asked the Minister for Education the action, if any, she proposes to take following the findings by the ESRI report on streaming in Irish schools published on 2 December 1987 that the practice was harmful educationally, particularly to slower and more disadvantaged pupils.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - ESRI Report on Streaming.
4.
To stream or not to stream is not a simple issue: there are variations on the practice that make it more or less defensible educationally depending on one's ideological standpoint. The crudest form of streaming segregates those deemed to be the most able from the rest for all subjects from the start of post-primary schooling. The obvious objection to this form of streaming is that it labels pupils as underachievers, with consequent effects on their self-esteem, if they are classified as belonging to the second stream or in a larger school to the third or fourth streams. However, streaming can be modified depending on the size of the school, the participation rates for different subjects, the availability of appropriately qualified teachers and other factors. Streaming in sophisticated form, "setting", allows pupils to study their chosen subjects at the level and pace best suited to their abilities and interests.
In view of the fact that the organisation of classes is not possible on the basis of a prescriptive formula because of the imponderables already mentioned, it is a matter for the schools to decide the best possible arrangements for their own pupils. A "mixed ability" arrangement is often more an aspiration than a reality and, in any case, ability is not the only criterion that impinges on pupil success or failure. Indeed the motivation and application of less than brilliant pupils often enable them to outshine the intellectually more favoured.
In all the circumstances and to answer the question posed by Deputy Barnes, I would consider that my Department's role in relation to class organisation in such a contentious area should be advisory rather than prescriptive.
With the greatest respect, I did not want a long lecture. It was quite a simple question. Can I ask the Minister is she not aware of the fact that the ESRI report by the very respected Professor Damien Hannon found that there was a 25 per cent error in Irish schools which stream students? Is she aware that this error then arranges students in classes where they are precluded from going to third level and where they cannot even take a modern continental language? These students have the ability to do that. Therefore, I am asking the Minister, in view of the serious findings of that ESRI report if she would undertake that her Department would look carefully at that research and report to this House, before the summer, on her findings about this report which affects every child in second level schools and every prospective child going into the second level system.
When or when not I shall report or to whom will be my own business. I will take the question which the Deputy has put to me and it is not a simple question. Let it be clear that I speak from my own many years of teaching at second level.
The Minister is not thinking that way.
Order, please.
First, I have read the ESRI report from cover to cover. I have taken very careful note of it. It is on record that I have for a number of years been very interested in this topic. I think it is not a simple question.
Indeed it is not.
The Deputy would know from her three years in the Department of Education that it is not a simple question. It is certainly one that requires very careful study. Deputy Farrelly should get the book and read it, it is very riveting night time reading.
(Interruptions.)
The ESRI report is very worthy of consideration and my Department will undertake a very thorough evaluation of it. It still boils down to the question: do you tell each school or do you globally tell the schools of Ireland what they should do, bearing in mind that the school manager or the school principal of the particular post-primary school will know in his, or her, mind the best situation to fit his, or her, pupils as the occasion demands. That is the question whether you lay down the law or whether you act in a prescriptive capacity. To answer the last question which the Deputy raised, it is a complex and not a simple question. The ESRI have done a great service by publishing it. It is one that everyone interested in education should read thoroughly and it is one that I intend to have studied within my Department very thoroughly.
Can I ask the Minister to answer the final part of my question which was: will she come back to this House with a report on her findings about Irish second level schools, because Professor Hannon made very serious allegations.
It would need to be done soon or half the schools will be closed.
I am not aware that every ESRI report needs to be publicly reported back to the Dáil.
Not everyone.
Deputy Hussey has Dáil questions, Private Members' Business, adjournment debates and many other vehicles to tease out the findings of the ESRI report. I would welcome, perhaps on the adjournment some night, or on Private Members' Business, a further discussion with her. It is a question in which I am vitally interested and one on which I would like to have further discussion.
It is just as well the Minister said that.