Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The reason that I set up the task force in the first instance was that I recognised that this had the potential to become a very serious problem. Having been asked by the ASTI and the TUI to do so, I was very swift in obliging and asking the commission to report speedily.

Regarding the effectiveness of strategies currently employed to address disruption, the report documents a range of measures or variables that enable schools to promote a positive school environment. Those include the building of healthy relationships within the school; a school culture that is pastoral, effective leadership and skilled, dedicated staff, active teaching methodologies that involve differentiated teaching, meaningful parental involvement, giving students a voice, a broad curriculum that meets the needs of all learners; access to a range of extracurricular activities, a positive behaviour policy that is owned and consistently implemented and good structures and supports operating effectively in the school. On the matter of best practice nationally and internationally, the interim report found that international research tended to stress the same broad range of success factors as I have outlined.

As I said, having examined the nature, scale and impact of disruptive behaviour, the effectiveness of strategies currently employed to address disruption and best practice nationally and internationally, the interim report set out a framework in which the task force would consider recommendations for the final report. Its final report was delivered to me in late January and will be published in March. At that point, I will set out the steps that will be taken to respond to its recommendations.

Tonight, however, I would like to highlight some of the steps that I have taken in the past year to deal with the types of issues that I identified earlier as crucial to ensuring a positive learning environment. While the task force has been working on making specific recommendations for future action in this area, I have at the same time prioritised improvements in training and support services for teachers, greater access to leadership development for school principals and the provision of more guidance counsellors.

Regarding teacher training, it is vital that we prioritise continuous professional development for teachers if we are to help them stay at the top of their game. In the current context, we all know that the standard of teaching can have a major motivating, or demotivating, impact on student behaviour. My commitment to this area is clear from the fact that this year my Department's provision for in-service training is nearly €27 million. That represents an increase of 15% on the figure for 2005. There was also a similar increase in the preceding year.

Apart from providing improved training opportunities for teachers, I have also focused on improving the training that we give to school principals through a major expansion of the leadership development for schools service. The LDS programme recognises the beneficial impact that leadership can have in promoting a positive school climate conducive to learning and teaching. LDS programmes cover areas such as strategies to promote positive behaviour in the school, human resource management skills to empower teachers and help those who might be disaffected, ways of involving students in school decision-making and the importance of good communication between the whole school community. The LDS programme has expanded in the past two years from a focus on new school principals to working with established principals and is an initiative that I intend to develop further in the years ahead.

Over the past year, I have stressed to teachers' groups the need for all schools to have a student council. Deputy Enright said that there should be a group of schools where students have a voice and are strongly involved.

See this speech in context