Cecilia Keaveney (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to have a brief opportunity to contribute to this education motion and the amendment thereto. Throughout my 11 year career in the House, my anniversary being on 2 April, education has been to the fore of my thoughts. Following the 1997 general election I was appointed as a member of the Joint Committee on Education and Science and we dealt with various issues. Despite the fact that post-2002 I was appointed Chairman of the Joint Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, this did not reduce my interest in the education field.

As a former teacher, I am au fait with the classroom. The predominant issues addressed to me during the years have been the need for new school buildings, extensions and repairs of our current schools. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the huge level of success that has been attained in those areas.

In Moville a new second level school has been created from a standing start. It had its first leaving certificate class leave last summer. We want to see the balance of the accommodation built and I ask the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, to look to the wonderful opportunity the new devolved grant initiative gave us to deliver a wonderful phase one building in bricks and mortar rather than prefabs. Our VEC and the school board of management, students, parents and staff all rose to the trials of delivering on our promise of no overspend and no late completion of work. We will save the Department more money if the Minister trusts us again with the devolved scheme for phase 2.

In mentioning this precise case I applaud the level of innovation occurring in the Department. Throughout my constituency, schools, particularly at primary level, have attained a devolved grant and this has moved on the building programme significantly from Gleneely, St. Muras, Buncrana to Desertegney and many others. Both Rasheeny and Glassalts were disappointed this year that their needs were not met but I know that interim supports needed to deal with their realities for the incoming year will be addressed by the Department and that their more permanent solution will be looked at in the next round of applications. I am aware of this because the investment programme that yielded only €92 million in 1997 stands at €542 million in 2007. This is the shape of the Fianna Fáil commitment to educational investment into the future.

Similarly, there is a story to be told in regard to the repeat design concept. For many years money and time were wasted on multiple designs for what is a standard problem. The concept of the "X" school class design is speeding up a process being financed through the Department of Finance. Again, I point to many schools in the county which are winners from this — from Moville primary school, Scoil Íosagáin Buncrana, Clonmany national school and many more.

The summer works scheme also has enabled schools to get small but important jobs done to the school. I have been invited to view the success of new floors, new guttering, safer access, better facilities in many schools, including Cockhill national school in Buncrana.

These grants supplement improved minor works and capitation grants. I accept that issues like heating and lighting have eaten sharply into the coffers of many boards, yet I point to the green schools initiative and the very clever and environmentally sound work ongoing in many schools that leads to energy savings and awareness campaigns begun by students that transcend into their homes.

I know of a school which fought hard for two extra classrooms on the basis of need. The classrooms are there now and the student population has dropped by almost half. The two new rooms are a source of concern for the board of management as they have to be maintained and heated, even though they are not needed. This is not an isolated case and schools such as Scoil Mhuire in Buncrana are frustrated at the need to continue to prove their potential to expand so as to gain the works they aspire to carry out.

For various reasons, some schools need a level of consolidation — a case in point is Carndonagh community school. With the reduction in numbers due to the new second level dynamic in the peninsula there is a need to mobilise the school in a more efficient manner. I trust the Minister may look to that case and also seek to accommodate the local community in any spare capacity deemed to be available, as there is a great wish for community facilities in the town. I strongly believe that a town, its school and its community, where possible, should be linked in real terms.

Similarly in Buncrana, Crana College, the Gaelscoil and the new Gael Choláiste are seeking to build on the one site to form an educational entity of which the Minister aspires to see more. As ever, the acquisition of a site can often be the hardest part, but the Department is in favour of the concept here and also in locations such as Monreagh.

How are school sizes and class sizes linked? Having recently visited a number of small schools like Glentogher and Urblereagh, it comes home to me that had Fianna Fáil not made a conscious decision to keep these schools open they would, by now, be closed. We put a second teacher into many schools that were low in student numbers but hugely part of the fabric of the community. That has used up some of our teaching complement that may have reduced our class sizes generally but the people of those areas are proud of their schools and aware of the decision that favoured their children.

Trying to establish the intake that will come into a school has proven very difficult and more difficult than the average person looking on can imagine. If I look at County Meath where, say, 5,000 houses are being built, people ask how the Department did not have schools built simultaneously. I look at hundreds of houses that developed in one village in my area, Muff. Had we doubled the size of the school to accommodate the influx we would have been left with a white elephant as only one child came to the school at that initial time, the rest stayed in Derry. Similarly in Border villages and towns, the projection for the school year is hard to establish as the usual manner is to look to the births and baptisms for the four years leading up to school age. In my area many of the children attending school in Donegal may not have been born or baptised in Donegal but arrive through the very fluid Border building programme that is now at a huge scale. What school they will chose to go to is uncertain.

This unpredictability is very difficult for the Department but also a real issue for schools which have to deal with the reality of what comes in the door and await a teacher the following year if that is what the numbers yield. That is an issue. To struggle on in one year with what will receive an extra teacher the following year is a problem.

To come to the crux of the motion: I grew up in a national school system where junior and senior infants; first and second; third and fourth; fifth and sixth shared a room and a teacher. When one was in the lower class one was brought along by hearing the work of the class above. When one was in the class above one's learning was reinforced by hearing the work of the lower class and-or one was used as a surrogate-type teacher for the weaker pupils at times which again served as a reinforcing technique. Now classes tend in the main to be one teacher, one class unless a decision has been taken to split them up. The class size has gone from 30:1 to 29:1 to 28:1 and in September will be 27:1. I want to see this trend continue. The Government has put many more teachers through college with the goal of working to a 20:1 ratio for the under nines. However, there is an aspiration and a reality in life. The success of the economy has yielded many changes in a very short period of time. If one looks at the length of time it takes for a teacher to become qualified and the resources needed within the teaching colleges and teaching practice locations, one can see that it has proven to be a different dynamic in Ireland even in that short space of time, due to, for example, the entry of non-nationals into the country. This is a reality that must be taken into account as many people do not speak English as a first language and their needs are real.

Given this reality, there is the need to prioritise the rest of the sector. Therefore, special needs education and disadvantaged areas were given special consideration and the Minister has still continued to reduce class sizes by another one this year to 27. Within the current system and, given that I am a member of a board of management, I know that splitting classes can cause great anxiety, particularly if children worry over the summer about what is going to happen in September. I feel that staff, parents, boards of management and students should work together to minimise disruption and have a trial run of the new system prior to the holidays to get children used to it and get them over the fear about what will happen when they return in September.

I know how things were in 1996. I was here raising issues about the lack of remedial teachers in my county. I fought a running battle in respect of the supports needed in places like Scoil losagáin which were innovative in embracing children with special needs. I have seen the resource teachers, special needs assistants and classroom assistants evolve in terms of the number of extra hands in the classroom and have seen the standard of accommodation rise. I am not in any way complacent, but I look at what the reality was in 1996 and what the expectation is in 2007 and applaud the huge level of work that has gone on to achieve that change.

For example, one of the parliamentary questions I tabled when I first entered this House concerned the level of remedial teachers in 1997. I was told that the county of Donegal had 37 remedial teachers, which was 37 out of 178 schools. No remedial teachers were appointed at all in 1996. The Minister for Education at that time, Niamh Breathnach, said in June 1996 that she was not in a position at that time to make additional remedial teacher posts available to primary schools. She went on to say in October 1996: "I am satisfied that since my appointment as Minister for Education I have achieved substantial advances across the entire spectrum of special needs, including the remedial area. It is my intention to continue this process." I noted at the time that this was frankly terrifying because there were no supports.

I previously mentioned Scoil Íosagáin. When I raised the issue in 1997, Scoil Íosagáin had a class for 12 Down's syndrome children with a moderate handicap. The classroom assistant was to be taken away from that class to be placed in a new class for profoundly handicapped children that was created at the time. I use this as an example because the then Minister for Education was going to take the classroom assistant away from the class with 12 Down's syndrome children.

The current staffing for that particular school is one principal, 23 mainstream class posts, one permanent development school post, three learning support-resource posts, eight permanent special class posts, two permanent resource posts, two temporary language support posts and one post for administrative deputy principal. I have served in this House since 1996 and have seen massive changes, both in the number of hands in the classroom and the standard of those classrooms into which people are going. I aspire to where we need and want to go, but I see the reality of reacting to the situation on the ground. There are certain pressures in respect of the massive increase in teachers brought into the system and we have reacted to the reality. I also look forward to the continued support in our education that targets our children's needs and enables them to achieve their best.

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