Last Monday night 24 May, a group of parents gathered in St. Nicholas of Myra national school in Kinsealy to discuss the plight of their children. Some of their children were assessed as having general learning difficulties, others are awaiting assessment and seven have already been assessed as dyslexic and require a special reading class. Only two of these seven children have been offered places – one in a school in Malahide and the other in Donaghmede. The principal of St. Nicholas of Myra national school contacted both schools but they told her all places in their reading classes are taken.
St. Nicholas of Myra national school has a shared remedial teacher who is assigned to it for two days one week and three days the next. As the Minister knows well, the children with special learning difficulties need a great deal more than an odd hour with a remedial teacher. The school needs a special reading class. What is more important is that it has a suitable room available. I recently put down a question about the possibility of a unit, similar to that in St. Oliver Plunkett's school in Malahide, for a school in Swords. However, I have heard rumours that this will fall through because accommodation is not available.
I ask the Minister to look at the position of St. Nicholas of Myra national school which has accommodation. Seven children have already been assessed as dyslexic and needing this special help. Twenty seven others are waiting to be assessed as they are failing at their school work. I am not saying all 27 will be assessed as dyslexic. However, there is a strong possibility that one or two will be. The Minister is aware that dyslexia tends to run in families. Very often someone of the current generation does not know he or she may be prone to it because perhaps his or her father, grandfather or grandmother kept it quiet. It was something people did not talk about because they thought being dyslexic meant you were stupid, but we know that is not the case. It is a particular condition which requires special help.
I ask the Minister to give serious consideration to these children. To give a flavour of the letters I received from their parents, one wrote: "It would be great if we could have our own unit in Kinsealy, with seven children already needing it and maybe more to come". Another parent wrote about sending a nine year old child, at a cost of £130 for 13 classes, to three sets of classes at a total cost of £390. Education is supposed to be free for national school children. Another mother wrote:
I have contacted the Association for Children with Learning Difficulties and have been informed that any workshop or reading class which they may be able to provide are expensive and I am not in a position to pay for these classes. I am the bread winner in my house as my husband is unable to work and is in receipt of an Invalidity Pension.
We are putting in front of the most needy children the greatest obstacles in the education system. The children who do not have a problem with learning go to school locally. They have access to all the teaching facilities and an excellent service. Unfortunately, we continue to make life hardest for people with special learning difficulties or general learning difficulties.
I ask the Minister to look sympathetically at this case, particularly as it is proposed to provide a new unit in Swords. If that unit does not go ahead, he has a ready made opportunity to provide such a unit in Kinsealy national school.
Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin): I thank the Deputy for raising this issue this evening. My Department has recently received an application for a resource teacher to cater for a number of special needs pupils and for the establishment of a reading class in the St. Nicholas of Myra national school. The Deputy will be aware that I recently announced a major new initiative in the special education area under which all children in the primary system assessed as having special education needs arising from a disability will be entitled to an automatic response to those needs. The level and nature of the response in each case will depend on the assessed needs of the child or group of children involved. The response may take the form of a full-time or part-time resource teacher or child care support depending on the number of children involved and the nature of their needs. My Department's inspectorate has been requested to investigate the level of need in the school in question. A decision on this request will be made as soon as the inspector's report has been received in my Department.
Fully qualified primary school teachers are trained to deal with a variety of reading problems, including those which are accompanied by perceptual difficulties. The level and quality of this training is one of the important issues to be addressed by the Review Group on Primary Teacher Training. In addition, the special training programme for remedial teachers includes a module on specific learning disability. At present, there are 1,302 remedial teacher posts in the primary system. I recently announced my intention to extend the remedial teacher service to all first and second level schools with effect from September 1999.
Second level pupils with specific learning disability are normally integrated into ordinary classes where they may receive additional support through the remedial teacher, guidance counsellor and subject teachers. Where more serious cases of difficulty arise, provision is made in one of four special schools and seven special classes dedicated to such children. These special facilities operate at a reduced pupil teacher ratio of 11:1.
The recent package for special needs children, to which I have already referred, is available to children with specific learning disability, including dyslexia. In addition, I have asked my officials to review current supports, including in-service teacher training, for children with dyslexia. This review will be open to consider the full range of possible supports for the pupils involved.
We will look at the issue of a special class, although normally special classes deal with children with severe language and communicative difficulties. They normally involve the recruitment of a language therapist, which over the months has proved difficult in certain health board areas where there is a shortage of language therapists.
If there are many children with special needs in the school, the provision of a resource teacher should be automatic. It is a matter of getting the inspection done properly and processed, but I will look into the matter pertaining to the special class request.
The Dáil adjourned at 4.35 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 1 June 1999.