Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann notes the Report of the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science entitled ‘Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Primary and Secondary Education’, copies of which were laid before Seanad Éireann on 20th January, 2021.

It gives me great pleasure to propose this motion. I welcome the Minister to the Seanad. We are very pleased to have her listen to our deliberations on this report. I also welcome Deputy Kehoe, the Chairperson of the committee, who has done excellent work in terms of steering this report. The impact of Covid on schools and education settings was very important, not just for the children but for society and family life as well.

The report involved engagement with a lot of stakeholders, in particular with young people. I know that the Minister in her engagement to deal with Covid and to look at suggestions and practical ways of dealing with the pandemic, also consulted with young people. As a committee, we found that hugely important and it formed a large part of our engagement. It was not the first time that the voices of students came to the fore, but a lot of emphasis was put on the voices of young people. Long may this continue. That is very important. One of the areas in the report that has been mentioned is that clear communication and co-operation with everybody in the school community is important, and has been in terms of schools remaining open.

I record my own thanks and on behalf of all of us here to the whole school community. Notwithstanding all the challenges they faced in the past two years, our schools are open and our children are receiving an education.Our children have the opportunity to be with their peers to socialise and learn all the many different aspects of life that they would not if they were just sitting in their own homes with their PlayStations or whatever.

It is important to say that the Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill 2019 should be enacted. That comes on top of that clear communication I was referencing. The main objective of that Bill is to seek the best possible outcomes for students with regard to their own educational and personal development. It is important that it be made mandatory for schools to have that to keep the voice of the young person and, indeed, the voices of parents central to everything.

Clear communication is hugely important and many parents, as we understand, had anxiety about their children staying in school. At the same time, however, most parents were absolutely happy with schools staying open. They recognised, as indeed we all do and as national and international research suggests, that the best place for a student is in the classroom with in-person teaching. I know at times, particularly coming up even to last Christmas, there was a widespread call for the schools to be closed. I am really glad that schools did not close and that measures were put in place to ensure they stayed open, recognising that it is so important for all children but particularly those who are in vulnerable situations, have special educational needs and who may have disadvantages at home that take away from their whole educational experience.

Regarding other issues that we discussed within this report, obviously, there is a vast disparity between different schools. We have some state-of-the-art schools. Students and teachers in those are lucky to have those facilities with isolation areas and proper green spaces in which to play, etc. Sadly, however, many schools do not have that. We know that 25% of schools at the start of the pandemic did not have warm water in their school toilet facilities, which shocked me. I understand that has been rectified in most cases now but that certainly was a problem. Again, I believe approximately 25% of schools did not have a suitable place for a Covid-19 isolation area.

In terms of the communications that came from the Department, quite a number of teachers and principals said to me that they felt that there were too many circulars coming out, and that it would be better if there was one working document that was updated on an ongoing basis. Perhaps that is one of the lessons we need to learn from this.

I acknowledge the Minister's commitment to keeping schools open as we continue to live with Covid-19 and that she is at all times taking a very student-centred approach to the children. We know that their development regresses or is undermined if they are out for any prolonged period. Obviously, we hope we are getting to a situation where we are not going to be dealing with Covid-19 to the same extent but in terms of lessons learned, we have to look back and take recommendations. I thank the Minister for being here and listening to our report.