Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak today about the impact lockdown is having on our education structure. Understandably, most attention in the last number of weeks has been on those preparing for the leaving and junior certificate examinations. We now need to give more consideration to the impact on those currently in primary level education. Irish and international research has shown the impact at this level can be very significant and particularly severe for those in marginalised communities.

For primary school children, the lockdown has created new inequalities in learning time. Research has shown that before the pandemic there was essentially no difference between the time that children spent on educational activities, but during the lockdown last year learning time among primary school children from marginalised communities fell at a far greater rate than for other children, meaning their learning time was over an hour less every day and 31% less than for other children. There is no reason to believe that this is not the case in the current lockdown. Over four months of the last calendar year, children from these marginalised communities have been, unfortunately, losing ground on their classmates. When speaking to primary school teachers at the weekend I was made aware that it was only when they were delivering the homework to these students that they realised the conditions and challenges that lie within. Learning time is closely linked to achieving positive educational outcomes and those who have suffered from reduced learning time over the last year are at risk of this being an issue this year and beyond.

I recognise this is an exceptionally busy time for the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley. I ask the Leader to request that she come to this House at the earliest opportunity for a discussion on how we can improve the lives of primary school children going forward.