Ms Rosie Bissett:

In terms of the question around reading schools, there is a very small number of reading schools or schools that have a reading class attached to them. The NCSE and the Department are very clear that they will give no mandate to any more of these schools being set up, which is an issue and can be compared with the huge and much-needed growth in the number of autism classes around the country. There is a huge issue around equity of access to those schools because of geography. There are so many parts of the country where it is not an option, the distance is literally so great, you cannot do it. Having said that, we think it is a sad indictment of our education system that you have to go to another school to learn how to read. That should be fundamental to how we teach our young people. Literacy is the core that opens up all of the learning and the other subjects. We should improve what is happening and increase the resources in our schools so that a child in south Kildare, a remote part of Mayo or any other part of the country where there is no equivalent reading class would have access to enhanced supports. To go to a reading school or class, a child generally needs reading or spelling scores in the first or second percentile, which represents a very severe difficulty and will cause huge challenges in accessing the curriculum. Those children need additional resources over and above what is available within the standard SET allocation to schools. If we are going to make it equitable, we probably need to look at how we put those resources into every school because moving school also creates all sorts of issues. Many parents who have children at that first and second percentile choose not to go to one of those schools because of the social and emotional impact of moving schools, which can be quite significant and involve taking their child out of his or her community, friend group and so on.