Dr. Seán Rowland:

Put a teacher in the classroom and we will beam in the auxiliary teacher. We are not saying we will replace the teacher or the school. We would certainly not be in favour of the school that delivers to the child at home. I have seen this in the United States of America and I believe it does not work. My God, it is so antisocial and so bad in so many ways. Trust me when I say that I share anyone's fears that children's educational experience might be replaced by a laptop. That is not what is in question here at all. Young people in Ireland today and around the developed world are on their keyboards night, noon and morning. They are so ready and able to deal with this technology as a piece of a solution to a problem now. This is not the thin end of the wedge. Someone might say they are not going to have teachers and they will not have any play, but this would be nothing of the kind. This is an auxiliary teaching opportunity and it is at a pilot stage. Of those who were asked to take part we had a 100% "Yes". It is small currently and we will report back directly to the Department on it. We do not want surprises any more than anyone else. It will work if it is educationally sound and if it complements what is happening in schools, which I believe it will because I have seen it work so successfully in schools, especially in the United States of America and in the UK.

There are one-year programmes for upskilling teachers. These are one-year intensive, accredited programmes with good faculty that are delivered to every teacher who wants to take it up. This could be online, on a campus locally, or both. There is room for a massive upgrade. Where I have seen this operate in the United States of America and in the UK, there is no question that if one pays the teachers, they will do it. This is a guaranteed way for the State to get more maths or language teachers. It is going to cost some money but it is money very well invested. It is not a huge amount per teacher but it saves going back to the drawing board to put a teacher through a four-year or a six-year programme. This upskilling programme is a one-year programme that would enhance the teaching profession big time. In the two-year online programme we can reach out to every county across the State. We can also reach out to the Middle East for teachers from Ireland. We are doing more than just looking at it. We are delivering teachers through this model. These are teachers who will join the unions of the witnesses present and these are teachers who will join the schools belonging to the representatives here. We benchmark against the best in the world. Our international partners in research at graduate level are Harvard University, which is ranked number one in the world, Boston College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Plymouth University in the UK. I would definitely urge the State to adopt the one-year programme. It has worked and the University of Limerick is an example of that. I believe that Deputy Jan O'Sullivan has been engaged in that regard and she may be able to speak on that better than I can.

The bottom line is that it is incumbent on all of us to use whatever means that are available to us and that we can afford so that we can get more teachers into the classrooms and before the children. They only have one chance at fifth year and sixth year to get through. It is a tough time for students and the least we can do is get a good teacher in front of them.