Richard Bruton
Question:26 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the action, if any, he will take to improve the poor impact of remedial services in disadvantaged schools. [12817/99]
Priority Questions. - Remedial Education.
A number of steps are being taken to address the weaknesses identified in the delivery of remedial education at primary level revealed in the recent report, Study of Remedial Education in Irish Primary Schools. The summary report on the study has been issued to all schools. Principals, including those of schools in designated areas of educational disadvantage, have been requested to convene a meeting with their remedial teachers, staffs and board of management to discuss the content of the report and the steps they should take at school level to implement the recommendations. This whole school approach to planning will have particular significance in schools in designated areas of educational disadvantage. In recognition of this I have decided to allocate significant funding to assist school development planning in these schools. I will announce an initiative on school development planning shortly. An important focus of this planning will be to address the needs of pupils with serious literacy and other learning difficulties initially in schools in disadvantaged areas and in all schools eventually.
I have acted on the recommendation in the report to have the guidelines on remedial education revised. A small representative committee has been established to do this work. I have asked the committee to have the revised guidelines prepared by the end of June 1999. The revised guidelines should ensure there is clarity about the aims of remedial education and the population of pupils for whom it is intended. Particular attention will be focused in the revised guidelines on the needs of schools in designated areas of educational disadvantage. This will help to ensure the remedial education services will be directed at those pupils who need them most.
Innovations in best practice will also be incoporated in this revision of the remedial education guidelines. They will include advice on the approaches used in the Success for All programme referred to in the report which is a school wide restructuring programme designed specifically for schools with large numbers of disadvantaged pupils.
The general improvements recently announced in the staffing of primary schools, coupled with the £6.5 million allocated to schools for the purchase of library books, will be of major benefit in raising reading standards. Under this scheme larger grants have been allocated to the schools in disadvantaged areas. A booklet entitled Book Choice was issued to every school recently with guidelines on selecting books for school and class libraries. I will soon announce a range of national reading initiatives which will take place later this year. The aim of the initiatives will be to increase reading standards and reduce the number of students who leave school with a poor level of literacy.
The revised curriculum in English has a major emphasis on the development of literacy skills and focuses particularly on the prevention of reading difficulties, especially in areas of disadvantage. The implementation of the revised curriculum will be supported by a comprehensive programme of in-service education for teachers and is expected to have a major impact on raising literacy standards.
Given the scale of the problem the Minister's response is inadequate. Is he aware that the report shows that a massive 85 per cent of those identified by the principal in disadvantaged schools as in need of remedial support in mathematics are not receiving it? Is he further aware that there is no evidence that children participating in remedial education programmes in disadvantaged schools are advancing from their relative position? Will he agree, therefore, that there is a need to resource the remedial intervention in such schools and that the programme in terms of its organisation and delivery has grown without serious direction?
I agree with the Deputy's analysis of the report, which speaks for itself. Its recommendations highlight the deficiencies in terms of concentration on and allocation of resources to the remedial education service. In September, for the first time, every school will have a remedial resource. There is a need to ensure existing resources are used in a focused way and concentrated on those who most need remedial education. In this context the initiative on school development planning is of critical importance. It will ensure proper, effective and focused utilisation of existing resources.
Does the Minister agree that not even one of the extra remedial teachers to be allocated in September will be appointed to disadvantaged schools? Does he agree that the Department does not provide ongoing in-service training for remedial teachers? The report is highly critical of its technical back-up for the programme. Does the Minister agree that none of the Department's announcements involves resourcing this technical back-up in which there is a need to invest?
In-service training is provided for remedial teachers. There is a need to do more.
The Minister should read the report.
The revised primary school curriculum to be launched in the autumn will mark a significant change in approach to reading and English. This will be accompanied by significant in-career provision which will concentrate on reading and literacy standards.
The remedial education programme—
I did not interrupt the Deputy.
The Minister should stop waffling.
The revised primary school curriculum, in particular the English programme, will mark a significant change of approach in terms of how English is taught.
Does the Minister not realise that this is the largest programme administered by the Department to tackle disadvantage and it is shown to be failing? Surely that demands a greater response than talking about guidelines being reviewed. It requires the allocation of considerable resources to disadvantaged schools and not only the revision of guidelines and talking about plans for the future.