Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have too much respect for the Acting Chairman to contradict her but I was aware of that fact.

Significant opportunities exist in Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so-called BRIC countries, in the area to which the Bill relates. These countries have large populations which are eager to secure the opportunities offered in the educational fields which obtain in this country.

This must be addressed quickly. It will result in significant opportunities and enormous benefits for the Irish economy if we focus on it. We are certainly opening up a new horizon. The Minister is affording the third level institutions a tremendous opportunity by way of this Bill, and I am sure they will grasp it with both hands.

Institutions that are not universities at present but that award degrees clearly wish to compete with counterparts in other countries to attract students from abroad. Of course, we are all well aware of and recognise the importance of these opportunities within a properly regulated environment. My colleague Deputy O'Donovan referred to issues that we have all been deeply concerned about in recent months. I acknowledge that the Minister has to review the legislation in the context of a recent court case, and I hope that is being attended to with great alacrity in the Department, because we do not want to see students being left without funds. The governance of the institutions has to be brought into focus. The last thing one wants to see is a television programme showing students left bereft of the moneys they have put in and without any education at all. It is very important to address this, and that is why it is important to provide the regulatory framework.

We have a reputation for educating fantastic teachers for the most part. Our initial teacher education courses have recently been extended and reconfigured to four years for a concurrent degree and two years for a professional master's degree in education for graduates with a level 8 degree. Moreover, the new teacher education programmes have recently been subject to a rigorous review and accreditation process with the Teaching Council, which is the statutory regulation and standards body for the teaching profession in Ireland. It is very good that there has been a review.

Consider the case of countries that need to build up their economies rapidly, as Ireland did as a young state. We need to and will continue to build our economy. Teachers need to have professional attributes in order to educate vast populations of children and other young people. Professionalism, competence and integrity are fundamental. These qualities are what our teaching profession has been credited with over many years. In many cases, it would cost developing countries less to send their students to countries such as Ireland than to build the number of third level institutions they need, particularly when they are trying to build their economies. Of course, they will always undertake that task and set about dealing with it so as to build up their own educational infrastructure. Nevertheless, there will be an opportunity over the next decade or so to ensure we are at the forefront in making the necessary provisions available to them.

This policy, which enables scholarships to be provided, is consistent with the UN goal for the next ten years to eliminate much of world poverty through education. Education is the best way out of poverty. This is recognised at UN and global levels. Ireland has played a significant role in the world in spreading the love of learning. The policy of enabling Ireland to promote its ability as an educator is well aligned with our resources and strengths.

Educational outcomes in Ireland are among the best in the world. I acknowledge that, notwithstanding that one often hears them being decried. Our education system bears up to comparison with any in the world. We have a very high secondary school completion rate and few early school leavers. Targeted interventions are reducing the number of early school leavers, and I hope this will continue. It is important that we continue to intervene to ensure that those who wish to drop out of education do not do so. In this regard, consider the change made by the Minister for Social Protection whereby young people get approximately €160 if they go back to school. I know some people who live beside me at home who have availed of this. It is great to see them back in school. They are delighted to be back in the education system again. That is a very positive development. Again, it is not widely acknowledged but, nevertheless, it is an important intervention.

Our outcomes in reading, mathematics and science are significantly above the international average and continue to improve. This is an area in which we were falling down a bit. Now we are back on the road to recovery. Well done to everybody concerned. The former Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, focused on this area particularly.

Some 49% of those between 25 and 34 in Ireland have attained tertiary education, which percentage is significantly above the OECD average of 39% and the EU average of 37%. Fifty-one percent of those between 30 and 34 have attained tertiary education, by comparison with an OECD average of 40% and an EU average of 38%. We are placed third in the OECD and first in the EU in terms of participation and achievement rates.

Other countries look at our small island and ask why the Irish are such good teachers and learners. Let us not forget that this is part of our history and heritage. We were known as the island of saints and scholars. During the golden age of Irish learning, our missionaries, nuns, brothers and priests dedicated their lives to bringing education around the world. I remember a former brother teaching a recent world champion in the 800-meter run. In promoting Ireland as a nation of high-quality teachers we are, in effect, returning to our rich heritage. High teaching standards and high-quality teaching are the key to world-class educational outcomes. There is vast potential for our small nation, which has a high standard in education worldwide, to be the icon of the world and to share its knowledge of teaching and learning with other young countries and benefit mutually from this partnership. The potential of modern media and ICT for distance and blended learning makes this more possible now than ever before.

With regard to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the STEM subjects, substantial investment in teaching resources in our third level institutions enables us to compete for students worldwide in disciplines that are set to be the growth areas for employment in the future. This is another area of opportunity.

I congratulate Professor Ciarán Ó Catháin on his very forward-thinking board and staff at Athlone Institute of Technology. I am sure the Minister knows him. He has been in the vanguard of this thinking and development for many years and has built up substantial and important contacts across Asia, including in China and Japan. I am sure that everywhere the Minister goes abroad, the professor is almost there before her. He certainly has accompanied her. One need only look at the sports arena in Athlone to recognise what he has done. It can host European and world competitions. For everybody concerned, that is good. The Department of Education and Skills has played a role also.

The aforementioned initiatives have opened up significant avenues of advancement and opportunity. I am aware that in October 2014 the Minister concluded a successful trade mission to China in the company of senior staff from Enterprise Ireland and at least 12 of the higher education institutions. I understand a high-level joint working group with representatives of the Department of Education and Skills and the Chinese ministry for education will meet this year in Dublin, and I understand that various memorandums of understanding between the institutions were signed. Significant progress has been made, and we must acknowledge it. The Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, went to India in November on a three-day trade mission aimed at attracting Indian students to study in Ireland and to enhance collaborative projects between Ireland and the Indian higher education institutes. Fifteen of our higher education institutions, including all seven Irish universities, were involved.

Today I understand the Minister signed up on behalf of the Irish Government as the first lead partner for the major US study abroad initiative. We are ranked in the top 20 worldwide in terms of our higher education system, and we are all aware that significant financial challenges confront the sector, but we have worked extremely hard and diligently to achieve our status in respect of educational standards and achievements. I note the Minister approved the participation of Education in Ireland in Generation Study Abroad, an initiative of the Institute of International Education which aims to double the number of US students studying abroad by 2020. I am pleased to note that Education in Ireland, which is a division of Enterprise Ireland, represents all the universities and institutes of technology in addition to a number of private higher education institutes in this country. The aim of Education in Ireland is to promote international study opportunities in Ireland’s higher education institutions. We are developing future global relationships as part of a major focus, and this will certainly elevate our profile and attractiveness as a place to come as part of exchange opportunities for students.

I note that there is a proposed amendment to the student grant scheme that permits the scheme to apply definitively to PLCs and makes PLC courses eligible for grant aid under the higher education scheme. This is a very progressive step. Courses overseen by SOLAS, as the appropriate regulating authority, will now be able to secure grants. That is important.

Our links with the institutes of technology are important in terms of Irish companies and trade. I would love to have an institute of technology in Mullingar because there is a large appropriate area in Marlinstown industrial park. Notwithstanding the fact that it is only 20 miles from Athlone, the link is important.

As I stated at the outset, tremendous progress has been made by the Minister and her predecessor on the provision of new schools, notwithstanding the circumstances that obtain. A new school in Sonna is just about to be finished and a project in Curraghmore is about to start. We should note other examples in Coosan and Killucan, where I believe the Minister is visiting in a few weeks, and also Coláiste Cionn Torc secondary school and Loreto Convent in Mullingar. A host of schools are receiving replacement or additional classrooms, additional SNAs and resource teachers, and new primary teachers.

I hope that at the next budget the Minister might be able to start focusing on the pupil-teacher ratio. That is extremely important in the context of giving opportunity to young people. As they say in Gaelic, as translated, if one starts them young, they develop and go well. If one starts at the education, first one must have a comfortable environment. Those prefabs were grand. They were only an interim solution, but they become a long-term solution and then they become dilapidated and decrepit. It is difficult to go into them. One needs a warm enticing environment, even to participate. Likewise, one does not need an overcrowded class. I accept the pupil-teacher ratio is a budgetary issue but it would be important that the Minister would get an opportunity of tackling that.

As the chief proponent of the abolition of tuition fees in 1995, I played a big role in it. I certainly was central to it and was probably key in persuading the then Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dick Spring, and the then Minister for Education, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, to abolish them. I am proud to have done so, notwithstanding that I myself did not need them to be abolished because I was very much under the income limit. What used to annoy me was that if an employee in Eircom or the ESB or a local authority worker did a bit of overtime, he or she lost everything. Commentators criticised the abolition of tuition fees stating some from the well-off areas were benefiting as well, but one would get ground down in bureaucracy and paperwork in trying to cut those out. That is why universality made it easier. Commentators are giving out that the registration fees have gone up and are now €3,000, but they are less than 30% of the cost of tuition. In England, one borrows the £10,000 and at the end of the course one has £40,000 or £50,000 to pay back. I stand over what was done here. The €3,000 can be hard got but at the end of the day, it is an awful lot less than €10,000 or €12,000. That is why the higher education sector and the universities are giving out hell. The State, over recent years, has not been able to give them enough funding to make up for the fees they are not receiving.

One should acknowledge that the abolition of fees is still important and we should be grateful for that decision. The level of participation has increased, although perhaps not as sharply as we would like. There is room for improvement. Nevertheless, that was an important decision and I stand over it. We should ensure that there are not any further increases in registration fees or anything else so as to allow the maximum number to get an opportunity to go to third level because that is now where it is at. Whereas 15 years ago one would get by on second level education, one now needs tertiary education, such as a primary degree, throughout the system when it comes to filling vacancies. I hope the Minister is not faced with any more increases in terms of registration fees in the forthcoming budget.

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