Vol. 649 No. 4
I move:
That Dáil Éireann notes with grave concern the serious financial crisis facing many primary schools and calls for the doubling of the capitation grant with effect from the school year 2008-09.
I wish to share time with Deputies Upton, Tuffy and Ó Caoláin.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
This motion is about the value of education. At its most fundamental level, education is about unlocking the potential in every child, but it is also about harnessing the creative potential of society as a whole. Universal education underpins our democracy and is the process through which we learn about the world and how we can contribute to it. Universal education delivers what the market never could, but what the market so relies on, namely, an educated workforce.
We pay for education out of the common purse because we believe no child should be denied the opportunity — the awakening — provided by education for want of the money to pay for it. We pay for it together because we believe that what is good for one child should not be denied to another child, and what is good for all our children is good for our society. However, the amount we are willing to take out of the common purse for education tells us a lot about its place in our national priorities. It is hard to put a value on education but we do put a price on it.
Ireland lags behind most other OECD countries in its education expenditure in almost every sector. According to the most recent figures, Ireland spends less than 4.7% of its GDP on education compared with an OECD average of 6.2%. Even adjusted for gross national income, we still only stumble into the average bracket for the funding of education. This is only telling us what almost every parent in the country knows already, namely, that our schools, particularly our primary schools, cannot make ends meet without generous voluntary contributions, fundraising and overdraft facilities. A recent survey by the Irish Primary Principals Network and the National Parents Council found that over 40% of parents were paying over €100 in voluntary contributions for the day-to-day running of their local school. The IPPN also found that almost one third of parents' associations have to raise over €10,000 a year just to keep the doors open.
The Government will spend €9 billion on education this year. This is invariably the Minister's opening gambit whenever the topic of underfunding comes up. She never loses an opportunity to reel off the money being spent by her Department, presumably in the hope that it will satisfy us. However, the figure of €9 billion means little to the principals and parents who find that their public funding only covers half of the real cost of running a primary school. Another survey by the IPPN found that the average 100-pupil school received €17,300 for this academic year. Out of this, it is expected to pay for heating, electricity, water and other utility bills, cleaning, repairs, insurance, office supplies and classroom materials. However, these basic running costs amount to an average of €34,310, leaving such a school with a deficit of €17,000.
It would seem that the Department of Education and Science funds schools on the understanding that they will have to contend with chronic debt from day one. A brand new school is granted the princely sum of €6,348 to last it from before it opens its doors in September until the capitation grant arrives in January. This sum is expected to pay for the cost of recruiting staff, equipment for classrooms and essentials, such as computers and photocopiers, cleaning and utility bills, and insurance for at least four months. Unfortunately, it costs about €50,000 to set up a new seven-classroom school. As a result, new schools are forced to open on the verge of bankruptcy — bankruptcy that is built into the way we fund schools.
It is not only the meagreness of funding for the day-to-day running of schools but also the way funding is designed that causes headaches for school principals and parents. Once a school is up and running, it can only dread the annual increase in the number of its pupils. The capitation grant is allocated based on pupil enrolment in the previous year. This means that rapidly expanding schools in our newer suburbs have to subsidise their new classes from funds based on outdated figures. Surely it is not rocket science to anticipate that if there is a need for a new school in the first place, there will be a high demand for places. Most schools will have a reasonably accurate idea before September of how many pupils they will have for that academic year. After all, they have to find teachers for them, who, in turn, are paid for by the Department of Education and Science. Therefore, why is it so difficult for the capitation grant to be delivered to schools before pupils begin the school year? It seems that this system is geared towards the needs of an unwieldy and rigid bureaucracy rather than children who need classroom materials and clean, safe and warm schools from September, not from the following January when the money finally arrives.
Doubling the core capitation grant for the day-to-day running of schools is fundamentally about taking the crisis out of managing a primary school and at a cost of €82 million, or less than 1% of the total education budget. Inflation, rising energy costs, rising insurance premiums and now water charges mean that incremental increases in the capitation grant are wiped out almost as soon as they are introduced.
However, the problem goes far deeper than this. Take the budget of some sample schools, as provided by Educate Together. One inner city school with 217 children has projected running costs of €121,000 for this academic year. However, €38,150 of that will have to come from fundraising — a staggering €175 per child. Another school in a new suburb has 373 children and will cost €170,000 to run this year. Unfortunately, €63,000 of this, or €169 per pupil, will have to be sourced through fundraising and voluntary donations. These are not isolated cases. A recent survey by the IPPN found that 97% of school principals found the capitation grant insufficient to meet the day-to-day running costs of their schools and that 80% of schools relied on fundraising for basic necessities.
Somewhere in the Department of Education and Science is an awareness of what it really costs to run schools. After all, second level schools rarely need to fundraise for necessities. This is because, when a child enters secondary school, he or she is automatically worth almost twice the amount of capitation funding. The core capitation grant goes towards the day-to-day running of a school yet surely it costs the same to heat, light and run a building regardless of the age of the children in it.
All of this is hardly news to the Minister. Before the general election she promised to double the primary capitation grant, a move which would in one swoop solve the problems of the schools I have mentioned and many more besides.
A false promise.
She was joined by the Green Party, which warned voters of Fianna Fáil's "broken promises" on education and promised in its turn to deliver an extra €1 billion in funding. Why would the Minister and her coalition partners have made such promises if they did not believe the schools needed the money? Now, from the safety once more of Government, these promises have become a commitment to more of the same: more modest increases in capitation, which get eaten up by rising annual costs; more of a "free" education system that is only partially funded by the State; and more inequality between schools which are able to canvass parents for money and those which are not able to do so.
The primary management bodies have expressed this in-built inequality in stark terms. In a recent letter, they stated:
The lack of realistic capitation and ancillary grants means that almost all schools will be sustained only by their community fund-raising efforts. This is socially divisive. Newer schools or schools in less advantaged areas are unable to match the fundraising capability of those in well-off areas. It is unfair and unwise that children are disadvantaged in this manner.
What this means, in bald terms, is that a school in a well-off area which can afford to raise €90,000 in one year can be a "digital school" with the best of everything while a school in a disadvantaged area, even getting extra funding to pay for extra reading tuition and to subsidise school tours, simply does not have this option.
Our Constitution guarantees the right to an education. Nowhere does it say the quality of that right depends on how well off are one's parents. Under-funding of schools for basic equipment has become such a fact of life that retail business has moved into the vacuum. The private sector has spotted a lucrative niche in the form of voucher schemes for computers and PE gear, so we have computers provided by Tesco and footballs provided by SuperValu.
It is extremely disturbing that children are being used as marketing agents by supermarkets, which exploit the lack of equipment in schools to get parents to spend a considerable amount of money in their outlets. For example, a basic desktop PC worth €525 is the equivalent of €232,400 worth of Tesco receipts. A football which costs €11.70 to buy off the shelf is offered by SuperValu in exchange for €3,190 worth of vouchers. This is what our children are worth to big business, but is it what they are worth to us?
Voucher schemes that depend on high levels of private consumption privilege a certain type of customer and, in turn, a certain type of school. As well as being inequitable, the chronic under-funding of schools' basic needs is extremely inefficient. Instead of being the teacher, human resources manager, innovator and leader that our schools need and deserve, principals are semi-permanent fundraisers. What other public service requires its managers to pack bags in the local supermarket or to organise cake sales to keep on the lights?
Our principals and teachers are paid for their skills and talents in leadership and education, yet much of their energy is used to compensate for a lack of funding for the day-to-day basics they need to do their job. More fundamentally, what does this reliance on fundraising tell us about the perceived value of education as a public service? It is hard to believe that education is a real priority for this Government when it will not even give enough money to schools to keep open the doors and keep on the lights. It really is as simple as that.
The Minister will tell us how much money the Government has spent on education in the past ten years, but will she tell us why schools cannot make ends meet? There will be excuses, many of which we have already heard. One is that the Minister has prioritised children with special educational needs and disadvantaged children. Those children also need schools which are well-equipped, warm and safe. They also need principals who are not run ragged from raising money that too often is also needed to purchase psychological assessments in the private sector.
The most vulnerable children in schools have the right to be cared for and respected in the education system. It is not a privilege that can be doled out at the discretion of the Minister, and then used to justify the under-funding of basic necessities. Another excuse is that more children are coming into the education system, thus placing demands on resources. Yet, if we are to produce the scientists, engineers and researchers we need in the knowledge economy, from where exactly are they to come? We need graduates, but they do not just materialise when they are 18 or 21.
Primary education is the cornerstone of a knowledge economy. It is the first crucial rung on the ladder that allows us to reach further and higher. As such, we should look extremely closely at how well the primary system allows children to climb that ladder. Just as pre-school allows children to maximise the benefits of primary education, attainment in literacy and numeracy by 6th class is the most reliable predictor of junior certificate results. Achievement in the junior certificate is, in turn, a reliable indicator of whether a young person will complete the leaving certificate. It should come as little surprise, therefore, that the stagnation in literacy and numeracy levels in primary schools is reflected in a school drop out rate that has hardly changed since the early 1980s.
Ireland needs to become a knowledge economy, but that knowledge is built up brick by brick. Research and development investment, while extremely important, means nothing without students to exploit it. We cannot afford to leave children behind in our crumbling, over-stretched schools for want of the vision to see them in university.
The Labour Party tabled this motion because we do have that vision. There is nothing more important to Ireland at this moment than the skills and ingenuity of its citizens. The future of employment in Ireland depends on how we educate our children today. We will not be able, nor do we want, to compete on the basis of a low-wage economy. But we must be up with the best in the world when it comes to competing on the skills and training of our workforce, and its ability to link research to enterprise.
Last year fewer than 7,000 leaving certificate students gained an honour in maths. That is too small a pool from which to draw all the professionals in science, IT, energy, technology and medicine who will be in demand in the knowledge economy. We cannot leave it too late to think about our future or about our children's future. Education is good in itself, but it will also be our most important asset on the global stage. Let us not be short-termist about this. Investing in education is the most reliable investment a government can make. That investment is repaid many times over in the quality of our communities, in the quality of our democracy and in jobs.
This is why it is difficult to understand the reluctance on the part of the Government to make the leap in investment necessary to unshackle our schools from worries about money and to allow them to be ambitious for the future. The Minister will, no doubt, refer in this debate to straightened circumstances in the Department of Finance. This is why she reneged on a much-publicised promise before the election to reduce class sizes. Instead, the extra teachers will be deployed to teach the thousands of new children flowing into the system.
I have news for the Minister. The children will keep coming; approximately 100,000 of them over the next decade. Paying for their education should not be a zero-sum game. The goal of Government should be to improve progressively education for all children, not to only make such investment as barely to keep pace with change. This is the mindset that has landed us with schools which are over-crowded as soon as they are built and schools whose play areas are quickly filled up with prefabs because no one in the Department thought to join the dots of housing development and the arrival of new families.
Let us not be under any illusion that it is economic to educate our children in temporary structures. According to the Minister, last year the Department of Education and Science spent around 5% of total investment in school buildings on the rental of prefabs. Taking first and second level together, I estimate this to be approximately €32 million. This is an annual cost, and would go a considerable way towards meeting the modest cost of increasing the capitation grant.
I could go on. For example, the National Educational Welfare Board receives only enough funding to tackle the most vulnerable cases, and not to fulfil its original mandate to prevent absenteeism and early school leaving. The National Educational Psychological Service is so overstretched that some schools have to appeal to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to pay for private assessments for children who need them. This Government is reaping what it has sown in the economy, and there is less money than there was in the recent past.
It may even be necessary to make trade-offs if we are to make the kind of investment that will bring education to the level enjoyed by other EU member states. The bottom line is that those countries famous for their progressive approach to education, and especially early childhood and primary education, did not produce such fine systems by chance. They did not build schools from extra money they happened to have lying around. They made a choice. They decided what mattered to them. It is not sufficient that we depend on the goodwill of our school leaders, teachers and parents to compensate with tireless energy and commitment for what we deny them in funds and working conditions.
Fine words about our education system are well and good, but true priorities are revealed through action and the willingness to pay for it. When the tough decisions need to be made, will anyone on the Government side of the House have the vision to radically change the way we invest in all schools, for all children? Our schools need to be able to open our children's eyes to what they can achieve, and what they can become. We need them to see that we value them and are ambitious for them, and for that we need schools that reflect how important they are to the future of this country.
I welcome this opportunity to speak on my party's motion on doubling the capitation grant for primary schools from September of this year. This motion was laid before the House by the Labour Party on behalf of overburdened parents, teachers and, most importantly, schoolchildren nationwide, all of whom are acutely aware of the serious funding shortfall which burdens our education system, particularly our primary schools. This motion is just three lines long; there is no need for any elaboration on the central point, whose merits are clearly self evident to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the funding shortfalls which bedevil primary schools throughout the country.
The Government makes much of the fact that the capitation fee has increased since 2001. So, too, have energy and service charges, wages, inflation, insurance, maintenance costs and so on. These additional costs have more than eaten into any increase in the capitation grant before one considers outlays needed for computers or interactive whiteboards. Today almost three quarters of parents are asked for a voluntary contribution for their children's school according to a survey carried out by the Irish Primary Principals Network and the National Parents Council. Primary school education is free in theory only, with the vast majority of parents having to fund their child's school through one means or another. The need for the parental contributions is clear; the capitation grant per child does not cover schools running costs.
The IPPN submission to the Joint Committee on Education and Science on water charges included a profile table of basic running costs of a primary school of 100 children which showed a funding deficit of €17,010 for the year. In a response to my party colleague, Deputy Quinn, the Minister for Education and Science attempted to discredit the survey by claiming that as it was based on only five schools, its results were not representative. I was in contact with two primary schools in my constituency today and can think of at least another ten that will more than back up the findings of this survey.
I will give some examples of the running costs that are not factored in anywhere. Today I heard about the rodent infestation that cost €1,200 to resolve. Blocking up the holes in the walls to prevent a recurrence of this infestation had to be paid for. The miserable PE grant was spent almost entirely on one goalpost. Some 3,000 supermarket tokens later the school was able to get a football. This is before the children bought their own kit to play into the single goalpost. The Minister will agree this is a bit uneven when PE and exercise are being promoted as a means of combating the obesity problem. In addition to this list of expenditure, the leaking roof, rising damp, burst pipe and substandard building had to be taken care of. Primary schools face a very real deficit and the estimate by the IPPN that the capitation grant meets only half of the funding requirements should be respected.
The question, therefore, is not whether primary schools face a funding deficit, but how they meet this funding shortfall. How much time do principals have to spend organising fundraising drives to keep schools running? How much money are parents expected to give? What happens if parents are not able to meet this funding shortfall? Which programmes are cut? In this way the very real issue of a two-tier system begins to permeate our primary schools. Schools which are able to secure significant sums from external sources are able to use interactive whiteboards, have computers in every classroom, they have the best and most up-to-date technology and lots of extra-curricular activities. Schools which are unable to secure high levels of external funding are left behind and so are the children.
Across a gamut of studies on education, anti-social behaviour, and emotional and health problems, one message rings true again and again, namely, early intervention is the key to success. For primary schools this means the ability to have the most progressive and sophisticated teaching materials in the classroom, the ability to spot any learning problems quickly and to implement responses immediately and the provision of a wide range of physical education activities to make sure every child is engaged and gets exercise to keep him or her fit and healthy. It is, however, impossible for a primary school to be at the forefront of educational development when the funding is not there.
Supermarkets operate voucher systems for computers or sports equipment, and parents feel obliged to visit these shops. The system should not operate this way where private businesses offer school supplies in return for parents using their services. Primary school education should be a level playing field where every child, regardless of circumstance, has the same educational, mental and physical opportunities. Investing in our children is long-term planning, which will in time help tackle anti-social behaviour, promote Ireland as a knowledge economy, tackle obesity and improve our nation's health. Therefore, I commend this motion to the House and urge every Government Deputy to back the Labour Party's call for a doubling of the capitation grant for primary schools.
As the Minister knows, I represent the Dublin Mid-West constituency. It is one of the rapidly-growing areas of the country and this will continue as another 25,000 houses are to be built there in the next decade. A large number of new schools have opened in the constituency over the last few years. Last September three new schools opened thanks to the Adamstown SDZ planning scheme which required them to be built. However, the schools were not opened because of the demand in Adamstown — only a couple of hundred houses were occupied when they opened — but for existing needs. In September another school is to open in the constituency in Clonburris. This is to be one of the new "flat pack" schools where a building will be installed, fully built, before September. I will be very interested to see that.
I want to raise the issue of the underfunding of new schools. Today somebody told me that 34 new schools are to open next year. I do not know if that is correct. These will be much bigger than schools used to be. They are often emergency schools. There are new, unsettled communities. Many children and parents who apply to these schools do not speak English. The schools face queues of people trying to enrol their children. Although these schools are not in designated areas of disadvantage, they have high levels of disadvantage and face many challenges. The schools are being built much faster than before, which is welcome. However, one school in my constituency has been in a prefab for approximately 14 years and is still waiting for a school building that was promised in the last two elections.
When the Adamstown schools were about to open in September, as was reported on RTE, they had already run out of funds. New schools receive a start-up grant of €6,348.67. There is no more funding until they receive their capitation grants in January. This money is to cover expenses such as photocopiers, computers and advertising for staff. It is supposed to cover the equipping of classrooms or secretarial or cleaning services. Some people would spend €6,000 on doing up a modest kitchen, yet the same amount is given for setting up a new school.
Schools receive the same start-up grant whether they have one or 12 classrooms. I was informed today that the real start-up cost of a new school would come to €50,000 if it was to be done properly. Providing a secretary, equipping an office, buying a photocopier, etc., would quickly use up the €6,000. Then one would need €3,000 per room to equip each classroom as a primary school classroom should be equipped. A seven-classroom school could need €21,000 to equip the classrooms and whatever one would spend on the basic fitting up of the school, the staff room, etc.
The Adamstown schools were in dire straits and had to plead with the Department of Education and Science to have 50% of their capitation grants paid in advance, which they used for their set-up costs. They also got their ancillary services grants of €8,000 paid in advance to cover expenses such as secretarial and cleaning costs. How could one possibly pay the wages of a secretary and a cleaner out of that? The schools funded their start-up costs from the capitation grants and will be in dire straits next September because they have used money meant for day-to-day running costs for setting up the school and preparing it for opening. The capitation fee is not enough in itself, without it being used for start-up costs. Those schools will always be behind unless the Minister changes their funding. They will always be waiting for the next grant.
Why is there a smaller capitation grant for a primary school pupil than for a secondary school pupil? It is more costly to equip a classroom for a primary school student, and we all know how important it is to have a good start through primary education. Other established schools in my area must raise €15,000 per annum. They have three big fund-raisers every year and they are relentlessly fund-raising. The parents in my area all have to commute to work and suffer the pressures of living in a developing community without much money. As one parent said in the IPPN survey, they are basically buying cakes from each other to fund their kids' education. There is no speech therapy service in one of the disadvantaged schools in my area and the parents may have to fund-raise in order to pay for it.
The Minister should fund education properly and teachers, parents and children should not have to raise funds for primary education.
Sinn Féin fully supports the Labour Party call to double the capitation grant for primary school students. It is plain to see that schools in this State are in financial crisis. From soaring water charges to under-resourced classes and overcrowded classrooms, the lack of investment in education by the Government, most especially in the primary sector, is truly appalling.
Capitation grants are intended to be spent on the day to day running costs of the school, such as heating, cleaning, lighting, maintenance of school premises and grounds and the provision of teaching materials and resources. Payments come in two instalments; the first in January and the second in June. However, very often schools run into considerable debt in the first few months of the academic year because of the fact that January is simply too late to receive that crucial first instalment.
According to the Irish Primary Principals Network, because schools have to get through September to January without State funding, the Government is effectively giving itself an interest-free loan by holding on to the school allocations for four months after the school year begins — the only part of the public service penalised in this way. The IPPN states that the only way schools can avoid debt is by becoming empty boxes and not providing the resources necessary for the modern classroom. With the evolving complex curriculum now offered to students, this is simply unacceptable. The days of chalk filled classrooms and draughty halls are long over. Funding must cover all the needs of modern school life including light, heat, cleaning, insurance, maintenance and all the up to date resources required by today's teaching environment.
It only makes sense that the payment of capitation grants should be made at the beginning of each school year in order to address the needless problems that arise from late payment. According to recent surveys, eight out of ten schools are fund-raising to meet daily running costs. Many schools are finding that Government funding covers only 50% of their basic needs. This situation is absolutely scandalous. Pupils needs come first and teachers must be freed to concentrate on teaching. How are they even to attempt this when they are constantly distracted, trying to stretch an already meagre funding to cover the most basic of running costs? Boards, principals, teachers, parents' associations and local communities are constantly involved in fund-raising. Were it not for the special efforts of teachers and parents, many schools would be in serious financial straits, with pupils losing out. Schools have had to depend on assistance from the trustees and patrons to help clear these debts. A number of primary schools are operating from temporary accommodation not only in prefabricated classrooms on campus, but in sports clubs and community premises off-site. This is completely unacceptable.
I would like to give the House a particular example which Senator Doherty brought to my attention. He told me of a mother of two children attending school in Creeslough, County Donegal. This mother has to pay €2 per week per child for music and PE over 30 weeks of the school year. She must pay €60 for book rental and photocopying for one child in fourth class and €40 for book rental and photocopying for the other child in first class. On top of that, she paid €175.59 for books in a shop in Letterkenny for the two children. All of this comes to a total cost of €395.59. It is not small change. It is a significant commitment for primary education access for two children. That sorry tale is replicated in families the length and breadth of this country.
In this same school children sit three to a desk and in some classes pupils are obliged to sit on the floor. Their class size has been described as unsuitable for many of today's subjects such as practical science. A spokesperson from the school's board of management stated that it is now over three years since they first submitted proposals to the Minister for Education and Science, yet they have heard nothing in return. She said that they urgently need extra space, more classrooms and full upgrading of existing facilities. The school's principal said that she feels it is time to have a total rethink on how children can continue to be taught in such conditions. Both feel that their pleas have been completely ignored and that no progress whatsoever has been achieved. The system has failed this school and other primary schools across the country.
Children have a fundamental right to achieve their full potential through access to the proper curriculum and the highest possible standards of teaching, supported by the most modern teaching aids. Too many children in this State are being denied those rights. No school should have to fund-raise to pay for basic equipment and services which rightfully should be funded by the State. The move to double the capitation grant aims to stop the senseless collections of Tesco tokens and the scrimping and saving and the wasting of time and energy that goes into fund-raising for schools.
The IPPN has described the recent €15 per pupil increase in the capitation grant to €178 as a token gesture. With the increases in water and fuel charges, this increase ultimately amounts to nothing and helps nobody. The capitation grant for primary schools is roughly half that for secondary schools. It would cost approximately €72 million to bring them both into line, which is only 0.75% of the entire primary education budget. Secondary schools are funded to a level double that for primary schools for the same utility bills. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that a child of nine or 15 years of age has different heat, water, security or other requirements. In the interests of basic equality, I urge that primary capitation grants match those of secondary schools.
This motion is timely as it comes after the Minister, Deputy Hanafin disgracefully reneged on the commitment to cut class sizes progressively throughout the lifetime of this Government. The Minister previously argued that class sizes could not be cut as all newly trained teachers were needed for special needs teaching. That argument has since fallen because fully trained teachers will now be let go as a result of the Minister's decision, showing that she never really had a commitment to cut class sizes in the first place. Some schools have as many as 37 pupils in classes. This is indicative of the education system following the health system back to the bad old days of the 1980s.
The Minister's decision must be a major embarrassment to Government Deputies the length and breadth of the State who attended the INTO series of meetings ahead of the general election and gave commitments to cut class sizes. I call on them to join the rest of us in lobbying the Minister and her Cabinet colleagues to secure the reversal of this disastrous decision.
Release them.
They should refuse to toe the party line and stand up for what we all know is right. If Government Deputies vote in favour of the Labour Party motion, they will not bring down the Government but deliver one hell of a badly needed reality check.
Hear, hear.
The Minister blames a downturn in the economy for her decision. This is all the more reason to maintain and increase investment in education, the best guarantee of future prosperity based on an educated workforce and a more equitable society. In supporting the Labour Party motion Sinn Féin reminds the Government that education is a fundamental right, not a privilege of some.
I move amendment No. 1:
1. To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"recognises the major improvements that have been made in improving funding levels for primary schools over recent years including:
an 86% increase in the rate of the standard primary capitation grant since 2001;
an increase of almost 100% in the ancillary services grant since 2001, providing schools with more resources to pay for support staff such as caretakers and secretaries;
improvements announced in the last budget which taken together mean that primary schools are getting €330 per pupil this year to meet their day-to-day running costs — €21 more than they received in 2007;
the payment of enhanced rates of capitation grant in respect of pupils with special educational needs of between €457 and €880 per pupil — an average increase of about 42% since 2006; and
the provision of significantly enhanced levels of funding for schools serving disadvantaged communities under the DEIS Action Plan.
supports the commitments in the five-year Programme for Government to:
increase day-to-day funding for our schools in real terms and double the capitation grant for primary schools by 2012; and
significantly increase the value of grants paid to schools for the employment of support staff such as secretaries and caretakers."
I propose to share time with Deputies Seán Ó Fearghaíl and Áine Brady.
Tá an-áthas orm glacadh leis an deis seo chun a thaispeáint cé chomh dáiríre agus atá an Rialtas faoi airgead a thabhairt don oideachas go ginearálta, agus go háirithe don bhun-leibhéal. The Government remains committed to improving day-to-day funding for primary schools. This is being done as part of our overall investment in education, which has increased significantly in recent years — by more than 70% since 2002 to in excess of €9.3 billion this year. This significant increase of more than €690 million, or 8%, on the funding position, which was achieved in budget 2007, will enable us to consolidate the major service and funding improvements secured in recent years and make further progress in a wide range of areas.
If the motion had not specified the school year within which the capitation grant should be doubled, the Government could have supported the Labour Party as the objective expressed in the text forms part of the programme for Government. It would be irresponsible of Ministers to ignore the changing global economic environment. Members of the public know that careful management of the public finances is necessary to protect prosperity. Although economic growth has slowed, it remains good. The current prudent approach is the best way to ensure funding improvements for our schools can be sustained. While I would love to be in a position to announce a doubling of the capitation grant next year and introduce, in the first year of the Government's term, all the improvements we intend to introduce, in the current economic environment we must make decisions which prioritise across the education sector and throughout Government. Securing an additional €690 million for education was a real achievement and evidence of the Government's continuing commitment to prioritising education.
The Government acknowledges the importance of educating our young citizens, ensuring we have an inclusive society and maintaining the shared values we appreciate so much. We need to ensure young people are prepared for the careers of the future to support the economy.
I would have liked to reduce class sizes this year, as I did in the previous two years. The Department has issued a schedule indicating that teachers will again be allocated on the basis of a pupil-teacher ratio of 27:1. In the past two years, the ratio has declined from 29:1 to 27:1. In addition, almost 1,000 additional teachers will commence employment in our schools in September to meet demographic changes and language and special needs and to work in developing schools. All these factors are placing additional demands on the system. By September we will be more than halfway towards the target of having 4,000 additional teachers in our schools during the lifetime of the Government. There has been no diminution in the Government's commitment to meet all its targets but it is not possible to meet them all this year.
In terms of improvements for schools the €9.3 billion being provided for education this year will enable us to invest almost €600 million in school buildings and bring expenditure on special education to twice the 2004 amount. As Deputies will be aware from widespread discussion of special educational needs, €900 million will be spent on this area this year. The Department's allocation will also enable us to employ approximately 1,500 extra teachers and special needs assistants. In addition, the psychological service will be expanded, the ICT in schools programme implemented and other improvements and advances achieved across the education spectrum, from primary to fourth level.
The programme for Government contains a commitment to provide a further 4,000 primary teachers by 2012. We will be halfway towards achieving this goal in September. As the Department secured substantially greater additional funding than other Departments this year, it will be able to provide an increase in day-to-day funding for schools.
I am aware of the funding pressures facing schools and assure the House that they are taken into account when determining the annual increases in capitation grants. Contrary to some of the comments made, the capitation is paid on current year numbers as the numbers are adjusted in June when the payment is made.
It is because the Government recognises the importance of improved school funding that the programme for Government includes commitments in this area. While we are also committed to doubling the primary capitation grant, this commitment cannot be met in one year. We are also committed to significantly increasing the value of the ancillary services grant used by schools for the employment of support staff such as caretakers and secretaries. These commitments are a direct follow-on from the clear thrust of Government policy in recent years to improve the position of primary schools in particular. In 2008 alone, the Department will pay approximately €167 million to primary schools to meet their day-to-day running costs. Of this figure, which does not include other forms of grant such as minor works grants or the salaries of special needs assistants and teachers, €97 million will be allocated for capitation and €70 million for ancillary services.
The main differences between capitation funding for primary and second level schools is the size of buildings. A primary school generally has one room for each class, whereas one year group consisting of four classes in a secondary level school may break up into six or seven classes for subject choices. Second level schools have technology facilities, home economics rooms, science laboratories and, as such, require much more space. This larger space costs more to insure, heat, light and clean, which is the reason for the traditional gap between primary and secondary level capitation rates. The same number of students requires a much larger building in the latter than in the former.
The improvements announced in the previous budget mean the combined day-to-day funding for primary schools will increase by €21 to €330 per pupil. To view school funding through the narrow lens of one year does not give a full or accurate picture of the scale of improvements. Since 2001, the standard rate of capitation grant has been increased from €95.87 per pupil to €178.58 as of 1 January 2008, an increase of 86%. The value of the ancillary services grant has almost doubled in the same period, from €76.18 to €151.50 per pupil and almost €70 million in ancillary services grants will be paid to primary schools in the coming weeks. Schools received 70% of their 2008 capitation funding last January, with the rest to be paid in June. In 2001, a primary school with 300 pupils was in receipt of less than €52,000 to meet its day-to-day running costs. This year, the same school will receive €100,000, exclusive of salaries for teachers and special needs assistants which are paid by the Department. By any standards, this is a significant improvement in a relatively short period.
Enhanced rates of capitation funding are paid in respect of children with special educational needs who attend special schools or classes attached to mainstream schools. The current rates range from €457 to €880 per pupil, an average increase of about 42% on the rate payable in 2006. This is to recognise that while young people with special needs may be in very small classes they might have to have a good deal of space to be able to accommodate and educate them. I acknowledge that Deputy Gilmore recognised the priority that has been given to children with special needs and to those in disadvantaged areas.
For those in disadvantaged communities additional targeted funding is also being provided under the DEIS action plan for schools serving disadvantaged communities. A total of 670 primary schools were identified for intensive support while other schools are also receiving assistance in line with the less concentrated level of disadvantage among their pupils.
Almost €14 million in DEIS grants, in other words, those targeted at disadvantaged schools, issued to more than 2,500 schools last November. A total of €10.2 million of that, 73%, was allocated to the 670 most disadvantaged schools. This represented a year on year increase of 15% in the level of these grants.
The support provided to each school depended on the proportion of its pupils that come from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The resources are administered locally and while guidelines are issued, it is a matter for the individual school to decide how best to apply the funding to suit its particular needs. That is a recognition of the problems some of our most disadvantaged communities are facing.
In addition to supplementary financial assistance, schools participating in our support programme for disadvantaged schools, known as DEIS, benefit from additional measures which range from preschool interventions, supports for tackling children's literacy problems, reduced pupil-teacher ratios, allocation of administrative principals on lower enrolment, measures to tackle early school leaving, measures to strengthen ties between the school, the family and the community, and the provision of continuing professional development for teachers. Book grants are also available to schools and schools that operate a school rental scheme are given additional money over and above the book grant. Deputies will be aware of the school meals scheme funded by the Department of Social and Family Affairs, which it expanded significantly this year to ensure that all the DEIS urban schools were included. The Government will continue to prioritise the needs of schools serving disadvantaged communities.
The emphasis on tackling educational disadvantage in recent years is unprecedented. This year we are investing more than €800 million in measures aimed at tackling disadvantage at all levels. This represents a 10% increase on last year's provision and a 75% increase on the 2003 allocation.
In addition, funding is also provided to primary schools for minor capital works. A total of €27 million in minor works grants were paid to schools at the end of 2007. That money is designed to address some of the problems identified by some Deputies here. That work was never intended to be done by way of capitation funding. The grant has been increased by almost 50% in over two years.
The record investment as part of the school building programme in recent years and under the current national development plan is transforming the standard of school accommodation and helping to provide more energy efficient school buildings, which in turn will achieve savings for schools on heating and lighting costs.
Mention was made of the issue of information technology in schools, of which Deputies will be aware. The Government has already expended €200 million on the ICT in schools programme ensuring not only that hardware was provided but also software, broadband connection networking, particular grants for disadvantaged students and training for teachers. I will shortly be announcing the implementation plan for our new ICT strategy of €252 million between now and 2013.
The Department of Education and Science has also made a number of improvements in recent years to reduce administrative costs for schools. The Department has taken over the payroll for various categories of school staff, including more than 8,000 special needs assistants in primary schools, which avoids the inefficiencies and associated costs of having them paid individually at local school level.
An on-line claims system for processing the payment of substitute teachers in schools has also been rolled out and changes to procedures for advertising teaching posts are being made this year to enable schools achieve reductions on advertising costs through the advertising of teaching vacancies on the Internet.
It is important not to lose sight of the wider picture of the range of improvements that have been made, and continue to be made this year, in education. Since 2001 we have put in place more than 7,000 additional teachers and more than 6,500 extra special needs assistants in our primary schools alone. We have also increased the capital investment at primary level from €140 million to approximately €390 million and we have doubled the day to day funding for primary schools.
I am not suggesting there is not a need for additional increases in funding for schools. The legitimacy of the case for further increases is expressly recognised in the programme for Government commitments but, equally, the programme for Government is predicated on growth and having a strong economy. That must be our major priority as a Government.
I am confident that during the course of our term of office we will be able to build on what we have achieved so far in working with teachers and principals in schools to ensure the quality of teaching, to which we have all become accustomed, together with the improvements we have seen in our schools, will ensure that it is the children who continue to get the full benefit. Working together in a spirit of partnership and recognising the priorities the Government and I have, as Minister for Education and Science, we will be able to build on our significant achievements with our commitments in the coming years in a manner consistent with the overall prudent management of the economy.
I call Deputy Ó Fearghail. There are just over 15 minutes remaining in the slot. Does the Deputy wish to share the time equally?
I will share the time equally with Deputy Brady. Go raibh míle maith agat a Chathaoirligh. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht a cuid ama a roinnt liom.
I congratulate the Labour Party on tabling this interesting motion because it affords us the opportunity to outline the wide range of improvements in financial resources that have been made available to primary schools in recent years. It is opportune to have a motion of this type before the House in the run up to the teacher conferences over Easter.
The Minister referred to the challenging economic circumstances we are now facing. Governments do not operate in a vacuum. Any Government the Labour Party was part of had to respond to the circumstances of the day. As the country faces more moderate economic growth now, Exchequer returns are also impacted. It is with this economic backdrop in mind that we must approach tonight's debate.
Parents, teachers, management bodies and the Department of Education and Science have always fought for more plentiful and better resources for our children. They are always striving to improve the support and resources available to students, and I commend them on that. As the parent of four young children in primary school I am conscious of the merits of their intentions but we must recognise that major improvements and progress has been made in recent years. As the Minister said, since Fianna Fáil came into office in 1997, capitation grants have increased by 212%.
And that is only since 1997. It would be even better if the Deputy went back to 1967.
That is four times the rate of inflation, which is the critical issue, and a remarkable achievement by anyone's standards. The last time a Labour Minister occupied the seat the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, now occupies in 1997, the capitation grant stalled at £45 per child, less than a quarter of what we have today. On 17 April 1997 the then Minister, Deputy Breathnach, addressing the Dáil stated:
I am aware of some concerns among school management boards regarding the level of capitation grants in relation to current demands on school funds. I regret that due to the many competing demands on limited resources I am not in a position to increase the capitation grant payable for 1997.
That is what happened when the Labour Party last had control of this Department.
That was 11 years ago. Times have changed.
Since then we introduced the ancillary services grant in 2001, which stands at €151.50 per pupil this year. In 2002 we introduced a further support for schools that meet the needs of special needs students. The ancillary funding, which supports the employment of secretarial and caretaking staff, and the grants for the special needs areas have had a dramatic impact on primary school education throughout the country on a day to day basis. A simple comparison will highlight the level of progress that has been made. In 1997, a good reference point to use——
Try 1987, 1967 or even 1977.
——a mainstream school with 200 pupils in County Kildare received €11,428 in capitation funding. Today, that same school in County Kildare, if it had a population of 200 pupils, would receive €66,016 in capitation and ancillary funding. That is approximately six times the amount available in 1997.
The minor capital works funding of €5,500 per school, which all schools receive, plus the top-up of €18.50 per pupil and the special €74 for special needs pupils in such schools, has enormously enhanced the ongoing maintenance of school buildings and grounds. Like most Members, I deal with principals and parents on a regular basis but they have not been knocking down my office door about capitation grants because they realise the progress made in the area.
My experience as chairman of a board of management of a small mainstream school, as well as a board member of a Gaelscoil and a special needs school, has given me an invaluable insight into the variety of challenges affecting the sector. While challenges remain, support and the financial resources available to primary schools have substantially improved in recent years.
In 2008 the Department of Education and Science will pay €167 million to primary schools to cover day-to-day running costs. A €21 increase to €330 per pupil means primary schools receive unprecedented levels of funding per pupil to meet running costs.
What can they do with it?
Several Deputies referred to water charges which is a non-issue in County Kildare where schools always paid water charges. The chief executive officer of the Kildare VEC reported to a recent meeting that, on foot of the Government's initiative on water services, this cost will be reduced. We did not hear much about that, unfortunately.
We have not seen the evidence yet.
I do not doubt the sincerity of the Labour Party's request for additional funding for capitation grants. Is it, however, serious in suggesting such an increase is achievable in one year? The Minister's objective is to double the capitation grant over the lifetime of the Government.
Fianna Fáil in Government has taken a measured and focused approach to the resourcing of primary education, with a resulting benefit in financial terms for all schools and with special support for those in greatest need. That is why I am satisfied the Government and the Minister will deliver on the commitment to doubling the rate of capitation grant to primary schools by 2012, the same way it delivered on its commitment to old age pensioners.
In 2008, €9.3 billion will be invested in education. The Labour Party believes capitation grants should be doubled with Deputy Gilmore suggesting a price tag of €82 million. Has the Labour Party any suggestion from where this funding could come? Does the party suggest the cutting of other services? Does it want to cut the provision for the extra 1,200 primary and post-primary teachers?
The electronic voting machines should either be sold or melted down and recycled.
Will the Labour Party use the funding ear-marked to hire 900 staff to join the 17,000 existing staff working in special education?
We have sensible priorities.
All these initiatives are worthy of State funding. The Government and the Minister for Education and Science are making tough decisions every day on competing social objectives.
It is those tough decisions that worry us.
For the most part Fianna Fáil in Government has got it right. That is why we are on this side of the House and Deputy Durkan is on the other side.
Hope springs eternal.
One of the largest challenges our primary education system is facing is the demand and pressure for school places. As a Member for the county with the second fastest growing population, I am familiar with this particular challenge.
Why second fastest growing? Why not first?
I am afraid the Deputy's time has concluded.
I reluctantly hand over to my colleague Deputy Áine Brady.
I call Deputy Áine Brady.
Deputy Durkan's assistant.
I thank the Minister for sharing time.
Fianna Fáil was elected to Government on a policy platform on education which included a commitment to double the capitation grant for primary schools over the Government's lifetime. I welcome this and will, with my colleagues, work to ensure this commitment is achieved by 2012, recognising the pressures and demands on our resources for education.
This debate, however, must be held in the context of the record spend on education and the general commitment of the Government to the education sector. There have been significant achievements to date in our education programme. In recent years, record resources have been allocated to education from primary to secondary level to third level and fourth level. Total spend on education this year will be over €9 billion.
Over €800 million in 2007, up by €180 million on 2006, was rightly allocated to special educational needs. Special education has undergone immense change in recent years and one in which major improvements are planned for the next five years. The State's record over the decades in providing for children with special educational needs was unsatisfactory. However, significant advances have been made in improving the lives of children with special needs. Approximately 17,000 adults in mainstream schools work solely with children with special needs.
I would welcome the enhanced rates of capitation funding paid in respect of children with special educational needs who attend special schools or special classes attached to mainstream schools. Over the next five years, there will be an emphasis on providing early assessment, expanding pre-school provision, giving each child the right to an individual education plan and ensuring better training for teachers. Improvements in services for children and young people will be built upon through better provision in the adult, further education and third level sectors.
There has been record investment in our schools building programme and extra resources allocated to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio. Every school in the Kildare North constituency has received investment with extensions or new schools being granted.
Improvements made in school staffing are unparalleled. As part of the additional resources for primary schools, the programme for Government contains a commitment to provide a further 4,000 primary teachers by 2012. With additional teachers already in place this year and those provided for in the budget, we are ahead of target with about 2,000 extra primary teachers to be delivered in just two years.
Within the terms of the current staffing arrangements for primary schools there is provision for additional posts, referred to as developing school posts, to be assigned to schools on the basis of projected enrolments for the next school year. This initiative was warmly welcomed by schools in County Kildare.
I agree wholeheartedly with increasing the capitation grant but the progress already made must be protected. If the capitation grant were to be doubled this year, other education services would have to be cut back. We have to make choices; we must prioritise our resources and make best use of the significant moneys allocated to education. During a period of slower economic growth, careful management of the public finances is necessary. Such a prudent approach is the best way of ensuring additional resources for our schools can be sustained.
We must reduce our reliance on fund-raising to provide for the essential running costs of a school. The Government has a plan to achieve this. Many parents and teachers have worked hard on fund-raising activities. They provide finance for many schools and assist in the provision of additional facilities the school may not otherwise have. In my experience, parents have done this work very willingly and with enthusiasm.
The main concern for parents in north Kildare is to ensure enough school places for their children. Despite the rapid rise in population in County Kildare, much progress on the roll-out of extensions and new schools has been made. Earlier this year the Minister for Education and Science confirmed that the 254 projects previously announced devolved schemes, that had not yet commenced construction, should position themselves to go on site in 2008 and complete their projects where possible before the end of the year. The Minister also indicated it was her intention to make a further announcement after Easter to allow a further batch of schools to commence construction and to update progress on the new schools planned for September 2008 delivery in developing areas. I welcome this commitment.
We are in tighter budget times and we must be prudent in how we manage our resources. We have a range of priorities including the capitation grant. The Government's programme is to plan the finance of our schools in a structured and sustainable way. Record resources are being spread in a balanced way to optimise their benefits and ensure no one is left out.
The doubling of the capitation grant essentially continues the policy momentum since 1997 of increasing day-to-day funding to primary schools at a rate well ahead of inflation. I commend the Government's record and, in particular, the Minister's.
I wish to share time with Deputies Durkan, Breen and Sheehan.
Is that agreed?
It is agreed. We did not want to but we decided to share.
He has good west Cork roots.
I strongly support the Private Members' motion tabled by the Labour Party. This motion is timely as it coincides with a period when our primary schools are finding that the emphasis for principals, teachers, boards of management and parents has switched from teaching and implementing new curricula to balancing the books, fundraising or collecting thousands of supermarket tokens to obtain some piece of school equipment that should be provided by the Department.
Free education is something we have been told we are getting since as far back as 1966, more than 40 years ago. It has been proclaimed from the rooftops, and rightly so, that our education system is one of the best in the world and a major reason for the birth of the Celtic tiger. Our teachers at all levels have been rightly lauded for delivering this education system. One would have thought that a fair share of the proceeds of the same Celtic tiger would continue to be reinvested in this education system so that we can continue to produce a highly skilled and qualified workforce.
Sadly, the past few months have proved that the opposite is the case. The programme for Government last year promised to increase the numbers of primary teachers by at least 4,000. This, we were assured, would considerably reduce class sizes to a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:24 by 2010. More relevant to tonight's motion, we were told that the capitation grants for our primary schools would be doubled and that grants for support staff such as secretaries and caretakers would be increased significantly. Recent announcements have confirmed that all these promises have been reneged on. Because of these broken promises, class sizes will remain, at best, as large as ever, but will probably increase significantly.
Listening to the Minister and the spokespersons on the opposite side of the House, I did not hear them contradict the assertion in last week's edition of The Irish Times that 140 schools would lose teachers and a further 200 would be unable to appoint new staff due to the Department’s abandonment of the commitment to reduce class sizes this year. Water charges, which will ultimately have to be paid by parents, have also been loaded on to schools. How can the Minister justify a primary school capitation grant of €178, compared to €331 per student at second level? Our primary schools and pupils need the same support as second level pupils. Figures suggest that it would cost an extra €70 million — surely only a drop in the ocean compared to the overall education budget — to bring the primary school capitation grant up to the same level as the secondary grant.
All of these cutbacks have come at a time when many schools around the country have been waiting for more than ten years to get approval for new school buildings. Many of these are now finding themselves further down the queue than they were a decade ago. In recent weeks I visited three schools in my constituency, on some occasions along with Deputies from the Government side. I witnessed at first hand overcrowding in Gaelscoil Uileog de Búrca in Claremorris, sewage overflowing in the playground of Midfield national school, and the burst boiler, leaking roof and rotting windows at St. Joseph's national school, Bonniconlon.
The Minister stated that special needs pupils are being looked after well. In one of the schools I visited, a special needs pupil was being taught in the corridor outside the principal's office, looking out on to the road through a glass door through which all visitors to the school had to pass. The staff room is also the principal's office and the secretary's office. Until a couple of years ago when a little room for the purpose was provided by the local community, the delph from the lunch break had to be washed in the toilets. In addition, a student with disabilities had to be wheeled down the road to the local Catholic church to be changed. The restoration of the summer works scheme and a doubling of the capitation grant would not go anywhere near solving these schools' long wait for new buildings, but it would provide some encouragement and allow them to cope with the increased running costs of these schools.
Parents, principals and boards of management understand that funding will always be an issue in our schools, but the failure in last year's budget to deliver meaningful reform has infuriated all the partners in education. A plethora of surveys by many of the stakeholders clearly illustrates that the gap between the increasing costs and departmental funding is getting wider. That gap can only be closed for so long by voluntary fundraising. I strongly support this motion and call on the Minister to double the capitation grant with immediate effect. They should also be paid in time so that the mounting bills can be paid at the appropriate time and not many months late.
I thank my colleagues for sharing their time and the Labour Party for putting down this motion.
I am impressed with the buzzwords that have emerged in the debate so far: phrases such as "prioritised resources", "prudence in spending", "living in tougher times", and "plan according to our means". These are interesting phrases which have come from that side of the House in the past few minutes.
Hear, hear.
This is in dramatic contrast to the words we heard from that side of the House before the last general election. That was not ten years ago. It was only a few months ago — not even 12 months ago. What an amazing turn of events. In the times of full and plenty we were able to go forward with confidence and rely on the fact that the Government had lots of money to spend and intended to spend it in the education sector and other sectors. What did the Government do? One of the first traps it has fallen into is that in answering a simple parliamentary question, its Ministers resort to a history lesson. I know education is all about history and vice versa. However, it is unnecessary to give Members of the Oireachtas a history lesson every time a parliamentary question is asked. We get about two pages of a history lesson, and then at the end the Ministers say they are sorry but they had to prioritise and set certain targets and unfortunately this was not one of them.
One of the things we hear about regularly from boards of management and parents' groups is the amount of time and energy spent by them in fundraising in lieu of a proper capitation grant. They will readily say that if they had more time to spend on other issues within the school there would be a far better education system, and that an input of money at a critical point — such as the capitation grant — could enable a major change in terms of the amount of time spent on other education issues.
It is true that there has been a Celtic tiger roaming around the countryside for the past ten years or so. I notice on the far side of the House the Deputies refer to 1997 as though 1997 were the first year of the universe, the year that time began. What they fail to recognise is that the country's population, cost requirements and demands have risen dramatically, especially since 1997.
Hear, hear.
Never in the history of the State have costs to ordinary people been inflated to such an extent, starting with housing and going across the spectrum, so that, relative to their position in 1997, people are worse off now, whether the Government wants to recognise this.
I thank the Labour Party for putting down this motion and giving us an opportunity to speak on this subject, because some of us have not had an opportunity to do so in recent times. If there is one scandal that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency, it is pupil-teacher ratios in the classroom. Again, parents frequently bring this to our attention. In how many schools have we seen classrooms that are incapable of holding the number of pupils in the class? How many times have we seen children with special needs within such classrooms? How many times have we seen cases in which the school is bursting at the seams and for one reason or another it has not been possible to provide adequate space and teachers. I do not care what anybody says. The initial grounding in education comes at primary level. Whatever chances the children get then will stand to them for the rest of their lives. If they are in overcrowded classrooms or prefabricated buildings — in some cases children go through primary and second level education in prefabricated buildings — it will remain with them.
It has been said in recent times that education is of fundamental importance and this is correct. It is important in terms of future employment. The lack of a proper education in a suitable environment can have a lasting impact on pupils. Notwithstanding the Government's self-praise, there has been a dearth of concentration and responsibility in the examination of this matter. All children, regardless of background, should be sure of attending a school where teachers have time to give individual attention. A child emerging from such a system of education in a rural or urban area would have a chance.
In the olden days when there were one-teacher and two-teacher schools all over the country, children received individual attention because there was no pupil-teacher ratio of 35:1 or 40:1. Things may have been archaic in many ways but there was individual attention, which gave children a great grounding.
I will not go on because my two colleagues wish to speak. I am glad to have had an opportunity to support the motion and hope my colleagues will do better than I in speaking to it.
That will not be easy. I welcome the opportunity to speak to the Labour Party's Private Member's motion and congratulate its members on bringing it forward in such a timely fashion.
In days gone by children went to school with a book in one hand and a sod of turf in the other. Today they go to school with books in one hand and euro notes in the other. Schools are funded annually to pay for essentials such as heat, light, insurance, cleaning and maintenance. The primary capitation grant was increased last year by a mere €15 in comparison to the €18 increase in the previous year. The recent findings of a National Parents Council survey came as no surprise and reflect what is really happening. Some 74% of parents surveyed said they paid between €50 and €300 in so-called donations; however, these are not donations but essential funds for the running of schools. Without this money many schools would be in dire straits.
The findings of the survey concur with my findings in a survey I undertook of primary and post-primary schools in County Clare last year. Some 95% of respondents organise some type of fundraising event to supplement capitation grants from the Department of Education and Science. This is a huge figure. A primary school in west Clare had a shortfall of €10,000, while another in east Clare had a shortfall of €13,000. Many schools are forced to resort to having children pack bags in supermarkets, holding cake sales, fashion shows and so on to raise funds. It is not right that children should have to fund their own education. What happened to free education? Often grants from the Department of Education and Science do not meet the needs of schools on an ongoing basis. A school that installs a lift for disabled students will receive a 90% grant towards the cost from the Department but nothing towards the cost of its maintenance, which can be very costly.
This is not the only challenge facing primary schools in County Clare. A school principal told me he would love to use the new IT boards but his school cannot afford them. Schools have had to resort to emergency measures such as prefabricated buildings provided on school sites, often on top of one another. I recently visited a school in Barefield and my colleague, Deputy Dooley, did likewise. When I was there, hailstones fell. One of the prefabricated buildings holds a class for children with special needs and to get there they were forced to walk through the hailstones and cold air. That is not good enough.
There was sunshine the day I visited.
There will not be much sunshine in Deputy Dooley's life when the board of management at the school in Barefield is finished with him.
It will be happy when it gets its new classroom.
Many schools in County Clare await the green light to proceed with extensions and, as Deputy Dooley is in the House, I will name them. They include Barefield national school, Quin national school, St. John's national school in Cratloe, Inch national school, Knockanean national school, Kilmaley national school, Kilrush national school, Clonlara national school, Scoil Réalt na Mara, Kilkee and, in my own area, Ballynacally national school. These are but a few of the schools in urgent need of upgrading in the county.
Deputy Dooley is asleep.
What is he doing in government?
The Government has conceded it will not deliver on the programme for Government commitment on class sizes. In County Clare 3,199 children are in classes of over 30 pupils, a sad indictment of the Government's record on education. The recent issue of water charges also highlights the lack of funding in the education system. The Minister was forced to do a U-turn on this latter issue due to the unfair burden on schools but the problem will not go away and postponing dealing with it until 2010 is typical of the Government's response to a crisis.
I congratulate the Labour Party on tabling this timely motion and hope Government Deputies will take heed and bring the matter to the attention of a senior Minister.
I commend the Labour Party on tabling this important motion. I am here to represent some of my constituents who do not have a vote at present but will have in a few year's time: the primary school children of Cork South-West. Primary school children are supposed to have had free education since before the foundation of the State but, as far as I can ascertain, every primary school in my constituency is engaged in fundraising to provide for essential educational needs.
I wrote to the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, two weeks ago, following representations from the board of management of St. Finbar's national school, Seskin, Bantry. I was informed by its representatives that, despite fundraising, the school was in a serious financial predicament and that the only logical solution to the problem was a massive increase in capitation grants. This year the school faces a shortfall of €30,000. How is a school in Bantry to raise such moneys? The parents want to provide the best for their children, as do all good parents.
This is only one example but the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy Haughey, knows the situation is the same in nearly every primary school in my constituency and every other constituency. There will be nobody to serve on boards of management if they find themselves in greater debt with further fundraising needed. I ask the Minister of State to make a special effort on behalf of all children of the nation to significantly raise the capitation grant for primary schools because we are failing in our duty as public representatives if we cannot look after our children who represent the future.
The Government's amendment to the motion refers to "improvements announced in the last budget which taken together mean that primary schools are getting €330 per pupil this year to meet their day-to-day running costs — €21 more than they received in 2007". Is the Minister of State aware that the figure of €21 referred to translates to 10 cent per school day? That would not buy a lollipop for a child and I wonder who the Minister of State and the Government are trying to fool. The amendment also states the Government "supports the commitments in the five-year programme for Government to increase day-to-day funding for our schools in real terms and double the capitation grant for primary schools by 2012". That is only three or four years away. Why not give a decent injection in capitation grants this year, or will the promise of an increase in grants in 2012 be the platform for Fianna Fáil in the next general election?
