Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is common ground here. What has amazed me since becoming Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills two years ago is the well-spring of initiatives in schools and the level of cohesion between teachers and pupils in their collaboration on such projects. We all acknowledge that and I accept the point that we should examine some of these projects to determine whether we can pilot them across the educational landscape.

We are often accused in this House of being out of touch but very often we have our fingers on the pulse in terms of what is happening in our own communities. I have noticed an enormous amount of enthusiasm from pupils about trying to ensure the emotional and mental well being of their fellow pupils. I have not seen anything like the level of positivity that I have seen in the last two years, in terms of the willingness of pupils to engage with and try to help their fellow students. That is having a knock-on effect on overall well being within schools. The evidence for that may be anecdotal but we are seeing an improvement in this regard.

I take the point made about the stresses and strains that teachers are under. I also understand their in loco parentis role in schools but schools are communities made up of students, teachers and parents, all working together. The question was asked as to whether we can specifically fund services for teachers who are in distress or under stress without also doing so for the wider populace but I do not know the answer to that. As to whether we can get specific schemes or pilot projects under way, I do not see why not. Wearing my research hat, I can say that it can be very easy to do so. Good ideas, like the CoderDojo initiative, for example, are very easily replicated across the landscape. If specific initiatives are being carried out in schools in certain areas at present, I do not see why they cannot be replicated across the country. There would be no additional cost because it is simply about learning from other schools and replicating that across the system. I am always happy to engage on this agenda.

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