Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, to the House. I also welcome the report and the opportunity to speak on it. Other speakers referred to whether they were teachers, but I was not a teacher until last year when I became an adjunct professor at the National University of Ireland, Galway. I have declared that I am a teacher, albeit not a secondary teacher.

Last year, I was in South America. It is interesting that at the end of the Second World War, the middle class people of Uruguay wanted to educate their children and went around the world to find a good education system. They found Ireland and brought its Christian Brothers to Uruguay to teach their children.

The Minister spoke about the quality of Irish teachers and education. That quality is high and I was supported by Senators Ulick Burke and Fitzgerald when I sought a debate on the report last week in an effort to maintain the quality. I am pleased to discover that a personal belief of mine is shared by the OECD, which stated that the quality of teachers is the most important determinant in the achievement of pupils. I have always referred to it as teachers being the linchpin of education from pre-school to university level.

If one talks to a person about his or her school days, what he or she will remember is the influence of a particular teacher. I have vivid memories of very good teachers and, perhaps, others as well. My belief in the central role of teachers was reinforced by my experience as chairman of the steering committee on the development of the leaving certificate applied, about ten years ago. We on that committee could huff and puff all we liked, but the real determinant of whether the new approach would work was the approach to be taken by the teachers at the chalkface. They were the ones with responsibility to implement change, and the quality of the end-result depended entirely on the quality of their input. Any success the leaving certificate applied has had, is due entirely to them.

The reason I was in South America was to talk about the Celtic tiger and relay the reasons for Irish economic success. In all my researches I found the prime overall determinant was education. For many years we had invested in education and in so far as I can see the Government is increasing that investment to a considerable extent.

In this country we have a tremendous respect for education, for what it can do for us both individually and as a contributor to our economic development. Unfortunately, we do not have an equivalent respect for teachers, and I think that this is a very bad thing indeed. It may be thought romantic and nostalgic to hark back to the days of the hedge schools, when the teacher was respected as one of the pillars of the community, but I do not believe this to be the case any longer. If we want to have the best teachers, then we must respect them and accord them the rewards and status that is their due. That is the first essential requirement for getting the best teachers to work for us. In making this point I may sound like a propagandist for my colleague, Senator OToole, but I believe that my view is all the more compelling because it comes from outside the profession, and is totally free of any vested interest.

Having nailed my colours to the mast, let me express the hope that this debate will not turn into an exercise in teacher bashing. Let us use this very valuable report to learn some lessons that will have the end result of improving the quality of our education system. Teaching is a demanding profession, and there should be no place in it for those who are not capable of meeting those demands. Just as we all can remember those exceptional teachers who influenced the rest of our lives, we can also recall instances in which a teacher was clearly not up to the job. If we really believe what the OECD says when it argues that teacher quality is the most important determinant of a pupil's achievement, we would take very good care indeed to ensure that inadequate teachers are removed from a situation in which they can cause lifelong damage and underperformance in their pupils.

Teaching is more than a profession, it is a vocation, like being a doctor, a priest or an actor. In all these vocations, academic achievement is an important prerequisite, but it is not enough on its own. There must also be that special spark that joins together the person and the task. Either that spark is there or it is not. Without it one cannot excel.

Having made the teaching profession sufficiently attractive to bring in the best people, our first task should be to ensure that only those with that special spark are allowed in. This is the first area where we could usefully have some change. At present all entrants to the teaching profession are high academic achievers, but that is the only criterion by which we assess them. We do nothing to ensure they have the spark, and I believe that we should. Teaching is one of those professions where we should have an aptitude as well as an academic test. Aptitude tests may have their shortcomings, but they are better than nothing. In the case of medicine this is being clearly talked about in recent times. It is not just a question of whether one has got good marks in the leaving certificate, but rather a matter of whether one has the aptitude.

This research shows that a significant number of student teachers in their final year of training were not up to the job. That could be due to a fault in the way they have been trained, or it could be an indication that some at least of them lack the necessary spark to become successful teachers in the first place. My point is that under the present system we simply do not know the cause — whether it is with the students, teachers or the way that they are taught.

The reality is probably that it is a combination of both. Given that we make no attempt whatever to assess students' aptitude before admitting them to a teaching course, it is inevitable that some people without a true vocation will slip through. On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that the number without a vocation could be as high as the number of students the inspectors found to be producing unsatisfactory results. Therefore, the training they get must also be capable of improvement.

There are two ways in which to deal with the issue revealed by the report. First, we owe it to everybody concerned to make an effort to weed out from the student cohort at the outset those who do not have the exceptional capabilities that it takes to make a good teacher. In assessing student teachers for basic suitability, we must look beyond their results in the leaving certificate. Second, we must put pressure on the teaching colleges, in two ways. First, we must encourage them to constantly review their training methods so that they match the true needs of the profession. Second, we should require them to fail students who do not reach a high level of competence in the problem areas the inspectorate has identified in this report. It is a good report and should not be hidden as it is very valuable. However, it will not serve its purpose unless we act on it.

Today's debate has been very useful, I am sure, from the Minister's viewpoint. I urge her to listen to what has been said today, to read the report seriously and to react to it.