I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for giving me the opportunity once again to speak about this very important school in Kilkenny. It is regrettable that I have to raise this issue on the floor of Seanad Éireann for the second time within a year.
The situation in St. John's infants school has deteriorated somewhat since the last occasion on which we discussed the matter with the Minister for Education in this House. Up to recently teachers on the panel continued to teach in the school. Their inability to get a transfer or the opportunity to take up other employment — vacancies arise only rarely in other parts of the area — has helped to prevent difficulties arising. However, in recent weeks, changes have occurred in that school. A teacher has left to take up employment elsewhere and this has led to a very difficult problem in the school.
On the last occasion on which I raised this matter in the House the Minister promised to carryout a very detailed examination of the pupil numbers, to examine the need to provide special educational facilities and to create a remedial post in the school. However, I have failed to get any significant information from the Department of Education as to the progress that was made in the review since then. The boards of management and the principal of the school have tried to alleviate the difficulty but without success. I hasten to add that it is one of the few schools that suffered the traumatic loss of two posts for the 1988-89 school year. Most of the schools in the area suffered the loss of one teacher arising out of the changes in the pupil-teacher ratio announced by the Minister.
The teaching requirement for this school is one principal and nine assistant teachers. They will be seeking the appointment of a permanent, ex quota, remedial teacher to the school. They would be justified in doing so. This requirement is based on the findings of very intensive research carried out by community in their catchment area and on the findings of survey carried out by the inspector and board of management, which reveal very alarming results.
The number of children attending the school who live in disadvantaged housing is 62; 35 children come from single parent families; the parents of 51 children are separated, the parents of 76 children are unemployed, seven children are of no fixed abode; 99 children avail of school meals and 11 children are under assessment by local clinic psychological services. Twelve children are awaiting assessment with 36 children having a disturbing or disruptive influence in the classroom and playground.
The results of that survey, which have been sent to the Department of Education, backed up by various reports from the social workers attached to the local authorities and the South Eastern Health Board, by the chief medical officer in the South Eastern Health Board and by various interested professional groups in the area, add weight to the case that a remedial post, apart from the existing teaching requirement, is a necessity rather than essential. We should bear in mind that there are other schools in the same city with three remedial teachers. This, of course, is as a result of the various amalgamations of schools which have taken place over the years. The board of management of this school cannot understand why there is such a discrepancy as between one area and another. This case certainly requires further consideration in view of the findings of the survey I have just outlined.
Another reason for my raising this matter once again is that it has come to my notice that there are schools — Scoil Mhuire, Marino in particular — that have received favourable consideration in recent times in the area of special education through the intervention of the Taoiseach. If the Taoiseach is able to secure special consideration for schools from the Minister for Education and the Department in the allocation of extra teaching posts, I do not see why this school, St. John's infants school, cannot receive similar consideration. If it becomes widely known that there are schools that have received favourable consideration when providing figures in an effort to gain extra teaching posts, then I think the Minister will face an avalanche of applications for extra teaching posts.
The school I mentioned, Scoil Mhuire, Marino, succeeded in gaining an extra teaching post in the special education category following the personal intervention of the Taoiseach. Such behaviour, and the decision of the Minister for Education, is despicable in view of the fact that many national schools throughout the country have suffered the loss of several teachers. These schools did not receive the same sympathetic consideration when their cases for the retention of teaching posts were put before the Department of Education. I call on the school authorities to appeal to the Minister once again to have their applications reviewed in the light of this new development.
I would have to conclude that there is an element of "stroke" politics involved, in view of the constituency which a particular member of the Government represents receiving favourable considerable over another area. I hope that is not the case, but I would certainly have to come to that conclusion if a school such as St. John's infant school in Kilkenny does not receive the type of consideration it merits and deserves. Based on the information I have submitted on a number of occasions to the Minister's Department and on the results of the survey, on the conditions in the school and the background of the children, an extra teaching post in the special education area is required. I call on the Minister to give more sympathetic consideration to this particular school than it has received to date.
