Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Ó Laoghaire for bringing forward this motion. It is appropriate and the right time for us to have a discussion about classroom sizes. One of the interesting aspects of having been a local authority representative and coming from that background into the Dáil Chamber is that when a motion is on the clár for a local authority, it is taken very seriously. It is necessary to know what will be said regarding the actions that will ensue if the motion passes and there is a suggestion that the implications of that motion will be seen at some point in the near future. In this House, however, it seems that when a motion is put forward on something important that the Government changes it, takes the spirit out of it and, rather than dealing with the substance of what the motion asks for, the Government uses it as a chance to clap itself on the back and state that everything is grand and we will keep on going as we are, even though that makes no sense.

Education is phenomenally important. The question we have all been asking ourselves in recent months, throughout the pandemic, is what does it take for us to value education. Does it take a pandemic? Does it take the health risks associated with large classroom sizes, rather than the educational inequality of that situation, for us to invest in our schools? Does it take 130 days of school buildings being closed for us to recognise the role of our schools, not only as sites for learning but also for socialisation and well-being? Does it take parents assisting with students learning at home for us to recognise the expertise and dedication of our teachers and our special needs assistants? Does it take a digital divide for us to realise that material inequality affects educational chances?

I note that we talk about the digital divide, because that one seems easy and solvable. I promise the House, however, that for the vast majority of kids on the receiving end of the digital divide there is also an inability to access a table on which to do their homework. They are waking up in conditions of overcrowding and they are sometimes stepping in as caregivers to younger siblings as their parents went off to work in retail. We can talk about the digital divide, therefore, but what we are actually talking about, and we do not say it, is the poverty being experienced in households throughout Dublin and Ireland which is impacting upon educational chances.

I am disappointed that it has taken a global pandemic for lessons to be learned. The notorious underfunding and understaffing of our schools have compounded the issues concerning the reopening of schools and we cannot ignore it anymore. All we have seen in recent months is a crystallisation of realities that existed long before then. We cannot continue to expect education to solve societal ills, to provide opportunity and to be a magic bullet, if we continuously underfund it, pass the costs on to families and then just leave it and pretend everything is okay.

I acknowledge the recent work by the previous Government to reduce classroom sizes, but let us look at the facts. We have gone from an average in our primary classrooms of 24.9 pupils in 2014-15 to 24.3 pupils in 2018-19. We still fall drastically short of the OECD average of 21 and the EU average of 20, with one in five primary school classroom sizes having over 30 pupils and 45% of all 3,000 plus primary schools having at least one classroom with more than 30 pupils. It is impossible to teach in a classroom with more than 30 pupils. It is doubly impossible to learn in a classroom with more than 30 pupils. It is not good enough and it has never been good enough.

This is lost in the new narrative of getting back to normal that has taken root in recent months. I refer to the narrative of reopening the schools and getting back to normal. There is no normal in our education system. Our classroom sizes, the highest in Europe, were not normal pre-Covid-19. Pay differences between workers with the same qualifications and performing the same work is not normal. This was a point made, laughably, by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, earlier this week when he was commenting on the pay rise for Ministers of State and stating that it was not normal for people doing the same job to be paid differently. Imagine being a young teacher in a school listening to that statement from the Minister for Finance? It would be laughable if it was not so serious and did not have such an impact on our educators.

The poor investment in education compared with our overall gross domestic product is not normal and while our teachers may be the highest paid in Europe, the reality is that they are also the hardest working. Primary school teachers teach an average of 905 hours each year, compared with the EU average of 754 hours, according to the OECD report, Education at a Glance 2019, and this is within the most underfunded of school environments. That is not a platitude to teachers, who do immense amounts of work; it is the reality and that cannot be said enough.

Normal has meant that our schools have been forced to self-fundraise and to rely on relationships with local businesses to make crucial improvements and source necessary tools. It is not normal that when a school wants to pay for its heating or have hot water that it is sending the purse around to parents who are also struggling. That is not normal. How many times during the school closures did we hear stories of schools needing digital tools and working with local businesses to meet those needs? Schools cannot be expected to continue pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, completely unsupported by the Department of Education and Skills and instead supported and relying on families already overburdened by the cost of living.

There is no normal in how schools were operating pre-Covid-19. It was the reality and they have managed because they have had to, but we cannot allow schools to go back to that perverse sense of normality. The priority of reducing teacher-pupil ratios cannot be overstated and that is work that needs to be expedited. We need to make an absolute commitment, as this motion calls for, to dramatically and immediately reduce classroom sizes in Ireland and abolish class sizes of over 30 pupils. We need to facilitate teachers to do their jobs, have better learning and teaching experiences for students, particularly for those from more vulnerable backgrounds, and these smaller classroom sizes need to be maintained beyond the pandemic. The Government finally needs to fall in line with the standard EU average. We do not stand with our educators and students unless we meet those minimum goals.

I will touch on the welcome announcements made yesterday. I accept fully that we should be positive regarding getting our schools reopened, because that is fundamentally the most important thing. We should not, however, be blinded by the realities of the challenges left to face our school leaders, given the short run-in to the reopening. The Minister has provided funding for 1,000 post-primary school teachers, but we have 750 post-secondary schools in this country. If there is a second wave of Covid-19 and if teachers have, for one reason or another, to remove themselves from the classroom, that is not going to be enough.

I was also talking to some of my friends in education today and asking them how they are going to manage with these overflow classrooms that they apparently have. That question was met with some sense of ridicule and rightly so. I state that because I have been in many schools in recent years, and I have not seen too many overflow classrooms, such as those contained in the plan. The idea of turning physical education, PE, halls into classrooms is one we should oppose. Physical education is not only a leaving certificate subject, it is essential to student well-being. The only chance for many students to get exercise in many situations is actually coming into schools and taking part in PE, being part of team sports and having some fun. That is essential and we should not be removing that opportunity from our schools.

The idea of going back to normality is one we should oppose. There is now an opportunity with the pandemic having accelerated many different factors in Irish life. One of those factors is that we need a vision for how education can be better. What was the normality was not good enough. There is a real chance to stand up and demonstrate leadership on this issue. The package announced yesterday is certainly welcome, and what we really need now is leadership.

I will touch very briefly on SNAs, and I intend to bring this up again on Thursday. Our SNAs are vital to the functioning of our schools and to give students with special educational needs the opportunity to be on a par with other students. We need to start valuing our SNAs. That will include ensuring the professionalisation of the role of SNAs, that conditions of employment for SNAs are standardised across the education sphere and that we pay SNAs appropriately. If we can get one thing right in the next couple of months, let us do justice to our SNAs.

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