I demand that the children from Swords and North County Dublin attending Fingal Community College be allowed their right to an education in decent facilities. I want the staff of this college to be given the opportunity to teach to the maximum of their ability and the parents to know that their children are availing of their constitutional right to a proper education. I further demand that the Minister sanctions and approves the new building for Fingal Community College and that it is allowed go to tender immediately so that work can commence without delay.
The college opened in September 1985 with 85 pupils from Swords and the surrounding areas. Since 1990 a total of 550 students have completed their education in the present building. With the present school population of 465, this gives a total of 1,100 students who have endured totally inadequate resources. The pupil-teacher ratio is 28.5:1 while the playground area is only one-tenth of an acre.
I wish to highlight the disadvantages of the present building. There are 15 prefabs on the site, only two of the rooms in the main structure are capable of holding a class of 30 students, there are no sports facilities, no sports programme and no school grounds. In addition the heating is totally inadequate, there is no insulation in the main building, no storage space and the corridors are only five feet wide. This causes great pressure and stress for all concerned. There is only one toilet for ten male staff, three cubicles for 200 girls and two cubicles for 265 boys. Fifteen classrooms are housed in prefabricated buildings which have poor ventilation and inadequate heating. There is a high noise level because of the absence of soundproofed walls and this is seriously affecting the education of the students. Access to nine of the prefabs is by means of steps which are potentially dangerous and specialist rooms have to be used for teaching general subjects. This effectively results in other classes being denied access to computers and video recorders.
There is often a shortage of seating and desks in the rooms, remedial classes are sometimes taught in a woodwork room which is not suitable and electrical equipment and overhead projectors are stored alongside dangerous chemicals in the science room. The severe overcrowding on the corridors where pupils must eat their lunches on wet and cold days constitutes a serious safety hazard. The assembly hall is divided by partitions into three classrooms which cannot be considered suitable for teaching while the makeshift library is situated in a converted passageway in the assembly hall. I have already outlined the appalling toilet facilities which could be closed down if the school really pushed for it from a health point of view.
The staff room is inadequate for the needs of the teachers, there is a lack of storage space and as there is space for only eight tables teachers cannot correct homework. There are no facilities for meeting parents on an individual basis and meetings with them take place in the public eye in the corridor. This is an outrageous situation. There is no career guidance room or area, no metalwork room — this subject is not taught — no PE hall, no physical education programme and no music room.
I am not laying responsibility specifically on the shoulders of the Minister but this is a catalogue of shame for any Government. County Dublin vocational education committee has brought this project to the stage where it can go to tender. Now that the difficulties in regard to the site have been clarified, I want the tender to be approved and work to start so that the present and future pupils of Swords and North County Dublin are given their constitutional right to a decent education which we, as a civilised society, should provide.
