Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

We do have a world-class education system, broadly speaking, in Ireland but our system is failing many of our young children and young people, and particularly those facing disadvantage and trauma. I have so much to say but I want to be very specific in my speech today. It is about those young people, the ones we do not capture all the time. When I am talking about education disadvantage and young people facing trauma, I want to be very clear that this failure does not lie with the child, the young person or their families and communities. We, as legislators, and policymakers need to ensure that every single one of them is supported in the best way we can. I urge the Government to take this on board.

There are deep inequalities in our schools. The best way to see that is to visit any school in a disadvantaged area and then go to a private school and see the differences in resources, supports, outcomes and expectations. It is staggering. That is not equality; it is systematic injustice.

I spent almost three decades working in youth work and education, as well as in teacher education and the school completion programme. I thank the Minister for mentioning school completion so many times in her speech today. I know that my colleagues will be absolutely delighted about that. I have seen first-hand the failures for these young people. I have also listened to those young people. In my doctoral research, I sat with young people who had left mainstream school early, before the leaving certificate. They had gone back to alternative education, which I will come to in a while. Those young people are not statistics; they are teenagers who are traumatised. They are navigating poverty, bereavement, the loss of a parent to prison or death and perhaps they grew up in care or homelessness and with violence and systemic neglect. This system that we have does not fit, and is not built for, those students. We have to do something about that.

We need to protect these young people and provide for them in our education system. A young person who is experiencing adverse childhood experience, ACE, does not drop out - that desperate phrase - but is pushed out, not always by intention but certainly by design. They are labelled disruptive, difficult or lazy when they are, in fact, surviving unthinkable adversity. A young person once told me, "Nobody asked me why I was angry. They just gave me detentions." This is the Ireland we are responsible for, an Ireland in which a child in trauma is more likely to be punished than supported. We talk often in this Chamber about the importance of education, but education that ignores trauma is not education; it is endurance. It asks children to carry grief, fear and instability on their backs as well as their bags, to sit in school - through double maths, perhaps - and perform as if nothing has happened. That is not resilience. I hate saying that children are resilient. It is not that. That is survival and it is morally indefensible.

The science and evidence are there. Adverse childhood experiences directly impact the child's cognitive, emotional and physical development and increase the risk of early school-leaving, mental illness, substance misuse and chronic disease later in life. The more trauma a child experiences, the more his or her ability to learn and participate in school is compromised. We must approach education in a policy that operates to support and protect them. What I find frustrating is the fact that we see pilot projects here and there, some of which are brilliant, but they are underfunded, under-resourced and often cut short. I get frustrated when I see the Department rolling out strategy documents with well-meaning language and everything, but when it comes to implementation and real system-wide change, the strategies are often found wanting because there are no resources behind them. The other point I wish to make is that there is no coherent strategy for trauma-informed education. Teachers are not being systematically trained in how to understand or support children in distress.

The school completion programme, a programme that really works, is forced to scrape together resources each year. It is never sure of funding and does not have enough to reach things. The DEIS schools provide vital support. The Minister and Minister of State know this; I am preaching to the converted. I am delighted to see that there will be a roll-out of how DEIS can be improved, as it really needs to be. There are young people outside the DEIS model, however, who are just lost. We need to bring them in and make sure that they are protected.

Alternative education is still treated as a last resort or dumping ground by some people but, for the young people with whom I worked, when they returned to education in an alternative education setting such as Youthreach, a community training centre or iScoil, they were seen for the first time. They were heard and understood. That is when they started to believe in themselves and think that they might have a future. That should not be the exception; it should be standard. What is the plan for any child who loses a parent and is expected to sit through a history test, for example? What can we say to a teenager who is suspended for lashing out, when what they really need is a trauma-informed space and appropriate supports to help him or her? What can we do about the invisible system that only sees behaviour, not the person? Inaction is not neutral; it is a choice. It is a political choice that leaves children behind, entrenches inequality and prioritises budgets over lives. We in the Social Democrats choose that no child should be left behind. We must be brave enough to imagine what the education system Ireland can be for young people most at risk to ensure that they have an equal start, constant support and a bright future.

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