Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I begin by welcoming the phased reopening of schools. I echo the call of many speakers that it be done in a safe way, with adherence to public health advice to ensure the safety of the whole school community, including pupils, staff, parents and other family members. Given that schooling is an essential service, will the Minister advocate priority vaccination for school staff? There is, naturally, some anxiety among pupils and staff returning to school when case numbers are still high. A robust testing and tracing service is needed in schools. What measures have been taken to ensure it is put in place? Is there a possibility of introducing a type of rapid testing?

The closure of schools for three months last year and again since Christmas has been extremely damaging for students of all ages and has affected some more than others. Students need to be in school not just for the academic element but also for the social interaction with their peers. I am hearing worrying reports from schools of a high number of referrals being made to child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, of students who have no prior history of mental health issues. A serious effort must be made to put supports in place for students returning to school to help them to settle back in and deal with the effect the closure has had over the past number of months.

Leaving certificate students returned to school on Monday and many are opting to sit their examinations if safe to do so. However, schools have not been given an updated list of due dates for project work or oral examinations. What is the delay in providing this information to schools? It should be done immediately instead of having students and teachers working in a vacuum. Oral examinations could have been done through Zoom. I would like to know what the hold-up is on this issue.

I welcome the fact that older and vulnerable members of staff are not obliged to return to school if they are concerned about their health. However, this causes another problem in terms of who will replace those staff. It was very difficult for schools to find substitute teachers prior to Christmas and it will be practically impossible to do so now. What provisions has the Minister put in place to fill this gap? What efforts is she making to encourage more young people to enter the teaching profession? The shortage of substitute teachers is nothing new. It has existed for a number of years across a range of subjects. Addressing the pay differential between those who joined the teaching profession since 2011 and those who started teaching before then would be one way to tackle it. Pay equity among teachers must be restored.

The allocation of SNAs was frozen last year in order that no school would be left with fewer SNAs than it had the previous year. Is it intended to continue that freezing of provision this year? If schools require additional SNAs, there should be a straightforward process for getting them and no threat that the whole school provision will be reviewed.

There has been much discussion about the return to school of children with additional educational needs. I welcome the reopening, at long last, of special classes and units in recent weeks. However, there is a cohort of students about whom I am very concerned, namely, students with additional educational needs who are in a mainstream setting. They have been left behind. What additional supports are being put in place to help those students, who have been unable, in many cases, to learn independently at home through the online system? Can children with special educational needs be allowed to return to school, where they can access online classes with the assistance of an SNA, instead of a teacher coming to the child's home in the evening, under the supplementary provision programme, when the child is too tired to do the work?

Finally, I would like to point out an anomaly between the pupil-teacher and pupil-SNA ratios in special classes compared with those applying in autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units. The ratio is 1:8 in a special class for children with moderate general learning disabilities, with an allocation of 0.5 of an SNA, compared with a ratio of 1:6 in an ASD unit, with two SNAs allocated. Can this anomaly be addressed? There has been an increase in the number of ASD units provided in the past number of years but there still are not enough places for all of those who seek them. Many children are forced to travel far from their home area to access one of these units.

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