Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation creating the education and training boards. I acknowledge the presence of the Minister of State with responsibility for innovation, Deputy Sean Sherlock. This Bill is another piece of a package of measures the Government has brought forward in terms of the reform of how education is provided at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. As the previous speaker said, there has been little or no change in the structural roll-out of education through the vocational education committees since the 1930s. This Bill gives us an opportunity to re-examine what we expect from the education and training boards, previously known as the VECs.

In my area, County Limerick VEC will be amalgamated with the City of Limerick VEC and County Clare VEC. They will be amalgamated under the auspices of the County Limerick VEC and the headquarters will be in Dooradoyle. It is a reflection of the regional need in Clare and in Limerick for a structure which will meet the needs of parents, teachers, managers and, more importantly, students, whether second level students or students continuing their education through night classes, back to education courses or PLC courses.

We are talking about this Bill the day after the reform of local government package was announced and it is important there is continuity. While we are seeing a change in the structure, we are maintaining some continuity as well. Local authority representation on the education and training boards is important and I welcome the fact there will be ten seats per education and training board for local authority members. In the case of Limerick city, County Limerick and County Clare, it will be distributed by determination of the Minister, which is good.

This is the first opportunity I have had to speak in the Chamber on education matters since the announcement of the reform of the junior certificate last week, which will be very relevant to those involved in the education and training boards. In what the Minister for Education and Skills announced last week, there is a move away from rote learning at junior certificate level, which I welcome. However, the move away from rote learn at junior certificate level cannot be done in isolation and it must be continued to the leaving certificate level. As a teacher, one of the things we were always told when being taught how to teach was that the worst possible way to teach is by rote learning and yet the biggest examination in a young person's life, which will determine their future career and where they will go, is based entirely on rote learning. There is something wrong with that.

On the one hand, the Department of Education and Skills has acknowledged that rote learning at junior certificate level has failed and is not meeting the needs of the children it is supposed to serve while on the other, it is continuing on the basis that the leaving certificate is fit for purpose. There is a major anomaly there. The leaving certificate is not fit for purpose and the education and training boards, the Department of Education and Skills and Members of the House have a role in restructuring and reforming the leaving certificate and the senior cycle and asking parents, managers, teachers, students, employers and further education providers what we require from the senior cycle.

This Bill makes provision for outside representation on the education and training boards. The Minister of State will probably agree that we must focus on how what we are doing currently will benefit the economy. It is, therefore, very important that we have representatives of the trade union movement and employers on education and training boards who can reflect what the marketplace, the workplace, employers and others require in terms of educational needs.

Third level institutions, in particular, are running courses which provide few, if any, job opportunities in Ireland and that is a challenge for the Department. We must be fair to, and honest with, the people embarking on those course. One of the universities which has been to the fore in meeting the needs of the local employment base and the students is the University of Limerick. I am not saying that because I am from Limerick but it is by far and away out on its own in terms of revolutionising the delivery of education to students which then benefits the local economy and employers. We need to get people involved at a much earlier stage and one of the ways we can do that is through the education and training boards.

The move to SOLAS - it is part of this because there will be a role for it - is a good thing. The rebranding of FÁS is a good thing because, unfortunately, FÁS became a very dirty word in the past few years. A small number of people used that organisation very meanly for their own particular purposes and benefited themselves. The move to SOLAS is a good thing but there is no point rebranding organisations like FÁS unless it is joined up to an overall strategy which, ultimately, will deliver an opportunity for the people who are going to avail of these courses, whether at second level or post-leaving certificate level, for gainful employment in their local communities. Ultimately, that is what this Bill must be about.

I support the Bill and in doing so, I wish the Minister of State well in his endeavours. Over the next 12 months, he will be busy as president of the Council of innovation ministers. He has a huge responsibility in delivering part of the cake to Ireland and the other countries in the economic mess we are in. I have no doubt the Minister of State is more than capable of doing so.

See this speech in context