Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Morrissey for raising this matter. The approach of the Department of Education and Science to the increasingly diverse cultural and ethnic nature of the pupil base in Irish schools is twofold. It is promoting and facilitating the delivery of an intercultural education to all children and is providing the specific supports needed by children whose first language is not English to help them to succeed at school. Intercultural education involves respecting and celebrating diversity, as well as promoting equality and human rights within and outside the school community. The Minister for Education and Science launched guidelines for primary schools on intercultural education in May 2005. This valuable resource was prepared by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment to support teachers and schools in developing a more inclusive learning environment and giving students the knowledge and skills they need to participate in a multicultural world. The Department provided €167,000 to ensure that every primary teacher in the country will receive a copy of the guidelines in English or Irish. Corresponding guidelines for intercultural education in post-primary schools are being prepared and will be available early in 2006.

With regard to the provision of resources to enable children with low levels of competence in the English language to succeed at school, language support takes the form of financial assistance, additional temporary teacher posts or portions of teacher posts. The level of support provided to any school is determined by the numbers of non-English-speaking students enrolled. Each school management can decide on the structure of the support to be provided in its own school. An allocation of two years of language support for each pupil is provided by the Department. Schools with 14 or more qualifying pupils get an additional full-time temporary teacher, while those with 28 or more get two teachers. A third post may be allocated following consideration by the Department's inspectorate in certain exceptional circumstances.

Primary schools with between three and 13, inclusive, non-English-speaking pupils receive grant assistance of €6,348.69 while schools with between nine and 13 such pupils receive grant assistance of €9,523.04. In the current school year, grant assistance will be provided to approximately 425 primary schools with 13 or less non-English-speaking non-national pupils. In the case of post-primary schools which have fewer than 14 non-national pupils with significant English language difficulties enrolled, additional teaching hours, ranging from three hours per week in respect of one such pupil to 19.5 hours per week in respect of 13 pupils, are sanctioned.

In the current school year, the Department has provided 517 language support teachers at primary level and 249 whole-time equivalent teachers at second level to support such pupils, representing an investment of €34 million. Schools granted full language support teacher posts receive additional financial support to enable the purchase of resource materials suitable for use within the language support class or mainstream class.

All teachers have a role in supporting students to help them acquire the necessary language skills in the context of each subject being taught. The purpose of language support is to acquire sufficient language skills to enable students engage with the curriculum rather than to develop a particular level of competence in the English language. Specific language support provision is intended to complement other supports provided by the Department to schools, for example, resource, learning support and other ex-quota posts.

Teachers are provided with in-service training through Integrate Ireland Language and Training Limited, IILT. IILT provides training seminars for language support teachers, part-time or whole time, along with classroom materials, including the European language portfolio, to assist them in meeting the English language needs of their pupils or students. It also develops classroom materials in partnership with practising classroom teachers. Grant support to IILT to provide training and resources for teachers and language tuition for refugees is currently in the order of €1.4 million. A further additional resource is available to teachers in the form of guidelines on teaching English as an additional language. These guidelines are available on the NCCA website.

All children residing in Ireland have a right to education, regardless of legal status. Education issues for newcomers to Ireland are currently dealt with by a number of different sections in the Department of Education and Science. To ensure the better co-ordination of policy in this area, the Department has recently established an internal steering committee comprised of senior representatives from these areas which will co-ordinate the Department's response to the education of newcomers to Ireland, identify emerging issues relating to them, propose solutions to the issues identified and arrange for the implementation of agreed solutions and policies.

One of the priorities of the committee will be to examine current provision for the education of newcomers in primary schools with a view to establishing the appropriate level of supports. Preliminary work in this area has already started. I would like to thank Senator Morrissey once again for raising this matter in the House. I realise that my reply does not address social integration, which is the main thrust of his argument, but I will ensure that the Minister learns about his remarks.