Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

This has been a robust and lively debate on education. The Government has prioritised education like no other in recent decades. In 1997, it took over from an Administration in which the current leaders of the two main Opposition parties had voted to freeze direct school funding and cut teacher numbers. The education system and our children were suffering the consequences of their neglect and lack of foresight. The Government set out to return education to the centre of policy, to increase investment and to improve outcomes. As the amendment to the motion sets out, we have succeeded in this.

The Government is proud to have hired thousands of extra teachers, brought class sizes to their lowest level and provided greater support for children with special needs and those from disadvantaged areas. The Government is equally proud that under the largest school building programme, thousands of existing schools have been modernised while new ones have also been built.

The improvement in outcomes is what matters most to the Government. More young people are finishing school with the creation of 45,000 extra college places and the success of targeted access initiatives. Real breakthroughs have been made in the participation of students from disadvantaged areas in third level education. At the same time, the foundations have been laid for a vibrant fourth level sector as the key to attracting greater investment. The Government is aware of the many needs which have to be addressed still, but it is proud to have provided for the most sustained increase in funding and participation.

This motion raises several issues from class sizes to reading levels, school completion rates, buildings and ICT. There were 80,000 more children in classes of more than 30 pupils when the Government came into office. The previous Administration, far from being committed to reducing class sizes, had actually voted to cut teacher numbers. Over the past ten years, a revolution has taken place in our schools, with the largest increase in teacher numbers. An extra 7,000 primary teachers have been hired. The average class size has fallen from 27 to 24 pupils. With all the extra support teachers, there is one teacher for every 17 pupils, down from one for 22 in 1997.

What signifies the major difference in class size between 1997 and today is major drop in the number of children in large classes. In the 2005-06 school year, there were 80,000 fewer children in classes of 30 or more than in 1997. Last year, the number of children in classes of 35 plus was just a fifth of the 1997 level. The improvement in the Dublin City Council area is even more dramatic. In 1997, nearly 6,000 children in Dublin city were in classes of 35 or more. By 2005-06, this had been slashed to fewer than 400 children. While there is more to be done to reduce class sizes further, the progress made in this area in recent years must be acknowledged.

In providing 4,000 extra primary teachers since 2002, the Government had to decide how best to use these posts. If all 4,000 had gone into classroom teaching, our class sizes would be much smaller. The Government, however, decided to target the majority of extra teachers at providing extra support for children with special needs and those from disadvantaged areas. It was decided to reverse the past neglect of children with special needs and to ensure they received the extra help needed to reach their full potential. More than 5,000 resource teachers and more than 6,000 special needs assistants work in our primary schools. Not only are these extra staff making an immeasurable difference to the lives of children with special needs, they are providing vital back-up for their classroom teachers.

Extra posts have also been used to ensure more than 50,000 pupils in disadvantaged areas are in classes of 15 or 20 at junior levels and 20 or 24 at senior level. It was decided to target children with special needs and those from disadvantaged areas in the first instance. Doing so has greatly improved the teaching support available to such pupils. With these areas addressed, in the current school year extra teachers were provided to reduce class sizes. The Government has already committed to providing another 800 primary schoolteachers next September, approximately 500 of whom will be classroom teachers.

The goal must be to enable each child to reach his or her full potential and to equip him or her with skills that will help him or her to live a happy and fulfilled life. Increasing the number of young people with at least upper second level education or equivalent is central to this. To this end, the Government has pursued a dual strategy of encouraging more young people to finish school and ensuring much greater second-chance and further education opportunities for those who left school early.

The National Educational Welfare Board was established to tackle absenteeism problems that lead to early school leaving. The board's budget in 2007 is €9.8 million, an increase of 20% on the 2006 allocation and of 50% on the 2004 level. It has been given approval to hire 15 extra staff in 2007. A further 25 staff are to be provided between 2008 and 2009 under Towards 2016. In addition to providing increased staffing for the board, we have also targeted a range of extra supports at young people in disadvantaged areas to encourage them to finish school. These include extra educational supports and services such as breakfast clubs. Working with parents to promote school attendance is also an important part of the work of the home-school-community liaison officers appointed to disadvantaged schools. Access to these services is being increased under the DEIS action plan.

For those who leave school without completing the leaving certificate, the available statistical evidence indicates the increasing range of further education and training opportunities available for these students is having a positive impact. Central Statistics Office, CSO, data shows that the educational profile of 20 to 24 year olds has improved steadily over the past five years as increasing opportunities have been made available in the further education and training sector. By 2005, 85.8% of 20 to 24 year olds had attained upper second level education or equivalent, up from 82.6% in 2000 and putting Ireland ahead of the EU average of 77.5%.

This real progress is reflected in the number of young people from areas such as Finglas, Ballymun and the inner city attending third level institutions, which doubled between 1998 and 2004. More needs to be done to improve school completion rates in disadvantaged areas, but under DEIS, real progress has been made in recent years.

The Private Members' motion also raises the issue of staffing for the National Educational Psychological Service and the number of schools served by the service at present. Senators will be aware that all schools have access to psychological assessments for their students, either through NEPS or through the scheme for commissioning private assessments, of which NEPS covers the cost. More than 4,000 such private assessments were funded in the 2005-06 academic year. Therefore, the number of schools served directly by NEPS is only half the picture.

Nonetheless, the Government is committed to expanding NEPS. Before we set up the service, there were only 43 psychologists in the Department of Education and Science. We have increased that level dramatically, to 127 psychologists in NEPS, with a further 16 whole-time equivalents in the Dublin city and county VEC service.

Towards 2016 provided for increases in NEPS staffing over a three-year period. The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, has already announced the recruitment of an extra 31 NEPS psychologists this year, to be followed by another 35 between 2008 and 2009. The Government has set out an expansion plan for NEPS that will bring the number of psychologists to 193. Taken with the 16 in the Dublin VEC service, that will bring the total complement of psychologists in the Department to 209.

Regarding demand for assessments, it should be noted that since the Government provided for a guaranteed allocation of resource teaching hours to all primary schools in 2005, the majority of primary schoolchildren have no longer needed psychological assessments to secure extra support. As well as increasing the number of educational psychologists, the Government has taken steps to reduce the need for assessments so that children can get appropriate help at the earliest possible stage.

I am pleased to advise the House that the national development plan provides for investment of €252 million in ICT in schools to give effect to a new comprehensive ICT strategy to be published this year. That strategy will aim to develop an e-learning culture in schools and ensure ICT use is embedded in teaching and learning across the curriculum. It will address teachers' professional development, the maintenance of a national broadband network for schools, technical maintenance and support requirements, and the upgrading and renewal of hardware along with the provision of software and digital content.

The new ICT strategy will build on recent investment under the ICT in schools programme in the provision of networking grants to schools and the schools broadband access programme. It will also build on the 10,000 training places provided annually by the National Council for Technology in Education to meet the specific needs of teachers in their use of ICT, including technical courses, subject-specific courses, and Internet, web design and digital media courses.

The Government accepts the need for further investment in ICT in schools, and I am pleased with the provision in the NDP in that regard. The development of strong ICT literacy in all children will be an essential life skill as they seek to participate in the opportunities of the global knowledge economy. It is imperative that schools provide opportunities for all children to develop to their full potential in that regard.

Furthermore, the integrated use of ICT in the classroom can also enhance the quality of the educational experience. It can enrich learning and teaching activities, increase pupils' motivation to learn, and facilitate new ways of learning for children with special educational needs.

We have had a very robust debate and I thank Senators for their contributions. Several other issues were mentioned, including that of school buildings, which I have not gone into, although it is in my script if Senators are interested in learning what has been achieved in that regard. Several constructive proposals have been put forward.

There is a genuine consciousness in the Department that we must undertake real school planning. In my constituency and that of Senator Fitzgerald, on the north fringe in particular, Dublin City Council is very active in planning in association and partnership with the Department of Education and Science. That is a model other local authorities might follow. School planning is central to the Department's priorities and I would not like Senators to think otherwise.

The Government has prioritised education. As our amendment to the Private Members' motion sets out, great progress has been made in a wide range of areas. While challenges remain, we are also confident that we have put the investment and policies in place to address them.