Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)

I wish to share my time with Senator O'Toole. I welcome the Minister for Education and Science to the House. Perseverance pays off because this is the fourth time I have submitted this matter over recent weeks and I am delighted it is being taken tonight. I hope the Minister has a good reply to it.

Seldom since I became a public representative, either on my local authority or in the Seanad, have I seen such a daunting report on special educational needs, produced with very little resources by the staff and the principal of the Sacred Heart national school, Huntstown, Dublin 15. If this was a consultant's report it would have found its way to a public relations agency which would lobby us to ensure it reached the Minister's ear. The school in question is located in a rapidly growing area. The report is daunting for the background information it sets out on the school's present direction and the type of children attending it.

The report opens with the following statement:

[The school] has a diverse international pupil population that has grown significantly over the past four years. The first international children were enrolled in the school over six years ago. At present almost a quarter (24.2%) of the children attending the school are international children.

That represents 246 children out of a total pupil intake of 930. Some of these children present with significant non-language based difficulties. The report goes on to state:

The Board of Management and the Staff of the school are very concerned by reported incidents and allegations (by children to teachers) of physical abuse of some children. . . . Many parents are expressing the view that time spent by teachers dealing with persistent poor behaviour of some international children erodes teaching time and discriminates against national and international children who are co-operative and willing to learn. . . . In 2002 the Department of Education and Science allocated 4 Special Needs Assistants to work with 9 named international children. These posts were revoked in June 2003 and 2004, at a time when the number of international children within the school continued to increase. . . . No sooner has a teacher begun to come to terms with one international child than another child arrives, sometimes with what appears to be even greater needs.

The report gives a class profile for the whole school, for example, there are 120 junior infants, 46 of whom are international children. One has no English; five have little English; three have not yet started to communicate with their teacher or peers; ten children have expressive language skills but poor comprehension skills; while 20 are described as having challenging behaviour. In first class one child has no English while two have very little and one of those had never attended school prior to last September. In second class three children have little English; in fourth class 12 children have little or no English; in sixth class one child from Kosovo has no English and two others have little English.

The report concludes:

Currently there does not appear to be any provision by the Department of Education and Science to assist the school in supporting the inclusion of these children in their mainstream classes. . . . The resources allocated to the school by the Department of Education and Science are inadequate to deal with these children's complex needs. . . . The frustration felt by the teachers and parents by what they see as a lack of understanding on the part of the Department of Education and Science of what is happening on the ground is likely to increase if adequate resources are not provided.

The school is asking simply that the Department allocate two additional resource teachers to the school and restore the special needs assistants revoked in 2003 and 2004. This school is storing up major social and educational problems. If we do not address this now the problems will persist into secondary school. People will drop out and we will pay a high price for that in other ways.

The Government must deal with this issue. We have passed a constitutional amendment on immigration and must deal pragmatically with the numbers of people immigrating here and how they access our State services. I suggest that some kind of intensive language course must be given to these children before they attend a mainstream school. This is not fair to the children who are in the school and have attended pre-school, nor to the child who then has to compete with those children in that classroom or the teacher who has to deal with that problem behind the closed door. I beseech the Minister to examine this situation. This is not the only school in the country that has experienced this problem. This report that merits consideration by the Department. I know that every school is looking for special needs assistance. This problem will grow and grow and it must be dealt with.