Dáil debates
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Priority Questions
Schools Mental Health Strategies
3:50 pm
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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36. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether the allocation of 300 classroom hours, rising to 400 hours, to the new wellness programme at junior cycle will reduce the number of hours schools can devote to science and language education in many schools that teach four classes per week in these subjects; and his further views on whether this is inconsistent with the ambition to improve science and language skills. [24667/17]
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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This question asks the Minister about school hours to be devoted to well-being. He is allocating 300 classroom hours, rising to 400, to the wellness programme at junior cycle. However, this will replace many existing classes and will reduce the amount of time that can be devoted to science and languages. People are concerned by that. It was reported at Christmas time that these were to be hours devoted to mental health but the reality is somewhat different.
Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Well-being and mental health are major priorities for my Department and are set out in the Action Plan for Education. In the context of increasing concerns about suicide and mental health among young people, it is crucial that we place a major focus on this issue and that is what we are doing through the Action Plan for Education. The Deputy is aware it contains a number of actions in regard to both science and language education, which are also priority areas. An ambitious ten-year foreign languages strategy and a STEM education policy statement and implementation plan will shortly be published by the Department.
The allocation of up to 400 hours for well-being was agreed as part of the new framework for the junior cycle in 2015. I am satisfied that the time allocated for the well-being programme, which is a minimum of 300 hours over three years from 2017, increasing to 400 hours from 2020, will not negatively impact on the time available for other subjects such as science and languages. This is because well-being is built on a number of pillars, which include the currently-offered subjects of civic, social and political education, CSPE, physical education, PE, and social, personal and health education, SPHE. These three existing curriculum inputs contribute 275 hours of the 300 hours that schools will be required to allocate to well-being. The extra 25 hours amounts to about 8 hours, or 12 40-minute classes, per year. It is important to note that well-being is an area of learning, not a subject, and students will learn about it through a wide range of curricular subjects and through the provision of whole-school activities. There therefore will be no requirement for schools to find an additional 100 hours from within the timetable. Most schools will reduce the number of subjects undertaken by students to reduce curriculum overload, as advised in the junior cycle framework and in Departmental circulars. This will also allow increased flexibility to schools with regard to time allocation.
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Although a well-being programme has never been more necessary, I am worried that it has become a buzzword for the Government. Coding was a buzzword in 2016 and this year well-being is becoming a buzzword. The follow-up is not being provided. There has been extremely limited follow-up to coding provision.
The Minister is dressing up PE and the old civic, social and political education, CSPE, and taking hours from other academic subjects to provide these well-being classes. They have never been more necessary. However, there is something slightly underhand in this. It is part of the solution to the severe mental health crisis that exists in society, but the Department is not being honest about it. A report at Christmas of an interview given by the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, described the classes as mental health hours. That is not what it is. PE is a large part of this, and the Minister needs to come clean and explain what schools are supposed to do and when they are to do it.
4:00 pm
Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The well-being programme is to become a whole-school activity and it is to go beyond those individual curricular areas of PE, social, personal and health education, SPHE, and civic, social and political education, CSPE, to integrate those into a whole-school package. There will be a plan developed in each school. Supports are being provided to principals to design this plan in an integrated way. I have met people from a number of schools in various parts of the country and there is a great belief that this is a vitally important programme. There is guidance on well-being workshops which will be delivered by guidance councillors. They are going to be a part of this process. There is the possibility of healthy eating weeks being provided in schools, which will be an integrated programme and involve not just those subject areas but perhaps home economics and other areas. The assessment is that developing student resilience and their capacity to cope in areas where they are much more challenged is important, and this well-being programme is going beyond the existing subject areas to provide a whole-school support to pupils. It is the right direction in which to go.
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I was happy to be involved in St. Kieran's community school in Kells. It brought in a first aid programme which is now going to be rolled out in the well-being programme. That illustrated to me that there was nothing really there for well-being and that they were actively looking for good ideas. They got a good idea in the first aid programme in St. Kieran's community school.
There are officials in the Department of Education and Skills who are working really hard, but I worry that the direction is not coming from the Minister. The direction changes with the wind. We have had coding, we have well-being and we will probably hear about modern languages in a few weeks or there will be a science, technology and mathematics, STEM, plan as the latest big idea. However, it is all being mashed into one because there is no extra space for this. Something is going to suffer, and I do not believe the Minister has been open and clear about that.
Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I do not agree. This was developed after much thought. Extensive consultation went into developing the well-being programme. It was identified by the stakeholders as an important element. Extensive planning has gone into this. Not only are we restoring guidance counselling and guidance teachers, who will be very important to this, we are also expanding the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, programme and we have developed supports and materials that will be part of this programme. There is continuing professional development, CPD, on well-being. There are modules on mental health, gender and sexual orientation, child protection and anti-bullying. Materials are being developed and workshops are being put in place in order that schools can integrate this into their whole-school approach. No one doubts that young people need this level of support in school. The school cannot solve all the problems, but having that level of support within schools is a positive and beneficial thing for education. It impinges on all subjects. We are going in the right direction.