Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 26 Mar 2003

Vol. 563 No. 5

Written Answers - Youth Policies.

Dan Boyle

Question:

185 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Education and Science his views on the recently released guidelines from the End Child Poverty Coalition, Hearing Young Voices: Guidelines for Consulting Children and Young People, in relation to developing public policy and services in Ireland; and the consideration he has given towards adopting such guidelines. [8492/03]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. N. Dempsey)

A copy of the guidelines for consulting children and young people was received by my Department earlier this month and are currently under consideration by my officials. I welcome the central tenet of these guidelines, which is to ensure that the voices of children and young people are heard in matters that affect them.

Under section 27 of the Education Act 1998, students in a post-primary school may establish a student council, whose role is to promote the involvement of students in the affairs of the school in co-operation with the board of management, parents and teachers. This development originated in my Department's recognition that students have a voice and a contribution to make to their school and these councils can play an integral and important role in the school community by providing a representative structure through which students can debate issues of concern and undertake initiatives of benefit to the school and the wider community. Guidelines designed to aid schools and students in the establishment of student councils have been circulated by my Department to every second level school.

A quality framework initiative for the Youthreach programme is currently being developed, the aim of which is to develop an appropriate quality assurance process for Youthreach, including the development of quality standard, good practice guidelines as well as internal and external evaluation mechanisms.

Widespread consultation with all stakeholder groups was a fundamental component of this process. Consultation with trainees, aged 15 years and over, in Youthreach and senior Traveller training centres was accompanied by nine regional consultation seminars and the feedback collated from trainees will play an important part in the development of the quality framework initiative.

Student participation has also been incorporated into the home school community liaison scheme which has been extended to all designated disadvantaged schools. The central focus of the scheme is the development of parents as the primary educators of their children, and it promotes active co-operation between home, school and relevant community agencies. Primary and post-primary students have been included in a number of the local committees established as part of the HSCL scheme. These committees, which also include representatives from voluntary and statutory agencies in the area, the principals of the local primary and post-primary schools, the local home school liaison co-ordinator, and marginalised parents, consider issues in the community that affect learning such as bullying, substance abuse, school attendance, homework clubs, and then identify the priority issues for their area.

The National Youth Council of Ireland, NYCI, is the prescribed national representative voluntary youth work organisation in accordance with the provisions of section 24 of the Youth Work Act 2001. As such, it represents the views of approximately 35 major national and regional youth work organisations such as Foróige, National Youth Federation, scouts and guides. The NYCI is also represented on the National Youth Work Advisory Committee, NYWAC, established under sections 17 and 18 of the Youth Work Act 2001. This committee has a role to advise and consult the Minister in relation to youth work. These provisions enable the NYCI to represent the views of young people in the area of non-formal education to the Minister.

My Department contributed towards a research project undertaken as part of the National Forum on Primary Education: Ending Educational Disadvantage, which was convened by the Centre for Educational Disadvantage in St Patrick's College of Education in July 2002. The findings of this project have been published and involved 203 children in 16 sites across the country. This project was designed to elicit, in a creative and participatory way, the children's opinions and understandings about achieving equality in children's education.