Ms Kathleen Moran:

The Library Association of Ireland school libraries group thanks the committee for inviting us to this discussion on educational supports provision for displaced Ukrainian students. As outlined in our original submission to the committee last month, we believe school libraries have an integral role to play in providing a wide range of curriculum, language, emotional, well-being, psychological and other supports to Ukrainian and other displaced students.

A school library is a dedicated space in a school managed by a professional school librarian where all students can feel welcome, learn and grow. Libraries give students access to supports and resources they otherwise would not have in school and they offer a sanctuary to all students, especially those who may be living in cramped or overcrowded conditions. Students can gather within the library space both within and beyond the school day not only to learn and cultivate their ideas but also to relax, re-gather their emotions and connect with each other. School librarians are not constrained by the demands of the curriculum and are therefore perfectly placed to quickly transition their supports and services to meet the particular needs of any student cohort at any point in time.

However, only 30 schools in Ireland have publicly-funded school libraries stocked by professional librarians. These are all part of the junior certificate school programme, JCSP, Demonstration Library Project and all operate in second level delivering equality of education in schools, DEIS, schools. Several hundred Ukrainian students have joined these 30 schools over the past few months and our JCSP librarians have already introduced a wide range of tailored literacy, reading and well-being support programmes, including multilingual welcome packs, books, dictionaries and other resources in students' own languages, support materials across all subject areas and much more. Many of our librarians are opening their libraries in the early morning to facilitate students to attend early morning online Ukrainian school classes using library devices and computers, a very important support for the many students wishing to continue their Ukrainian education. Ukrainian students have been integrated into the wide range of extra-curricular library clubs and societies, and our librarians have organised a range of arts and cultural trips for these students to help them to integrate into Irish society.

Supports to wider family members include parents book clubs, facilitating loans, both physical and virtual, to parents and younger siblings, block loans of book collections at local accommodation hubs and so forth. These supports will continue over the summer months in the form of library summer camps, ongoing library book club meetings, ongoing access to the JCSP libraries' digital library service and introducing students to local youth groups to ensure their continued engagement and entertainment over the summer months. Plans are already in place for a number of cross-school JCSP library events and initiatives to support Ukrainian students in the coming year, including themed cross-school Narrative 4 story exchange sessions. All our JCSP librarians are trained Narrative 4 empathy education facilitators. Cross-school chess tournaments, bilingual creative writing, book clubs, pen pals and other initiatives are also planned.

The JCSP digital library service currently provides access to over 42,000 e-books and e-audio books to all students and staff in second level DEIS schools. The collection includes over 600 titles across 26 different languages, including Ukrainian and Russian. We are currently working with our platform providers and with Post-Primary Languages Ireland, PPLI, to increase significantly the number of Ukrainian, Russian and bilingual titles available to students. A collection of over 400 digital magazine titles has also been added which will be available for simultaneous borrowing by all students. Access to this digital collection is of immense value to our Ukrainian students and we strongly believe that all second level schools and Youthreach centres should be provided with immediate access for all their students.

The school libraries group acknowledges the committee's recognition of the vital importance of school libraries and school librarians in its recent report on leaving certificate reform and we thank the committee for it. The committee's recommendations in that report are equally, if not more, applicable to the subject of supports for Ukrainian and other displaced students. We firmly believe that all students, not just those in 30 schools, should have access to a bright, vibrant, well-stocked school library space and to the knowledge and skills of a professional school librarian and that all should have access to a bespoke, professionally curated school digital library service. We recommend that a national advisory group on school library provision be set up immediately with the key aim of planning for the implementation of this committee's recent recommendation that there be a school library, a school librarian and fully access to a digital library service in all primary and post-primary schools in Ireland. As an immediate measure, the further expansion of the junior certificate school programme, JCSP, demonstration library project to further DEIS schools and the extension of access to the JCSP digital library service to all second level schools and Youthreach centres should be in place for the start of the 2022-2023 school year. This could be achieved quite easily and it would be of immense value to Ukrainian and, indeed, all students. Now is the time to act on putting these provisions in place. The members of the school libraries group and the JCSP library project will gladly make ourselves available over the summer months to assist with their implementation. I thank the committee for listening to my statement. I am happy to answer any questions members may have.