Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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340. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the main policy achievements of her Department since 27 June 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61646/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department will soon publish a statement of priority actions to be delivered in 2023 which will elaborate on and develop the strategic actions set out in the Statement of Strategy 2021-2023. The Statement of Strategy was published in June 2021. It set out the vision, mission and strategic goals that will guide the Department’s work programme for the 2021-2023 period. The Department's Annual Reports have also been published and outline the significant work undertaken during 2020 and 2021.

Throughout 2022, my Department’s goal has been to continue to support school communities through the challenges posed by the war in Ukraine and from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department has been working intensively to make education available to Ukrainian children and providing for those most in need.

Other significant achievements for 2022 include:

- The publication of Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying. This landmark new Action Plan is dedicated to the prevention and addressing of bullying, cyber bullying, racism, gender identity bullying or sexual harassment, among other areas, in schools. Cineáltas has been informed by the views of children and young people, parents, school staff, education partners and individual members of the public and succeeds in placing the students at the very heart of the plan. Cineáltas builds on the achievements and ambition of the previous Action Plan on Bullying published in 2013, taking into account the work undertaken in recent years to ensure that our schools are safe and happy places for all our children and young people.

- €9.625 billion education funding in Budget 2023, including measures to tackle disadvantage and support children with special educational needs. This represents an increase of €443 million in core funding, as well as over €145 million in non-core expenditure. This builds on significant increases in recent budgets and further enhances the investment in the primary and post-primary education system.

- €90 million in one-off additional funding to support increased running costs for recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme in dealing with challenges they face in light of rising energy costs.

- Primary staffing schedule reduced by one point, to a historically low level of 24:1 in 2022. Further investment in new teaching posts will see the general average reduced to 23:1 in 2023. This is a further reduction on the already historically low level and the first time such a reduction has been made in three consecutive Budgets.

- Publication of the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 and the payment of €50 million in grant funding for digital technology infrastructure to all recognised primary and post-primary schools.

This strategy advances the embedding of digital technologies across teaching, learning and assessment, building on the work under previous strategies. It aims to further support the school system so that all students across our schools have the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills they need to navigate an ever-evolving digital world successfully.

- The major expansion of the DEIS – Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme that will see the programme extended to an additional 322 schools. Additional allocations to the DEIS programme together with a further one point improvement in the staffing schedule for DEIS Urban Band 1 schools has created the largest ever education package to tackle educational disadvantage and represents an increase of over 20 per cent in funding for the DEIS programme over the years 2022 and 2023.

- Announcement of over €50 million to provide free books to primary school pupils within the free education scheme from September 2023. This measure will eliminate the cost to these families for all school books at primary school, including workbooks. It delivers on the Programme for Government commitment to extend the free school book pilot, currently in 102 DEIS primary schools, as resources permit. The free primary school books scheme will benefit up to 540,000 pupils in approximately 3,240 recognised primary schools, including over 130 special schools.

- There are extensive new measures to support students with special educational needs, with additional teaching, SNA and support resources. Building on the exceptional work already undertaken in 2022 to ensure appropriate placement for children in mainstream classes, special classes and special schools for 2023, the special education budget will be substantially increased by almost ten per cent, with a total spend on supporting students with special educational needs of over €2.6 billion.

- At the end of March I made a comprehensive announcement setting out a vision including specific actions for the redevelopment of Senior Cycle which builds on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) Advisory Report on the Review of Senior Cycle, the Leaving Certificate experience since 2020, a more vocal student voice and international experience. Work is now in train in my Department to give effect to significant elements of the programme of work involved including preparations for the introduction of new and revised subjects in schools from September 2024 and changes to the assessment arrangements for fifth year students commencing fifth year in the next school year.

-Government approval for the Education (Provision in Respect of Children with Special Educational Needs) Bill 2022 - legislation which provides for a truncated Section 37A process, whereby a school can be directed to make additional provision for children with special educational needs. This new process can lead to a Ministerial direction to be served on a school within 6 to 8 weeks of receiving a report from the NCSE setting out its opinion that there are insufficient schools places in a certain area.

- Additional funding in the amount of €10m is being provided as a fuel contribution to bus contractors operating under contract to Bus Éireann for the operation of the Department’s School Transport Scheme during the 2022/23 school year.

- Updating the membership of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to include the President of the Irish Second Level Students’ Union (ISSU).

- The introduction of the Covid Learning and Supports Scheme (CLASS) that mitigates the impact of Covid-19 to students’ learning and wellbeing.

- The 2022 Summer Programme, which built on the success of 2021. Over 41,000 students benefitted from this year's programme, an increase of 300% on 2019. The measures within Budget 2023 will see an additional €20 million for the Summer Programme, bringing the total provision to €40 million. In 2020 and 2021 the Summer Programme was expanded significantly to include all mainstream schools as the most inclusive way of reaching all children who needed the extra support that the Programme provides for students at risk of educational disadvantage as a result of the COViD-19 pandemic.

- Funding investment of €65 million in 2022 to facilitate the delivery 497 projects under the Summer Works Scheme.

- A new postgraduate programme to upskill registered post-primary teachers teaching Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) and Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE).

- The establishment of Regional Education and Language Teams (REALT) to support children from Ukraine.

- Establishment of a scheme to provide Irish Sign Language Support for children whose primary language is Irish Sign Language (ISL) and who are attending recognised schools.

- Investment of nearly €13 million to support the expansion and development of the NCSE to ensure that it is fit for purpose and able to deliver real and meaningful supports for children, families and schools that support children with special educational needs. This investment will see an increase of over 50 per cent in staffing levels in the NCSE.

- Launch of guidelines on the use of reduced school days, coming into effect from 1st January 2022.

- Ireland’s first-ever Computer Science Week, which took place from 8-15 October, 2022. The week’s events showcase the exciting benefits and cutting edge opportunities of Computer Science for students while shining a light on the impressive developments in classrooms around Ireland.

- The establishment of National Policy Group for Lifelong Guidance to steer the development of a coherent, long-term strategic framework for lifelong guidance.

- The creation of 21 new 2022 Creative Clusters comprising 78 schools. Creative Clusters supports schools to build capacity in creativity, schools in each cluster will enjoy access to a specialist facilitator, artist or creative expertise in whatever their chosen area of interest or theme might be. These resources will help the schools to build a project of learning and activities tailor-made for their students.

- Publication of “Autism Good Practice Guidance for Schools – Supporting Children and Young People” This guidance document is a resource to support the needs of students with autism. It aims to assist teachers, SNAs and others working with children and young people with autism in an education setting to understand their needs so there can be effective engagement.

- The provision of a minimum of one day administrative leave per week for teaching principals.

- The launch of a two-year action research project (2021-2023), aimed at supporting small rural schools, to encourage small schools to cluster together in local groups and enabling them to collaborate and identify common challenges and trial innovative solutions.

- Extension for a second year of a new language sampler module, “Say Yes to Languages” for third to sixth class pupils in primary and special schools saw some 40,000 pupils participating in the scheme in 2021/22 and 12 different languages have been selected including: French, German, Irish Sign Language, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Lithuanian, Romanian, Polish, Portuguese, Arabic and Tamil.

- Launch of a new arts in education initiative – BLAST (Bringing Live Arts to Schools and Teachers) in 2021. The 2022 Arts-in-Education BLAST Residency Programme, will enable up to 425 new Arts-in-Education residencies in schools each year.

- The continuation of the Schools Energy Retrofit Pathfinder Programme which has retrofitted 42 schools across Ireland to date with work underway on an additional 15 schools added in 2021 underway.

- The allocation of €860m for 2023 to school building projects, which will see a continued strong rollout with 300 school building projects currently at construction, most of which are scheduled for completion in 2023. These projects will deliver 50 new school buildings and extensions at around 250 schools.

- The accreditation of a pilot online training programme for special needs assistants (SNAs). This pilot training programme was commissioned for a four-year period and will inform policy considerations on future training options for SNAs.

- Publication of a report on the Review of Out-of-School Education Provision. The out-of-school education sector relates to a small number of schools and education centres which operate outside of mainstream education provision. This review focused on the education provision in the State for learners under 16 years of age who have encountered difficulties staying in mainstream education. The review also makes recommendations to inform future policy to provide a sustainable option within the education system to further serve this group of learners.

- Publication of the 2nd National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development – ESD to 2030. ESD aims to ensure that all learners have the knowledge and skills required to promote sustainable development. ESD to 2030 provides a framework to support the contribution that the education sector is making and will continue to make towards a more sustainable future at a number of levels: individual, community, local, national and international.ESD is a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target in itself (4.7) and internationally acknowledged as a key enabler for the achievement of all 17 SDGs.

- Publication of recommendations on Gender Balance in STEM Education. The recommendations were developed in order to guide national actions that will ensure STEM education in Ireland is world class in improving gender balance, equity and inclusion effectively for our young people. They will feed into the new STEM Education Implementation Plan to 2026.

- Publication of Children’s School Lives: Preschool to Primary School Transition, the fourth report from the Children’s School Lives longitudinal study. This study, which follows approximately 4,000 children across 189 schools through their primary school years, will provide rich and insightful pictures of children’s experiences in primary schools in Ireland. The study will also show how these experiences both shape and are shaped by schools as communities, institutions, and as a system.