Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 14 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Education and Supports Provision for Displaced Ukrainian Students: Discussion

Ms Kathleen Moran:

From our point of view, we are at the ground level, in that the children and students have come into our schools. We transition to support those who are in front of us. The Deputy mentioned accommodation issues and access to study space and so on. We do whatever we can to make available what the individual students in front of us need, whether it is opening in the morning for their Ukrainian classes, or staying open in the evening to provide study space for them because they do not have suitable study spaces in their accommodation. Going back to Senator Flynn's comment on the digital divide, we provide students with digital devices to access their Ukrainian classes. As we did right throughout Covid, we loan digital devices to students who do not have access to them. The value of a school library is that it can provide whatever is required. That can differ from school to school, depending on the cohort that is presented to us.