Mr. Jim Moore:

With regard to the question on gaps in information, we would pinpoint a couple of areas of grave concern with regard to that aspect of how to communicate with parents. One of the great concerns is the transfer from primary to post-primary, particularly the parental involvement in that process. Moving from primary to post-primary is a very particular change for the pupil and parental engagement with that change is a big problem. How do we get the parent to be informed in advance of moving from primary to post-primary, given it is a totally different world, both for the student and the parent, particularly the parent of a child with special needs?

We mentioned geography. There is a particular problem where there is a standalone post-primary school which is servicing a very broad area, given the element of choice in the post-primary school is very limited. Particularly in rural areas, there are some very large post-primary schools that are catering for the needs of a huge population. The ability of a particular school to address those needs is not certain given the allocation process can sometimes be very crude with regard to entitlement of a school to engage teacher resources. This is a big problem.

Parental involvement is also a big problem. I am sure everyone in this room has been involved in a parents' association of a primary or post-primary school at some stage of their lives. A recent study states:

The most recent evidence of parental engagement in the Irish post-primary schools, carried out by the ESRI as part of their Post-Primary Longitudinal Study, confirms the traditional commitment of the individual parent to the child's educational welfare. The study further shows that the collaborating activity of parents collectively in the school community is weak.

That is a real problem. We find that we lose parents who no longer become involved in the child's education in moving from primary to post-primary. There is also a question around the ability of parents to organise themselves, either in the primary or post-primary sector.

We have too many schools that do not have an active parents' association. This issue must be dealt with at board of management level at each school, in other words how are they responding to particular needs in their area.

With regard to our endeavours to be collaborative with partners in education, the model of the post-primary education forum has been very successful in highlighting the issues for everybody in education.