Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I wanted to welcome the Minister but as she is leaving I will welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey. Senator Minihan is not a teacher and neither am I, so I respect the views expressed here by those who were teachers. I also respect that they would have much more knowledge of this issue than I do. I have some knowledge as I worked for some time as a substitute, or unqualified, teacher. Such teachers are often berated by others but I filled a need in schools which badly needed a teacher, even if it was just a supervisory capacity. I would like to think I did much more than that.

As with every profession, there will be good and bad. There would be excellent teachers and good teachers, as I would not like to state there are bad teachers. There may be weak or underperforming teachers. The majority are very hard working and excellent teachers.

Those in our training colleges today aspire to be excellent teachers in future but this report will do nothing for their confidence. I have concerns similar to those others expressed this evening about how this report was put together, the evaluation and the assessment carried out on these student teachers. I have questions as to how the ground rules were set down as it is clear a level playing field was not set out.

The student teachers were all in different types of schools and on a particular day they would have had different problems depending on class size, behaviour of students and children's use of the English language. We know that to be a major problem in many schools currently, where so many children do not have English as their first language. There are also children with special needs. Every student teacher was in a different situation so we are not getting an accurate picture of how each teacher performed across different levels.

One of the problems with teacher training as it stands is that trainees are not getting enough practical experience. My son is a qualified teacher who did one year of training, or more accurately nine months, as a postgraduate student in Glasgow. Half of his time there was spent in the classroom, and he probably spent more time in the classroom during that period than the average trainee teacher does in Ireland over the course of three years. This should be considered and I know the Minister has indicated she wishes to look at whether student teachers should be given more practical teaching experience. I believe they should.

Every one of us would improve as we have more practice at whatever we do. To judge a student teacher on a hour or two hours of a performance on any one day, given the problems that can arise within the classroom, is totally unfair. There should be an ongoing assessment involving the class teacher and principal. We should improve this area and I would have liked to have seen recommendations relating to the amount of teaching practice student teachers get and the involvement of the teacher within the classroom and the school principal. This is the process in Glasgow, where the teacher and principal must give a report on how the student has fared throughout a six-week period at the school.

To come out with such an assessment over a longer period would be a much more valid evaluation of how student teachers are doing. The way this report is done gives a very unfair picture of how student teachers are. I agree with Senator Ulick Burke's comments that this report should be withdrawn or at least revised to give a more accurate picture of how people perform. Instead of knocking people's confidence coming towards the end of the training programme, we should be trying to inspire them and ensure that these people will do the most important job anybody can, namely, educate our young people.

This is an unfair assessment of those student teachers. We will of course have excellent and good teachers; we would have such people in every profession. Some will have better skills than others and even within the classroom some teachers will be good at mathematics and others will be very good with computers. The issue should be expanded and at the very least, the report should be revised.

I would welcome the Minister's acceptance of many of the cases and points raised here tonight instead of a defence of a report which is indefensible.