Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:“recognises that:

- the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 'Education at a Glance' survey from 2013, relating to the 2010 year, reports that the State was investing 6.4 per cent of GDP in education, compared to an OECD average of 6.3 per cent, while current spending on third-level education in Ireland amounts to 1.6 per cent of GDP, equal to the OECD average of 1.6 per cent; and

- education services have been protected despite the immense challenges posed to the financial sustainability of our nation;

welcomes:

- the fact that the 2012 'Report on Retention Rates of Pupils in Second Level Schools', published by the Department of Education and Skills, found that over 90 per cent of all students in Ireland now stay in school to sit the Leaving Certificate;

- that this shows that the proportion of early school leavers in Ireland is considerably below the EU average of 14 per cent;

- the fact that retention rates in Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) schools have particularly improved, rising from 68 per cent to over 80 per cent over a five-year period, and that studies from the Department's Inspectorate and from the Educational Research Centre have shown improvements in pupils' literacy in DEIS primary schools; and

- the fact that Irish fourth class pupils were placed among the countries performing significantly above the international average in the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study tests conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, and that the Irish fourth class pupils were among the top performers in Progress in International Reading Literacy 2011 tests;

notes that under the present Government a range of new initiatives have been introduced to protect the quality of our education system and the well-being of our young people, which include:

- reform of the Junior Cycle;

- an action plan to combat bullying in schools;

- the implementation of a major restructuring of initial teacher education provision;

- the creation and report of a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector;

- a review of the system of apprenticeships in Ireland;

- significant reform of school inspection and the introduction of school self-evaluation;

- the roll-out of new guidelines for schools on mental health promotion and suicide prevention;

- a new landscape for the higher education sector, and implementation of the National Higher Education Strategy to 2030; and

- the publication of the Draft General Scheme of an Education (Admission to Schools)Bill 2013 which will ensure fairness and transparency in school admissions;

further welcomes:

- the fact that €12 million has been set aside by this Government since 2011 for the roll-out of a new national literacy and numeracy strategy, which is designed to help ensure that every child who leaves school has the literacy and numeracy skills they will need for the rest of their lives, and that a further €9 million has been invested in the same period for other related activities including standardised testing and the Junior Certificate Schools Programme;

- the provision of free high-speed broadband to every post-primary school in Ireland by September 2014, at a cost of up to €40 million by 2015, paid for by the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources;

- the protection by this Government of the standard pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools and free post-primary schools since taking office;

- the ring-fencing of an investment of €1.3 billion to support children with special educational needs in the education sector;

- the consolidation of the Vocational Education Committees sector as local Education and Training Boards, and the replacement of FÁS with SOLAS, an agency that will be empowered to lead a coherent, high-quality further education and training sector in Ireland;

- the inclusion in the Further Education and Training Act 2013 of a requirement for SOLAS to develop a strategy for the promotion and development of adult literacy and numeracy;

- the investment of over €2 billion during the lifetime of this Government in school building projects, creating an estimated 15,000 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs over the period of the programme;

- in particular, the investment by this Government of €57 million to date to replace prefabricated structures with permanent school classrooms, which will reduce the prefab rental bill by 25 per cent each year; and

- the creation of new training, further and higher education programmes, such as Springboard and Momentum, which have so far provided over 23,000 unemployed people with educational opportunities closely linked to areas where employment opportunities exist.”

I thank Sinn Féin and, in particular, Deputy Jonathan O'Brien, for tabling this topic for discussion. The motion is very comprehensive. I am not sure we will be able to give it the attention it deserves this evening but we will have other times to do so.

I would like to remind the House that when this Government came into office two and half years ago, Ireland was in a precarious position as a result of economic mismanagement on a vast scale. Since then, it has been the difficult - and sometimes unpopular - task of Government to get this country moving towards economic recovery and into a position whereby we can once again control our own economic destiny. The latest financial figures show that we are on track to meet our targets under the EU-IMF programme of financial support and to achieve a successful exit from that programme. When we do so, we will be the first European country to so do.

The task of regaining our economic independence has not been easy, given the massive differential between what was being spent by Government and what was being collected by way of taxes prior to this Government's taking up office. Narrowing this gap is essential in order for equilibrium to be restored. While the gap has been reduced significantly, we are still, in 2013, obliged to borrow €1 billion per month to fund public services. This is not a sustainable situation. However, while there is work still to be done, the Government is confident that our policies can help in turning the economy around to a strengthened position of stability and growth.

I make these opening comments to inject an element of realism into this debate. Significant investment in education expenditure in Ireland is reflected in the most recent OECD statistics from its Education at a Glance series of reports. The latest set of results, published in June of this year, shows that expenditure on education in Ireland in 2010 was 6.4% of GDP. This compared favourably to an OECD average of 6.3%. The report also showed that expenditure on higher education, at 1.6% of GDP, was the same as the OECD average. Between 2005 and 2010, total public and private spending on education in Ireland below higher level increased by 44% in real terms. This compared to an average increase of 13% across OECD countries.

In higher education, expenditure grew in real terms by 40% compared to a 20% average increase across the OECD. The latest OECD results, therefore, paint a different picture of Irish education expenditure than earlier OECD results indicated. It is unfortunate that Sinn Féin chose to ignore the latest available figures in compiling its Private Members' motion and relied instead on data published more than three years ago. While a debate on the appropriate level of State expenditure on education is welcome, we must ensure such debate is properly informed and up to date.

Great importance has been attached to improving retention rates of pupils at second level as a key factor in improving overall levels of educational attainment and I share the concerns expressed by Sinn Féin Deputies in this regard. More than 90% of all students in Irish schools now sit the leaving certificate, the highest rate ever and proof of the success of policies which strive to keep young people in school. The percentage of early school leavers in Ireland - less than 10% of students - is considerably lower than the European Union average of 14%. There is never room to be complacent in this area, however, and a 10% rate of early school leavers indicates that far too many young people are still leaving school prematurely and heading into a very uncertain future. Nevertheless, our performance relative to other EU countries shows we are having some success in this area.

Retention rates in disadvantaged schools have improved even more markedly due in large part to the supports offered through the DEIS action plan for educational inclusion. I will be pleased to discuss the reasons the action plan is working on another occasion. Retention rates for DEIS second level schools increased by almost 12% over a five year period, between pupils who entered second level in 2001 and those who entered in 2006. There is clear evidence that the DEIS programme is having a positive effect in tackling educational disadvantage and is an example of funding well spent. The 850 DEIS schools across the primary and post-primary sectors receive additional funding of the order of €70 million to provide a range of supports for pupils, including lower pupil-teacher ratios in the most disadvantaged schools.

In addition to measures to promote educational inclusion in schools, the Government is committed to facilitating access to higher education. A key objective of the current national strategy for higher education is to promote access to higher education for disadvantaged groups. The higher education system performance framework published by my Department earlier this year sets out how progress towards national objectives, such as increasing access of certain disadvantaged groups, including students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, can be made. An overall evaluation of progress on the plan will be completed later this year.

A new national access plan is being developed for the period from 2014 to 2016. The Department supports a range of measures which facilitate greater levels of participation by disadvantaged students, mature students and students with disabilities. The principal support in financial terms is provided under the student grant scheme. Approximately 42% of students in full-time higher education in the 2011-12 academic year were in receipt of a student grant.

I will now address the literacy and numeracy strategy, an issue that has animated me since long before I became Minister for Education and Skills. This Government is strongly committed to improving literacy and numeracy levels in schools. I described the Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA, results on mathematics and reading, which were published in late 2010, as a "wake-up call" for the Irish education system. The programme for Government made literacy and numeracy a national priority. The 2011 to 2020 national strategy to improve literacy and numeracy among children and young people was published in July 2011. Since then, the Government has ring-fenced some €12 million for the roll-out of the strategy, while a further €9 million has been invested across other related activities. The strategy contains 41 actions and 180 sub-actions across six key areas.

Primary schools were asked to increase the time each week spent on mathematics and literacy in class and introduce a third point in standardised testing in English reading and mathematics. This will mean pupils are tested at the end of second, fourth and sixth class. On the basis that if one does not measure, one will now know, specific targets have been set to measure progress against the strategy. In addition, ongoing implementation of significant junior cycle reform aims to develop an integrated approach to promote the development of literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum. The results of the PISA 2012 study are due to be published in December of this year and I hope they will show some improvement as a consequence of the change in approach.

The programme for Government also seeks to promote adult literacy through integration of literacy in vocational training and community education. As Deputy Jonathan O'Brien will be aware, I made it a point of the legislation establishing SOLAS that, unlike FÁS, the new organisation will have a specific statutory responsibility to be aware of literacy problems among people entering long-term training programmes. The last time literacy was measured among the adult population, it emerged that 500,000 of our citizens had literacy problems. As Deputies are aware, if a person has literacy problems, he or she will also have employment problems.

On teachers, class size and staffing schedules, salary costs of teaching staff in schools constitute the most significant element of the education budget, amounting to approximately €3.8 billion in 2013 or 47% of overall voted current expenditure. While difficult choices had to be made to identify savings across the Department, the Government has sought to protect front-line services as best as possible. The focus is on ensuring there are sufficient school places and teachers for the thousands of additional pupils entering our schools each year. There is no realistic scope at present to give any consideration to the provision of additional teachers to reduce class sizes. However, increases in the school population as a result of demographics will give rise under existing policy to a demand for an additional 800 to 1,000 teachers on average each year over the medium term, in other words, the next six to ten years. Classroom teachers in primary schools are currently allocated under the published staffing schedule on the basis of a general average of one teacher for every 28 pupils, with lower thresholds for DEIS band 1 primary schools. The 28:1 ratio has been protected by the Government in the past two and a half years.

The staffing schedule sets out in a fair and transparent manner the pupil thresholds for the allocation of mainstream classroom posts for all schools and treats all similar types of schools equally, irrespective of location, a point I hope Deputy Pearse Doherty will note. At post-primary level the standard staffing allocation for schools is based on a ratio of 19:1. DEIS post-primary schools operate on a standard staffing allocation of 18.25:1. The main budget measure to affect the staffing of post-primary schools in the current school year was confined to fee charging schools, of which there are 55 from a total of 729 secondary schools. The standard staffing allocation for fee charging schools was increased to 23:1 with effect from September 2013. This reflects the fact that fee charging schools have the resources, through fees charged, to employ teachers privately, an option which is not available to schools in the free education scheme.

The budget for education, including the number of teaching posts we can afford to fund in schools, is a matter I will have to consider with my colleagues in Cabinet in the context of the forthcoming budget. The Government will endeavour to continue to protect front-line education services as best as possible.

This Government has passionately defended the provision for special educational spending since coming into office. Some €1.3 billion will be spent in support of children with special educational needs this year. This is exactly the same amount allocated to the entire operation of the Garda Síochána.

This provision is in line with expenditure in recent years and shows that despite the current economic difficulties, the total funding for special education has not been cut. It is the same amount this year as last year and the previous year. The level of expenditure which is being provided means that the majority of pupils with special educational needs can continue to be educated in an inclusive environment in mainstream schools along with their peers. It also means that for pupils who have additional special educational needs which require intensive interventions in a specialised environment, special class and special school placements can continue to be provided. More than 1,100 teaching posts in special schools will continue to be provided for this school year.

The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has also opened 118 new special classes for the 2013-14 school year, which brings the total number of special classes to 740. This year we will again provide funding for 10,575 whole-time equivalent SNAs. There has been no reduction to the overall number of SNA posts which are available for allocation to schools. The number remains at 10,575 posts available for allocation. It should also be noted that unlike many other areas of the public sector, SNA vacancies are being filled up to this number.

On the allocation of resource teaching support for schools, in June I authorised the NCSE to maintain the level of resource teaching allocations to be provided to individual students at existing levels. There has been growing demand for resources in this area and I have agreed to provide the necessary extra posts to reflect this increase in demand. There will therefore not be a reduction in resource-teaching time for these pupils compared with the amount of support provided last year. That is a change in policy in response to a genuine sense of concern. Deputies will be also aware that the NCSE recently published comprehensive policy advice on supporting students with special educational needs in schools. On foot of that change in policy, I have requested the NCSE to establish a working group to develop a proposal for consideration for a new allocation model for teaching supports for children with special educational needs. I am not satisfied that the present model that is working satisfactorily and I would be happy to discuss it wherever Deputies wish. We all know much more and regardless of who is in government, resources will be finite. Let us work on getting a better system. I expect to receive shortly an update on the work of this group, which is led by Mr. Eamon Stack, the former chief inspector of the Department and currently chair of the NCSE. When we get that report, we can discuss it.

Deputies, in particular the former education spokesperson for Sinn Féin, Deputy Crowe, spoke about back-to-school costs. Tackling the costs associated with school has been a major priority of mine for some time and is obviously a very topical issue at this time. Since becoming Minister for Education and Skills, I have taken a number of steps aimed at helping to reduce the burden on families. On the cost of school textbooks, I met members of the Irish Educational Publishers' Association and received a commitment from them to limit the publication of new editions of textbooks and to maintain editions of books in print, unchanged for at least six years. Some books were changing arbitrarily every two or three years while the substance had not changed - for example, the map of Ireland has not changed.

The publishers have also assured me that they would sell books for rental schemes to schools at a substantial discount, similar to the wholesale rate they were giving to booksellers, but not entirely the same. Deputies will be also aware that I greatly favour schools establishing textbook rental schemes. I launched new guidelines for developing textbook rental schemes in schools in January. These guidelines provide practical advice to primary and post-primary schools on how rental schemes can be established and operated. The aim of the guidelines is to help as many schools as possible to start such book rental programmes as soon as they can. I hope schools that are not yet operating book rental schemes will be encouraged to use the guidelines to introduce them in order to provide substantial savings for parents. Schools which already have rental schemes can save parents up to 80% of the cost of buying new books. I will continue to monitor the number of schools operating book-rental schemes and if it proves necessary, I will consider further steps to encourage schools to do so.

I have also been clear in my support for measures to reduce uniform costs for parents including measures such as the use of generic-type uniforms and the use of sew-on crests. There are about four or five colours of school uniforms with which we are all familiar. The ones available in the various big retail outlets cost a fraction of bespoke individual school uniforms. The technology and practices are available for the sow-on crests to deal with the particularisation of the branding of an individual school. I have raised this matter with the National Parents Council at primary level and recommended that the National Parents Councils - primary and post primary- mobilise parents' associations to raise this issue with school authorities. The only group recognised in the Constitution in terms of education is the family as "the primary and natural educator of the child". The school authorities and the Department are not recognised in the same way and yet the families represent the weakest component at the moment.

See this speech in context