Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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96. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the resources he is providing for the implementation of the Aistear framework; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50228/13]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of my question is to ask the Minister the resources he is providing for the implementation of the Aistear framework. As he is aware, the Aistear framework was published in 2009. It was highly praised, and I joined in praising it. It is a curriculum framework for children from birth to six years and provides information for adults to help them plan for and provide enjoyable and challenging learning experiences. I ask the Minister the resources his Department is providing for the implementation and support of the Aistear framework.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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My Department is supporting the implementation of Aistear through the Aistear tutor initiative and the Aistear-in-Action initiative. Through the Aistear tutor initiative, Aistear tutors (primary teachers) deliver a suite of workshops to enable junior and senior infant teachers develop their use of play as a teaching and learning methodology. To date, almost 10,000 primary school teachers and principals have participated in Aistear workshops and summer courses.

Through the Aistear-in-Action initiative, the NCCA worked with Early Childhood Ireland to support practitioners in using Aistear to enrich their preschool curriculum and to develop on-line resources for the Aistear toolkit. The €2.75m that will be available in 2014 for a quality support service for the early years sector means that the early years sector will have access to a professional support service to facilitate the implementation of Aistear. I have asked the NCCA to develop a practice guide incorporating the core elements of Aistear and Síolta to assist with this service.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his response. I ask him to differentiate between the curriculum supports his Department is providing in primary schools and the supports it is providing in the preschool setting also because Aistear starts in the preschool setting. It is for children up to six years of age. A serious issue is emerging in the way we are implementing and supporting that curriculum at preschool level and the consistency of its implementation at primary level. What role does the Minister's Department, as the Department of Education and Skills, have in ensuring the Aistear curriculum is happening at preschool level and not only when the child moves to primary school?

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I might have to come back to the Deputy on the precise information he sought in his supplementary question because I believe I am correct in saying that the preschool delivery comes under the remit of the Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzerald, and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. There is close co-operation between the two because it overlaps from preschool to the first two or three years in primary school. I do not have the figure for the amount of money in that regard. The figure I have is €2.75 million but additional resources are going into primary schools for the literacy and numeracy strategy, which would be additional to this amount. I will get the figures and revert to the Deputy.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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I have serious concerns about the level of joined-up thinking on education between the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, in terms of preschool services, and the Minister's Department in overseeing children up to the age of six in junior and higher infants. We must see much greater co-ordination in that regard because the Aistear curriculum has to be supported in preschools and it is the responsibility of the Department, as the Department of Education and Skills, to ensure that the educational curriculum is happening and being supported in the preschool year.

The preschool sector is quite young, so to speak. My party introduced the first preschool year and there has been much talk about the Government extending it to a second year. The current preschool year must be supported and key to that is the Minister's Department working closely to ensure it provides supports not only at infant and senior infant level in primary school but also at preschool level, which has been neglected to a large extent.

Preschool services have not got the support to implement this curriculum. Will the Minister engage and look at the way it is being done by his Department and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs?

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I share Deputy McConalogue's concerns because, as the Minister knows, Aistear has two parts and the first part has 12 principles. It is very similar to the primary school curriculum but there are some notable additions which take place at preschool level. When one moves into the primary school setting, it is done through a curriculum whereas Aistear in the preschool setting is done through a number of themes. It is a question of how we transfer the themes being used at preschool level to a set curriculum in the primary school setting. There is a little more work to be done in how we manage that joined up approach.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I welcome the Deputies' support for this. We all look forward to the time when there will be two preschool years. There is broad agreement that is what we are aiming towards. There is no policy debate on this and it is a matter of when rather than should. It is a joined up programme from year one to year six. There is close interaction and integration and very strong co-operation between the two Departments. I am sure there is also very close co-operation in terms of the Department of Education and Skills and the support it has given to preschool teachers as well as to teachers in junior and senior infant classes. I will get more information for the Deputies and will outline exactly what is happening on the ground because I do not have all the information with me.