Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I commend Senator Barrett for presenting us with a fine talking point and his Bill is very welcome. We have not had enough discussion on third level education in this House, nor across the wider Oireachtas. We have waited for years for a number of reports and measures, such as the Hunt report and the Technological Universities Bill. Even now they have not reached the final stages of completion.

Today's debate gives me an opportunity to speak about reform of the universities sector in terms of needs, particularly students' needs and economic needs. I have taken my baseline from a successful conference held by NUIG in Galway on 25 January, called Reforming Learning: Driving Success. I helped to organise the conference. A phenomenal range of speakers from across the sector in Ireland and from abroad participated, the most famous being Pasi Sahlberg whom I believe the Minister has met. He is a Finnish educator who is currently teaching in Harvard.

The focus of the conference, which dovetails into this Bill, was to look at the transition of students from second to third level, the quality of the education system at both levels and how that met students' needs. As Senator Barrett will accept, students do not just arrive at third level without them coming from somewhere. My potted assessment of the education system is as follows. We are doing a very good job at primary level because it is quite a creative system. An excellent job is being done at third level and the choice of courses is amazing. However, many children are still being lost at second level. I am sure the Minister will agree with a lot of my assessment and on the need to reform learning at second level. I have tabled a Commencement motion on the assessment model, which was scheduled to be taken by the Minister tomorrow morning. I have postponed it until next Tuesday which is when she will be available so I shall leave discussion of it until then.

I wish to speak about reforming the university sector. The needs that emerged from my conference included languages, apprenticeships, the transition process, the quality of teaching and learning, drop-out levels and the quality of staffing. Senator Barrett mentioned the latter in his Bill and his speech. How many minutes do I have remaining?