Mr. Hubert Loftus:

I would make two main points. When the value for money report on small schools is published, it will provide a framework for a wider discussion on many of the issues raised here. The Department would be happy to come back to the committee to have a full debate and discussion on it. The report will address all of the issues, it will not just look at facts and figures, it will also look at the community and rural aspect of small schools. I was educated in a small, two-teacher school. Many of us would have been educated in these schools. It is important to recognise that we are more likely to remember the teacher we had and the quality of that teacher than the number of pupils who sat beside us in the classroom.

I might ask Mr. Lally to talk about teaching and learning.

There has been much discussion about the PTR and the whole business of costs and funding. From his many years experience as an inspector he might focus on the child and what schools are about in teaching and learning and what he sees on the ground in schools.