The following motion was moved by Deputy Jonathan O'Brien on Tuesday, 24 September 2013:“That Dáil Éireann:affirms that the right to education is an internationally recognised human right, enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 13 and 14 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, reaffirmed by the 1960 UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education, Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 28 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; notes that the Proclamation of the Irish Republic in 1916 pledges to "cherish all the children of the nation equally"' and recognises their right to a decent education; notes that access to education provisions in internationally recognised human rights law include the obligation to eliminate discrimination at all levels of the education system; recognises that Article 42 of the Constitution of Ireland commits the State to ensuring children receive a certain minimum education; notes that the commitment to ensuring a citizen's right to education has been undermined by the failure of successive governments to adequately invest in education and that even during the height of the Celtic tiger the 2007 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's annual Education at a Glance survey reported that the State was spending 4.7% of its income on education compared to an OECD average for that year of 5.7%, while current spending on third level education in Ireland amounts to 1.2% of GDP compared to the OECD average of 1.5%; notes that, since coming to power in 2011, the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government has continued the slash and burn policies of their Fianna Fáil-Green Party predecessors through the implementation of successive cuts to the State's education system that resulted in an adjustment of €132.3 million in 2012 and €77 million in 2013, with further cuts to come in October 2014, which are expected to be as high as €100 million; and the punitive cuts to education are being made when the school population is projected to rise significantly over the next decade and at a time when the Government has imposed an Employment Control Framework that limits the numbers who can be employed in the education sector; deplores the current class sizes of primary schools in Ireland which average 26 pupils per teacher, the second largest in the EU, and that a further increase in the pupil-teacher ratio, PTR, would mean 30 plus class sizes in many primary schools; acknowledges that the State's failure to invest properly in education has resulted in a significant decline in literacy and numeracy rates in Irish schools, as reflected in tests carried out by the OECD between 2000 and 2009 which saw a fall from 15th to 25th in maths and from 5th to 17th in reading; believes that, during a recession, it is important to prioritise and ring-fence funding for education in order to produce a highly skilled and flexible workforce that is necessary for our future economic growth and prosperity; challenges Government's policies that target higher and further education and greatly undermine the objective of incentivising people from up-skilling and re-training in order to enhance their employment prospects; recognises that the millions cut from the education budget will greatly impact on the implementation of progressive measures such as the reform of the junior certificate cycle and improving literacy and numeracy standards that are essential for improving standards in Irish schools; recognises that instead of guaranteeing equal access to the highest standard of education, current Government policy has entrenched educational inequalities and a two-tier system; acknowledges that more than one in four primary school pupils are being taught in overcrowded classrooms and many are taught in run-down facilities; further acknowledges that almost one quarter of children of working-class parents do not sit the leaving certificate and the numbers leaving school without qualifications have remained unchanged since the 1990s, and an estimated 1,000 students per year cannot even make the transition from primary to secondary education; notes that approximately one quarter of the adult population have literacy and numeracy problems while taxpayers pay €80 million per annum to subsidise the private education system, even though the children of the majority will never have a chance to attend these exclusive fee-paying schools; acknowledges that teachers who are proficient in the Irish language play an essential role in helping to ensure the future viability of our native tongue as a vibrant, working, living language; further acknowledges that Gaelscoileanna are struggling because of changes to staffing schedules as well as the ending of the preferential PTR and that this is likely to lead to the forced closure of many Irish language schools; and agrees that back to school costs for parents are unacceptably high; calls on the Government to set out a timetable to:- adopt a similar strategic approach to that taken by Northern Ireland's Education Minister, John O'Dowd, who has redirected almost £400 million back into schools that has led to a rise in standards which have been recognised by the findings of the TIMMS and PIRLS, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and Progress in International Reading Literacy, that showed primary schools in Northern Ireland are world leaders in terms of literacy and numeracy - a trend that has also been matched by encouraging improvements in the post-primary sector; - reverse the loss of an estimated 700 plus career guidance counsellors in second level schools resulting from the decision in budget 2013 not to provide these posts on an ex-quota basis that will seriously reduce the level of support for children experiencing a range of emotional and learning difficulties; - ring-fence funding for Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools bands 1 and 2 schools; increase the number of teaching resource hours and bring to an end the cap on special needs assistants in order to match the needs of a rising school population and break the cycle of deprivation, marginalisation and educational disadvantage through the promotion of fairness and equality; - reverse the decision to increase the PTR from 17:1 to 19:1 for post leaving certificate programmes which unfairly impacts on marginalised learners and the loss of an estimated 400 teachers with expertise in specialised subjects who will be impossible to replace in the further education and training sector; - reinstate resource teachers and supports for Traveller children to pre-2011 levels; - reverse the cut to the back to education allowance which will further compound and restrict student opportunities to access further education and will act as a barrier to creating job opportunities for the unemployed; - introduce mandatory regulations that will ensure parents have greater choice when buying school uniforms and paying for school text books; and - place on a statutory footing the voluntary code of practice to regulate the printers responsible for producing school text books; and further calls on the Government to:- make a commitment not to increase the PTR in the State's primary and secondary school sector; - ensure that, before their proposed budget cuts to the education sector are implemented, a comprehensive equality and social impact study is undertaken to first determine the implications for teachers and students; - increase supports for Irish language learning and ensure Gaeltacht schools retain a preferential PTR in recognition of the challenges of teaching in Irish medium schools; - publish a timetable for the delivery and construction of school buildings and other educational facilities and bring an end to the use of prefab buildings with at least a minimum of 150 school building projects to enter the architectural and planning stage each year so that schools are ready to proceed as quickly as possible to the construction phases; - protect the maintenance grant and end the annual increase to student contribution fees; - increase resources for adult literacy, and deliver a progressive national strategy on lifelong and work-based learning focused at those most in need of training, re-training and up-skilling; - spend at least 6% of GDP on education, in keeping with best international practice; - set a target to eliminate the need for the subsidy of educational provisions by charitable organisations, in the form of school books and school breakfasts and lunches, and ensure that every child can avail of a book rental scheme and free school meals; - immediately extend the early start pre-school project to all schools with pupils from disadvantaged areas, with a maximum child to adult ratio of 12:1; - introduce a universal pre-school session of 3.5 hours per day, five days a week for all children aged 3 to 5 years; - invest towards implementation of a PTR of 15:1 in all post-primary schools and immediately reduce all class sizes for children under nine years of age to a maximum of 20 pupils; - invest to progressively reduce class sizes at post-primary level; - keep funding for schools fully public and under democratic control; - ensure adequate provision of special needs assistants where required; - set targets to increase the number of students in further and higher education, especially part-time and adult students and other groups, including people with disabilities and Travellers, and provide third level access programmes for schools with a low take-up of places; - provide adequate financial assistance and support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to complete their courses; - establish a book lending scheme across all primary and secondary schools; and - end the system where schools are reliant on voluntary contributions from parents by raising the capitation grants to cover the real cost of running a school.”

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