Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)

I add my voice to calls by the INTO to increase the capitation grant to €299 per head. Will the Minister comment on why there is disparity between primary and secondary? A capitation grant for a significant number of schools is one of their only sources of income, especially in remote rural areas.

I also have concerns about senior cycle reform. I was a secondary teacher myself, and I really welcome senior cycle reform. It is something I discussed at length with my own students in the classroom. I have seen the damage the leaving certificate does to students. However, the fact that marks for the Irish oral exam are going to be reduced flies in the face of all advice and best practice in the promotion of the Irish language. It is something on which I would like to engage with the Minister, with her Department engaging with the NCCA and the SEC, which I highlighted recently. It has to be looked at. I do not understand why the Department would reduce the marks for the one thing we try to get kids to do, which is to speak the language. I often hear people say to me that they have spent 14 years learning the Irish language and cannot speak two words. This flies in the face of all of that.

The roll-out of the reforms this September has been very contentious. I would like an update on how negotiations are going with the ASTI. Its members have strongly rejected the implementation measures, and there are indications the TUI will not cross the picket line in dual-union schools, which creates a huge problem in September, where we may see schools not opening. My party colleague Councillor Seán Ryan in County Tipperary teaches in Rockwell College, and he has been to the fore on this issue. I ask for an update on that as well.

When new SEN classes are allocated, the new teacher must be in situ in the classroom before they qualify for CPD with the NCSE. They usually have to wait a few months before they get their first session, which means there is a teacher in a classroom with kids with profound needs who may not be equipped to provide the care the kids need. That needs to be addressed.

There is a need for timely clarity to be provided to schools on the allocation of special classes. It is currently mid-June and many schools around the country still do not know where they stand for September. My party colleague Councillor Dominic Finn has been advocating for a third special class to be provided to Scoil Iosaef Naofa in Cobh, which the principal welcomes, as does the board of management, but the Department recently told them it had been paused. I ask that the Minister’s Department engage with the school community on that. Similarly, Councillor Peter Ormond has been advocating for a second special class for Shinrone National School in County Offaly, which has a waiting list of 11 students. Again, an update to the school from the Minister’s Department would be welcome.

There is a huge problem across the board with additional special classes. At home in my own area, Loughrea, County Galway, we do not have a single special class at secondary school level for either of the two secondary schools. It is something the schools are trying to roll out. The ETB school, St Brigid’s College, is trying to get a 13-classroom extension built at speed, but it is having huge problems with the contractors and things like that at local level as it tries to get things rolled out quickly. If the Minister could engage on that particular issue, I would really appreciate it.

On the subject of school buildings, it has become clear that towns around the country badly need either a new school or a new building due to population growth. For instance, my party colleague in the Minister's constituency, Councillor Stephen McKee in Duleek, is eager that the town get a secondary school due to the size of the town and the population it has. We also have the case of a new school building for Holy Trinity National School in Westport, which my party colleague Councillor Brendan Mulroy is eager to see delivered. There are countless more example. They show the huge need to invest in capital schools projects, if at all possible.

I have one more question regarding catering for future school needs and population trends. Is this even on the Department's radar, and if so, how does it gauge future building requirements? For example, if we see a new housing scheme of 500 houses in a town, is this something the Department monitors and acts on in a timely fashion? If not, I ask that it become common practice. My party colleague Councillor Rob Power in County Kildare has huge concerns on this in his local area.

On the topic of AI, I am not sure if the Minister is aware of the Khanmigo project in high schools in the United States. AI has the potential to be a huge tool for good in the classroom. Khanmigo creates lesson plans and content for the teacher. If the teacher puts a few lines of instructions into Khanmigo, it creates the lesson to a high degree of sophistication and delivers it. It teaches it for the teacher, meaning they can become a facilitator, go around the classroom and monitor how well the kids comprehend the content. It also corrects the work to a high degree of sophistication. It weeds out the issues a student may have with an essay or something and produces really good feedback. It takes a huge amount of very unsustainable workload off teachers. I was an Irish and French teacher, and the number of three-page essays I had to correct every Friday after going home to try to have them back in Monday morning for timely feedback, which is best practice, was just not sustainable. If a pilot project could be rolled out in a handful of schools in Ireland, even where they have partner schools with high schools in the US, it could be a huge positive for the country.