Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the plan for future education. Not unlike the previous speaker, I am glad there is a plan. I could stand up here and tear the plan to shreds, as others might tear it in a different way.We are all passionate about education and all by-products of the education system. It is the one sector of the community in which every individual in society will take part. I do not want to talk about funding and will not get involved in the blame game, but there is a necessity for funding and investment in the education sector. The problems therein and the process to achieve the best outcomes are investment related. I take the philosophical route. When we talk about funding for the health service, we say the money should follow the patient. In education the money should follow the student. One glove does not fit all in meeting the needs of this or any other society.

We get carried away on the positioning of the education system on international league tables. Equally, we get carried away in trying to position schools and educational institutions on internal league tables. The part of the plan about which I would be fearful is the angle towards providing monetary compensation based on performance. That is a dangerous route to take in any education system. In medium-sized and larger towns with more than one school it will result in cherry-picking where certain schools will opt for the students who will get the best results to move up the league tables. We will then end up with the opposite scenario in the other schools at the bottom of the line.

I want to mention a sector of students who tend to be left out; in the debate on the budget they will be called the squeezed middle. There is always a major push for students with special needs, but when it comes to performance, results and league tables, the emphasis is on the high achievers. Those in the squeezed middle who may not have special needs and not do as well academically as those at the top do not get a mention; sometimes they are the also-rans. It is important that we consider everybody within the education system. For a particular student to get 250 points can be an enormous achievement, but there will not be a word about it. All the talk will be about the student who got 600 or 650 points. On the points system, we talk about employment and progression to third level. We take the personal aspect out of it. We talk about producing students to fill jobs available, but there is too much emphasis on this aspect. We have to think about the person. Education is about the development of self, irrespective of where one ends up when one leaves the education system. One will still be a human being and a member of society. We get carried away in talking about economics and employment prospects and forget about the individual.

I welcome the relationship between SOLAS and the education and training boards as there was a disconnect between training and education. I am glad that gap has been bridged because it will help in meeting employment prospects in the future.

This may sound philosophical, but all of the changes and proposals are necessary. Some may need tweaking; therefore, it is welcome that they will be reviewed on an annual basis. However, I would like somebody to grasp the nettle and come back with a model that will start at national school, or even in preschool, with a view to bringing a generation to third level. We should make the necessary changes, with an input from all sectors of society, to the second and third level sectors as we move along, but we appear to want to change everything at once. That does not work when teachers and students are half way through a system, a problem arises and we try to change it mid-stream. It may be a ten to 15 year project, but it is worth considering that we start at foundation level with a model to take someone through all the levels without trying to tweak it on a daily basis while they are still in the process of their education.