The thrust of partnerships is inequality. One of the ways in which it is reflected is in access to and benefit from education. We all know that those who have benefited from education have increased employment prospects and, as a result, a better income. It is reproduced in the next generation if there is a good outcome from education.
I know that some members are very familiar with the work of education co-ordinators, but I will briefly describe it. It looks at the concept of lifelong learning and offering people opportunities to learn from the cradle to the grave. Our ethos, work and principles are about facilitating those who are most marginalised. Many of those who are already benefiting from the system do not really need any help. The parents, community and schools are already helping them, and they are benefiting and moving on without any intervention being necessary. However, there are individuals, in urban areas and also very much in rural areas, who need intervention on the ground.
We know from our work over recent years that it is crucial to intervene early. The young person's brain is developing at an enormous pace up to the age of five. If we lose out and do not intervene, helping the young children at that age, they lose the capacity to learn. It simply goes out of the brain. We know that from research. There is therefore an onus on us to intervene, particularly with pre-school children.
Recent research in the United States shows that a child of four whose parents are professionals has a greater linguistic capacity than the parents of a welfare child. If we can help develop language skills and help parents to develop their own capacity to help their children, we can do enormous good. That is really the work of partnerships. We will help young people but also the adult parents.
Work with parents is enormously beneficial, and it increases the capacity of the parents, children and grandchildren. Much of our work is, therefore, with parents, encouraging them to become involved in their own education and development. We also know that where the parents are developed and interested in their children's education, there will be a better outcome in schooling, since they will have a greater capacity to relate to school. They will see the benefits of schooling.
Our work is about the integration of local services. Many of the services are separate, as my colleague has mentioned. Health boards, schools and VECs operate with their own agendas. They all do very good and necessary work, but partnerships are in an independent position in most counties and are able to draw together all those different interests. Therefore, it is crucial that all that work should continue.
We know from research that a child spends only 20% of its waking hours between the ages of five and 18 in school. The onus of learning and education should not be on schools alone. It must also be on the home and the community. Therefore, our work also has to involve community development, raising the capacity of the individual. That is why the parent is so crucial.
Work with schools is ongoing. Many are doing excellent work, and most are very committed. I come from a teaching background, having been at second level, and most teachers are very concerned and interested in the children's welfare. However, many are constrained by the curriculum and so on.
Some children are suffering in the education system as it currently operates. Where a child has come from a dysfunctional family, it simply cannot sit down and learn. It needs intervention such as behaviour management and counselling. There must be systems to help the child withdraw from schools. Much of our work relates to that kind of piloting of initiatives in second level schools in particular, but it is also evident that children are coming in at the age of four or five to schools already exhibiting behaviour that will have an impact on their learning. We must be very conscious of the responsibility that we have to help individuals.
Perhaps I might turn to rural issues, such as the lack of infrastructure and personnel to support people with educational difficulties. In many rural areas, there are very few programmes targeting one or two individuals. The emphasis is on where one has large numbers of children, and that is evident in urban centres, where one has schools with 600 or 700 children. In many rural schools, numbers are much smaller.
I conducted a survey in 2000 in the south Kerry area, asking principals of second level schools to look at their children aged between 12 and 15, up to junior certificate level. How many would be likely to leave school without completing that examination or have difficulty in doing so? The number was 80 out of eight schools. There were 80 children there, but there was only one school with any additional support, which was the SSRI at the time. That has now been changed to a school completion. Currently there is no intervention or additional support to help the children complete junior certificate and so on in south Kerry.
There is a lack of facilities for arts, cultural and sporting activities. Were it not for the GAA, there would be simply nothing in much of rural Ireland. If we acknowledge that many people learn a great deal from school, we must enhance the capacity locally for organisations such as the diocesan youth service in Kerry to work with other young people. Though it does excellent work throughout the county, it is so constrained by lack of money that it has had to go to the USA to raise funds to support additional informal learning. I am sad to hear that.
I will not go into the transport issues since members know about them already. I come to our past actions. Wexford Partnership and, I believe, Waterford Partnership were involved in two pilot programmes regarding FETAC and organic horticulture. That was targeted at adults from a farming background who wanted to develop themselves and get a qualification. They developed and wrote up the modules, submitting them to the FETAC system. Sligo Partnership's early reading skills programmes at levels one and two were piloted. They were written up and are now available for other centres which want to do early learning.
Waterford and Galway Partnerships both worked with clusters of rural schools, and that is what we must consider if we are to service rural Ireland. There is no point in saying that a school does not have the numbers. One must look at the town of Killarney or Tralee and say that one will cluster the four schools in the area, giving resources to it as a whole rather than to a school. Most principals with whom I have worked have been able to identify small numbers of children in the different areas who would benefit from it.
Members can see the other kinds of programmes operated. Many of us would have worked in home supported learning programmes in which we went into children's homes rather than having a homework club. Transport is difficult if one is leaving the local primary school at 3 p.m. and there is no way back to it. In south Kerry and other areas, we have supported learning in the home, with a teacher going in and supporting one or two children from each school. Westmeath has done a great deal of work regarding Traveller women and families. In Roscommon the partnership has focused on upskilling teachers on their understanding of equality and how to encourage children.
We have focused on substance abuse. That came about through the local employment service which had found that some people placed in jobs had difficulty retaining them because of substance abuse issues. We then did a survey and found that 62% of young people at second level schools were frequent imbibers of alcohol. Again taking an area based approach, local action group meetings were held where we worked with the Garda and health board. That was a good example of the partnership working in conjunction with other agencies — the health board, Garda, ourselves and the schools. As a result of that a number of courses were set up, using VEC funding, to work with parents and young people.
This year we received funding of €50,000 from the Leader programme in south Kerry and also the credit union movement for the purchase of a light mobile unit which is currently touring primary schools in south Kerry. It is the first operation of its kind in rural Ireland. There is one in Dublin and I believe a few in the United Kingdom. This initiative came originally from Australia to the United Kingdom and we launched it in January this year. It has aroused great interest. The Bishop of Kerry has endorsed it and it has helped to encourage a good working relationship among all those involved.
As for the future, it is not true to say there is no further work for education co-ordinators. There is so much crucial work to be done, particularly among the most marginalised. Many of them have no voice. They do not contact radio shows. Members of the committee, as politicians, probably come across them but they are largely invisible to the general public. We must ensure that partnerships are properly resourced to cater for their needs. The money is well spent. It is reaching into the homes of people who cost the State little. In rural Ireland they are not committing crimes. They are not drawing attention to themselves. It is vital we continue this important work, particularly, as Ms Durkin has mentioned, on the new regional structures that have been set up. The educational welfare officer will need someone on the ground to identify those who are falling outside the system and so on.
Obviously the schools will do what they can. However, at the moment in Kerry there is one person carrying out this role, in the town of Tralee, the RAPID area. Already in Killarney, a large number — eight at least — are outside the school system. Nobody is catering for them. I wrote in February to the education welfare office, which is giving priority to the RAPID area and currently there is no service outside of this. I urge the committee to use its influence to ensure that our work, both in urban and rural areas, is supported, since we are focusing on marginalised people everywhere.
