Seanad debates

Tuesday, 28 July 2020

10:30 am

Photo of Gerard CraughwellGerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept that.

I congratulate the Minister on her appointment and on hitting the ground running in what is the greatest logistical challenge her Department has ever faced. I welcome the fact that she will open schools and the measures she outlined today. I am encouraged that there has been significant stakeholder engagement during the planning process, but we must be honest with the public. We cannot guarantee that all schools will open or that there will not be closures from time to time. According to the World Health Organization liaison person for Ireland who appeared on the radio earlier, from time to time places will have spikes and will have to close. He estimates that will go on for about two and a half years.

Before I go any further with my comments on the Minister's plan, I publicly thank the thousands of teachers who worked so hard during the lockdown period. Their continuous delivery of remote learning to their pupils, their enthusiasm, their ingenuity and their good humour epitomised everything that I, as a former president of the Teachers Union of Ireland, and the public at large are proud of about our education system. I also acknowledge the role of parents and caregivers in providing formal and informal learning opportunities for their children throughout the lockdown while, in many cases, working from home themselves.Article 42 of the Constitution reads: "The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide ... for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children." For the past four months, families across the country have embraced this duty with energy and bravery as they themselves negotiated the uncharted territory of home schooling out of necessity rather than choice. Families have borne the financial and emotional cost of this. I hope the Department and educational researchers and academics will continue to engage with parents to mine the valuable knowledge and insight that has been gained from their outstanding handling of this unplanned social experiment.

While parents and teachers have done their best, the results have been uneven. From the recently published ESRI report, we have learned that students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs had been deeply affected by the shift to distance learning. School principals fear that the outcome of the lockdown will be a widening of the gap between advantage and disadvantage. They are also concerned about child safety and possible nutritional deficiency due to the absence of the school meals programme in DEIS schools. The research tells us that school closures have severely affected peer relationships and limited opportunities for social interaction, which many children need. This, added to the lack of broadband connectivity in some areas or the lack of tablets and PCs, resulted in many students falling behind in their academic and social development. Anecdotally, I have heard of deeply committed students uploading completed consignments on their phones using their own credit. I hope the Minister will join me in calling on mobile phone providers to supply a free and unlimited data allowance for second level schools during the crisis.

As someone who has actively campaigned for an increase in the number of career guidance counsellors since taking my seat six years ago, I welcome the Minister's commitment to employing additional staff, but I am stunned that it took a pandemic to hammer home what the experts and professionals have been telling us for years. I agree with the INTO's general secretary, Mr. John Boyle, who said that it was ironic that it took a pandemic for us to realise that education could not work on a shoestring.

The news that children will return to school at the end of August has never been more welcomed by students, parents and staff. I do not doubt that it will work within the guidelines. For the past five months, people have already demonstrated an incredible capacity to co-operate and comply, but they will need assurances, detailed signposting and clear information with as much advance notice as possible.

I am mindful to speak to the Minister about a school I would like her to visit, Kinsale community school, which is led by its principal, Mr. Fergal McCarthy. It has had an active committee of students, parents and public health experts setting up one-way systems and planning how it will work in Covid conditions. For example, we need to know whether temperatures will need to be taken at points of entry. What will happen if a student presents with a temperature having travelled via school bus? Must the entire population of that bus self-isolate for 14 days? What about a second level teacher moving from class to class where one member of a class presents with Covid-19? The teacher has been exposed and might have compromised the other classes. What plans are in place in that regard?

There are serious issues in terms of logistics and time. We are already behind the curve and the task ahead is mammoth. It is mammoth not only because of the pandemic, but because Covid-19 has brought into sharper relief the deep inequalities, underfunding and staffing challenges that have plagued the education sector for decades. Every single issue that has been shirked by successive Governments has come home to roost. The Minister is a teacher and will be aware of many of these issues.

An additional 1,080 teachers will be employed, but that is a drop in the ocean in light of the task ahead. More importantly, how quickly can we get those 1,080 teachers through Garda vetting and how are we going to utilise them? One of my colleagues mentioned the fact that teachers move from school to school in some cases. In such a situation, are we running the risk of bringing infection from one area to another?I am completely behind anything the Minister tries in order to keep schools open, but I doubt she will find 1,080 teachers when she goes to the marketplace, given the gross inequality that has existed in the pay system. We have been arguing about this since 2012 when I was president of the TUI, but no one has taken notice. We have lost the best and brightest of our educators to places like Dubai, London, Birmingham and Manchester. This morning, I heard that we were expecting those in the UK to return home. They will not because they have seen what has happened to the nurses who came home. Many came back from all parts of the world only to never be employed. As such, I do not know how the Minister will find 1,080 teachers.

Despite significant growth in our economy down the years, the underfunding of capital projects has left us with a school infrastructure that might be unable to accommodate the type of social distancing envisaged in the plan. From my calculations, 2 m distancing means there will be 13 students per 49 sq. m classroom. If there is 1 m distancing, there will be 26 students.

I am 100% behind opening schools, but I am also 100% behind the teachers who will have to deliver this for the Minister and 100% behind the principals who will have to manage it. Will the Minister make contact with Mr. McCarthy in Kinsale and take a look at the outstanding plans he has in place?

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