Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following:

"Aware of the real difficulties that parents of children with special educational needs face in accessing resources or assistance for their children;

—gravely concerned at the application of the weighted system for resources from next September, which means that children with borderline or mild general learning disabilities will lose the specific allocation of 2.5 hours resource teaching per week that has been their right to date;

—disturbed at the impact that these proposals will also have on children with specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, who also lose their specific allocation of 2.5 hours resource teaching per week;

—concerned at the fact that 1,522 primary schools are not even covered by the National Educational Welfare Service (NEPS);

—welcoming many of the provisions of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 but highlighting, once again, the fact that unless the legislation is matched with the necessary resources children with special education needs will continue to be left behind within our education system;

—noting the lack of progress that is being made in implementing many of the important recommendations of the task force on autism;

—acknowledging that more than 80% of children in junior classes at primary level are in classes of more than 20 children, even though smaller classes make a real difference to a child's education;

noting that average class sizes in Ireland are higher than the OECD average and among the highest in the European Union;

—recognising that higher class sizes lead to greater educational disadvantage, and that in recent years the number of children who fail to make the transition from primary to secondary school has grown significantly to more than 1,000 per annum;

—deploring the failure of the Government to tackle class sizes, and its U-turn on commitments made to reduce class sizes in the programme for Government;

calls upon the Government to:

—radically improve access to educational resources for children with special educational needs, speed up the provision of services and reduce the intolerable waiting times which characterise the education service at present;

—expand the NEP service so that all primary schools within the State can refer children for psychological assessment;

—ensure that children with borderline and mild general learning disabilities, and those with specific learning disabilities, do not lose their entitlement to educational assistance;

—reduce average class sizes at primary level across the board, and further reduce class sizes in schools designated as disadvantaged to give children the best start in their schooling; and

—take immediate action to tackle early school leaving and to ensure that all children complete primary school and continue on to second level education."

I welcome the Minister to the debate tonight and wish her well in her Ministry for the years ahead.

Fine Gael will not accept the smug and self-congratulatory motion on education presented for debate this evening. It is clear from the amendment we have tabled that we believe that there are serious deficiencies in the manner in which the Government is providing for young people's education that cannot simply be glossed over or erased. Every Member of this Chamber, from the governing parties or any Opposition party on this side, is inundated with queries on educational issues from members of the public. Those people, often deeply worried parents trying to access educational services on behalf of their children, are tragically met with silence or indifference. Such parents will find the self-praise on display this evening a little hard to swallow.

I note from the Minister's statement of 29 March, when she announced the new plan intended to make a big difference for disadvantaged schools, that she must have had some doubts and, as a consequence, must have doubts about the motion before us tonight. She said that "better procedures will be put in place for identifying the levels of disadvantage in our schools". I thought this motion clearly suggests we have the best possible overall policies of effectiveness for identifying people with such needs and that the new action plan was tackling educational disadvantage. I thought we had started that seven years ago. Finally, regarding the most disadvantaged schools, the Minister mentions "addressing the issues that have diluted the overall effectiveness of some measures". The Minister's statement of 29 March therefore surely raises a serious doubt as to her commitment to this motion and to Government policy before she became Minister.

This motion fails to mention several critical points causing real concern throughout the country. It makes no reference whatsoever to the system of weighted resources to be introduced in September this year. That system is essentially one of quotas whereby schools are allocated special education teachers on the basis of their enrolment, the gender of their students and the status of the school. However, that crude application of a quota takes no account whatsoever of individual schools that may have a higher enrolment of children with a mild, general or a specific learning disability.

Under the weighted system, children with borderline or mild general learning disabilities will lose the specific allocation of two and a half hours resource teaching per week that has been their right to date. We heard Senator Fitzgerald and Senator Ormonde speak about rights. The reality is that the rights applied to date are all qualified by the availability of resources and the operation of the weighted system, with different quota systems in different schools. It will be impossible to ensure that all children who fall into these categories receive equal assistance. The weighted system institutionalises inequality in the provision of educational support, and that is clearly unacceptable.

In addition, children with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia will lose the two and a half hours resource teaching the Department circular of August 2002 stated was their right. The proposals also minimise the importance of psychological assessments for children with special needs. Under the weighted system, psychologists' recommendations of specific support for children with mild general learning disabilities will carry no weight. The children will simply draw on a general pool of resources and be allocated whatever help their school can spare at the time. I ask the Minister to note this and to provide a reasonable and positive response, outlining the changes which will be made in this area. The weighted system is fundamentally flawed. One size does not fit all when special educational supports are being provided. The application of quotas to children with special needs is a deeply retrograde step, which I ask the Minister to reverse as a matter of urgency.

Section 4 of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 states that the assessment of a child should "include an evaluation and statement of the nature and extent of the child's disability (including in respect of matters that affect the child overall as an individual)". Section 3 of the Act provides that education plans aimed at meeting the special needs of children should be prepared in a consultative way that includes the children's parents. In the context of that legislation, which was passed last year, the Government is applying a new weighted system that judges schools according to their size, gender balance, number of pupils and status. It is making little reference to the actual needs of children. We have not yet received an indication of the Minister's willingness to change that.

The Fianna Fáil motion does not mention the National Educational Psychological Service, which undertakes vital psychological evaluations of children with special educational needs and those experiencing difficulties at school. It is critically important that children who need psychological evaluation can have access to an educational psychologist so that their needs can be identified and met within the education system. Approximately 46% of the 3,288 primary schools in the State have not had a psychologist assigned to them under the service. That, not the suggestion of people like Senator Fitzgerald who said earlier that learning support is available to every primary and post-primary school, is the reality. The service being offered to children with special educational needs who are waiting for psychological assessment is deeply unsatisfactory.

It is unacceptable that there are geographical discrepancies in the National Educational Psychological Service. The number of schools covered by the service varies significantly from county to county. Every general primary school in County Kerry is covered by the service, compared to just 30% of such schools in County Carlow, 27% in counties Clare and Wexford, 18% in County Kilkenny and 11% in County Limerick. Some 184 of the 235 primary schools in County Galway are covered by the National Educational Psychological Service, which means that 51 schools do not have any coverage. It is damning that four special schools in the county are not covered by the service. I ask the Minister to contact the schools as a matter of urgency to inform them that their students will receive the service to which they are entitled as citizens with equal rights.

I wish to conclude by commenting on the Government's commitment to reducing class sizes, which is clearly related to the matter under discussion. The Government has not acknowledged that it has pulled back from a commitment it gave in 2002 in the programme for Government, which stated:

We will continue to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in our schools. Over the next five years we will progressively introduce maximum class guidelines which will ensure that the average size of classes for children under 9 will be below the international best practice guideline of 20:1.