Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will speak in support of the Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill. I see it as positive legislation. It puts a legal onus on schools to have a student-parent charter devised, published and available for the school community. That is a good thing. The main focus of this will improve the level of engagement and communication in the school community by inviting feedback, comments and observations from students and parents. There will be an onus on schools to consult students and parents on all their plans and policies and to chat with them about activities and initiatives the school wishes to undertake. A lot of this is already happening. It is great to see it in law but, in my sixteen years as a teacher before I had the honour of being elected to Dáil Éireann, I saw this happen every year. We need to acknowledge as we speak in favour of the Bill that this is largely happening. The Minister acknowledged that today. The Bill sets it out in law, which is where it should exist.

Parents are recognised in the Constitution as the primary educator of the child. Not every constitution recognises that and it is a positive. This is another piece of the legal framework that positions parents as the key stakeholders in the child's education and gives them a central role in the school community so they are not just called in to the principal's office, as other speakers have said, because of a late contribution of arts and crafts money or swimming money or for a disciplinary issue and, instead, are part of decision-making and policy formation and so there is a greater role for parents beyond fundraising. They have wanted that for years and this sets it out. It has been happening for years and this formalises it.

Section 28 deals with standardised grievance procedures. I was glad the Minister referenced vexatious complaints in her contribution. The Teaching Council is the professional body tasked with investigating complaints against teachers. That is right and there is no profession that should not be subject to scrutiny at times. There are bad people in teaching. The vast majority of people I trained with in Mary Immaculate College in 2006 were there because they enjoyed working with children in education and were passionate about what they did. That is the experience I have seen in most scenarios, whether people are in the latter years of teaching or are new entrants to the profession. It is important there be a body to weed out bad practice, which exists in all professions, unfortunately. In the academic year 2018-2019, there were 39 fitness to practise complaints about teachers made to the Teaching Council. Five were struck out because they were unsubstantiated, had no supporting documents and a few, incredibly, were not signed off and had no name on them. That is atrocious. I was appalled to hear that. It should not go that far.

People say teachers have the benefit of holidays and that is true. It is a nice, stable job and a fabulous career. There are many reasons people look at our profession with envy, but the one thing teachers need is not chalk or whiteboard markers. It is our reputation. That can be taken away in an instant, and when it is gone, it is gone forever. Even a bit of smoke about a certain guy or girl being referred to the Teacher Council can be hugely damaging to that individual as a classroom teacher, special educational needs teacher or someone who want to progress within the profession. The Minister needs to continue to have oversight and ensure only the real cases for complaint get to the council. There is a vexatious element in everything and that needs to be weeded out.

I hope the Minister will forgive me for referencing some schools in County Clare and their needs. She has been very good recently to come out and visit some of them. She has also met one or two of them on Zoom and has been good enough in the Chamber and around Dublin to meet and engage with me on them. Cratloe National School has applied for a minor extension to its general purpose hall costing in the region of €98,000. There will be construction workers on site in September developing an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, unit. They feel that, for a low cost, it makes sense to get the general purpose hall right while construction is happening on site.

St. Tola's National School in Shannon is developing and growing year on year. I was delighted last week to see a sanctioned developing school post there. The school has a need for additional space beyond classrooms, namely, a general purpose hall. There is an application pending with the Department on that. St. Tola's National School has a fabulous initiative getting under way in September with a mulitdisability class. It is not something I encountered often in my years teaching. There are only a handful in the country. The school is pioneering it in the county. It will need two additional SNAs to do that. I have sent a lot of correspondence into the Department and I hope it can be sanctioned before September.

St. Senan's National School in Shannon has an application for a new school building. This school is called, strangely, Shannon Airport 1 National School. It was one of the first schools in County Clare built at the time Shannon was taking off. It is a fabulous school but the building is not fabulous. It has been costed that the remedial works required would be far more significant than a new building. That is with the Department and I hope the Minister can look at it.

The Minister kindly met Ennis Educate Together National School on Zoom recently. A new site is being looked at for that school, either where it currently sits as a complex of prefabs or across the road at Our Lady's Hospital. We would love to see that progress. St. Joseph's Secondary School in Spanish Point has an application before the Minister for a physical education laboratory and equipment store. That school is leading the way in physical education and we want to see that approved. I think it is imminent, in fact.

The Minister visited Clonmoney National School recently, where she heard music and watched kids playing hurling in the AstroTurf area. Their argument, which could be repeated for any school in the country, is that year on year they are being approved for bits of accommodation but there is not a holistic view on how it should happen. When they get an extension, it is eating into their playing space where the kids go at lunchtime. They want the Minister, the Department and the building officials to engage with them on something broader in that regard.

I thank the Minister for everything she is doing in the Department. She has grasped the nettle and taken the good and the bad on. She is doing a great job and I fully support the Bill.

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