Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. It is great to be in this wonderful room. To have the opportunity to speak twice today is a real honour.

I thank the Minister for the detailed update. She went through a lot of information. To make a general point about the reopening of schools, I know that there was great excitement. I kept hearing about all the kids who were excited for the first week back and thought every day was like a school tour day. That novelty might now be wearing off but the joy of parents is still there.

More than 1 million children have gone back to school and that was achieved through the public health guidelines and measures put in place by the Government. It is now a priority to stay vigilant. I pay tribute to some of the people in the background who we sometimes do not see, namely, the caretakers of schools who did great work throughout August, along with principals and teachers, to prepare the schools. They pulled things apart and put things together. It was like there was a MacGyver in every school.

I have spoken to many primary and secondary schools in my area, and many principals have paid tribute to the Department of Education and Skills helpline, which they said was supportive. They also acknowledged the Settling in - Slow Down to Catch Up guide for post-primary and secondary schools from the National Centre for Guidance in Education. It was an excellent guide targeted at career guidance teachers at post-primary level. I know that teachers in Garbally College in Ballinasloe found it useful for all teachers.

We are dealing with low levels of anxiety, as everybody is during the pandemic. It would be interesting to know a little more about the mental health supports for children at primary school level and how to help students, especially those with special needs, express themselves in a healthy way.

Some feedback I have received from secondary schools highlighted the challenges for teachers adapting to new layouts. Teachers would previously have been based in one classroom and the children would have moved around whereas now children are based in a classroom and the teachers are moving around. Issues around the lack of supervision have sometimes cropped up.

Staggered breaks appear to be working very well. One of the key issues at primary school level is something that I am sure the Minister is fully aware of, namely, the comparison of school sizes in Ireland with those in the EU. The Irish Timesof 8 September reported that the average class size in Irish primary schools is approximately 25 students and the EU average is 20. The Creagh primary school in Ballinasloe has 27, 28 or 29 children per class in fourth, fifth and sixth class. That is putting pressure on schools to achieve social distancing. I am interested to hear from the Minister what measures might be put in place for schools with very high numbers, particularly for the coming year.

The minor works scheme was a great support and many schools welcomed it immensely. However, it has been highlighted that more support for IT at primary and post-primary levels may be required. Many schools are not using lockers and, to avoid students carrying heavy schoolbags and all the rest of it, teachers are trying to do more and more things online. Homework is being given out online.

I also received feedback to the effect that a lot of primary schools have been doing well with videos and putting material online about how to encourage children and parents to know what it is like to return to school. I thank some of the local companies, entrepreneurs and enterprises who have been donating to local schools. One company donated hand sanitiser with friendly animal figures to encourage kids to do more hand sanitisation. Many community groups and volunteers have helped out in schools.

I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, on special needs and inclusion. I have dealt with her an awful lot on request needs for special needs assistants for children with highly complex needs.I am sure I will be dealing with the Department of Education and Skills on the allocation of resource hours. There are primary schools in south Roscommon that do not have very many resource hours, compared with the number of students. There has been a large increase in the population over the last number of years, particularly in the area outside of Athlone.

In terms of school transport, many families must use private buses to access schools. I have received representations from councillors around the country about the difficulties in accessing a place using school transport. I appreciate the challenges and difficulties facing the Minister with 50% access, as she mentioned. I can only wait and hope that her Department will work with all of the stakeholders involved to increase access. Families have adapted by putting private buses in place and it is good to hear that parents can avail of a grant.

I congratulate the 60,000 students who completed the leaving certificate. I also congratulate their families. The extra allocation of over 2,200 places has helped to alleviate the pressure on points. There are over 35,000 places in further education with 19,000 places on the Skills to Compete programme and 2,300 places at postgraduate level, which was mentioned this morning. I cite all of that to highlight the fact that there are many ways for people to reach their career of choice. There are apprenticeships available in accountancy, auctioneering and so many different areas. Yesterday, about 2,500 CAO round 2 offers were issued to students and I wish them well. All of these people are now on their journeys of discovery and I encourage them to consider all methods and ways to reach their goals. I like a quote by W.B. Yeats that I discovered when I visited the website of Creagh National School: "education is not the filling of a pot but the lighting of a fire". I hope we can maintain the confidence of children returning to school. It is important that we deal with anxiety levels.