activated immediately. Methods of assessment for junior and leaving certificate must be adjusted to relieve stress and to better reflect pupils’ learning and knowledge. NPCPP assures all concerned of our commitment to assist, develop and deliver systems where student health and wellbeing is protected, where mutual respect becomes the default position and where each student’s talent is nurtured and their self-esteem strengthened.