Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The report which I launched is a useful resource, not just for the Department but also for schools by showing not alone their findings but also what works in different schools. Schools employ different models of delivering RSE as part of their programme. In some schools, it is done by the classroom teacher while others bring in professionals from the HSE. It will be interesting for schools to read the report to see for themselves what might work.

I accept this is a crucially important part of the overall social, personal and health education. It is important for schools to realise there is nothing in the programme that would conflict with their ethos. Schools all over the country have found it is possible to teach all of the programme. I am especially worried that the schools that are least likely to implement the full programme are single sex boys schools. This is just as important an issue for boys as it is for girls. We need to get this message across strongly. The measures and supports will be available for all schools.

One of the recommendations in the report was that inspections take place. I was amused that people wished inspectors to go into schools. However, the schools themselves felt that it accorded a subject status if inspectors came to assess it. The inspectors have now been assigned to regional teams and will start in September. I cannot yet say how many inspections will take place, but they will be regional, cross-sectoral and cross-gender, taking in the various elements of the school system. That will give us a different status.

Another conclusion that came across in the report was that, where the entire school supports SPHE, it works very successfully. There should not be a single teacher isolated in his or her classroom. It is very important that the teachers themselves wish to teach the subject, which should not simply be assigned to someone who happens to have a spare period. If schools take all that on board, the principal is seen to support it, and other staff members support the teacher. It can be very successful.

One heartening finding of the report was that students, teachers and parents are all extremely positive. However, there has not been a public information campaign for parents since the subject was first introduced, when many fears had to be allayed. I hope that, as part of their information meetings for parents at the beginning of each year, schools will include advice regarding the programme's content. That could then become part and parcel of what they wish to discuss at home.

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