The pupil-teacher ratio in Ireland is one of the highest in Europe. We have a 20:1 ratio; Greece, 17:1 — I am talking about poor countries not rich countries, the peripheral countries have managed to raise the status of education — France, 17:1; Portugal, 14:1, whose economy is as poor as our own, if not worse; Germany, 13:1; the United Kingdom, 13:1; Luxembourg, 11:1 and Italy 10:1. Those facts speak for themselves.
Restrictions on the number of teachers a school can employ via the quota system has resulted in many schools doing without vital education services. Out of a total of 809 second level schools, 308 were ex-quota vice-principals, 302 ex-quota career guidance, 252 ex-quota remedial teachers and 85 ex-quota remedial guidance resource.
I will not talk about school secretaries or school caretakers. They come under the same cutbacks. There has been a drop of 24 school secretaries between 1987 and 1989 and 35 school caretakers in the same two years.
I turn now to in-service — call it renewal. It is essential to have a well-structured and scheduled framework for in-service education and training. Preservice programmes will always be inadequate to the changing demands made on teachers over a professional lifetime. There will be problems if increased funding is not made available for in-service education. As a teacher, I speak from experience. Teachers can easily become conservative because of the lack of in-service training. We lose the quality of risk-taking and fail to avail of opportunities for moments of inspired learning, engagement and excitement. This failure, it must be said, is often the mark of the over-crowded classroom. It is often, too, the mark of the beaten down teacher. It is not that the teacher is conservative by nature but rather that all the forces are working against him or her. To remain accomplished in the art of teaching requires the updating of skills and knowledge. It means expanding the pedagogical repertoire of teachers. It means an ability to contribute to educational planning. I will emphasise that again because planning is essential, both at school and other levels.
Teachers must be encouraged to explore the present. If you look at the world of business, the most successful businesses, industries and economies regard in-service training as essential and commonplace. Education, which is a vital social aspect of the system, must act likewise. The call for in-service must go further. Models of in-service must be designed. They must be positioned in a detailed way, in a planning forward exercise and not be a model of the crash course variety, which has happened over the last number of years. Colleges of education and university departments of education eagerly await an official brief from the Minister's Department in this regard. To delay any further might well be to yield ground that may never be regained. It is virtually impossible — I do not wish to appear negative — to revitalise an education system when it grinds to a halt. I refer to Britain where the new British Prime Minister, Mr. Major, will have a very considerable task before him. I hope the same task will not be before our Taoiseach in relation to the continual problems within education.
In relation to major reforms within the area of in-service in the post-primary system at both the junior and senior cycles, in addition to changes in existing subjects new courses and subjects are introduced each year, especially in the areas of languages, technology and vocational preparation and training programmes. The demand for a wide-ranging curriculum has never been greater. We get demands from industrialists and employers. We get reports here, there and everywhere. We must respond. There must be a Government commitment to increase resources to implement the necessary reforms and innovations.
The most significant of the recent reforms has been the proposal for the new junior certificate exam in 1992 and I would like to hear the Minister's comments on this next week. Initially nine rounds were envisaged for teachers over the three year period of the implementation of this programme and two rounds were given in 1989-90. This year which is the third year and also the crucial year, there was no in-service. We had the controversy over the introduction of the promise of the sample paper which, hopefully, the Minister will bring in before Christmas. It is essential considering the examination will take place soon. There was disagreement regarding the bulk, the size, etc. of the sample paper, and also regarding school-based assessment. This caused difficulties and delay. It is essential that the sample paper be issued immediately. It is now December and there has been no in-service for the junior certificate this year. With the promised introduction of a new senior cycle in 1992 as a continuation of the junior certificate, in-service will obviously be of vital importance in marrying the theory to the practice.
With regard to school resources I am talking about basic resources and not technology and language resources. There are few, if any, imaginative teaching kits, manuals or discussion documents available to inspire teachers or to make them receptive to new ideas or approaches. Those we have, and I am sure Senator O'Toole will talk on this in relation to the primary schools specifically, are imported from Britain and the United States. There is no research unit within the Department which might, in conjunction with teachers and other consultants, devise such materials. I pay tribute to the teachers' centres and those involved in them who are working so hard to provide themselves with in-service kits. It is admirable. It is only what one would expect from teachers but finance must be given to them.
If we look at the curriculum in England, whether we agree with it or not, it has been energetically supported and serviced by a wide range of documentation. By stark contrast our system is totally undernourished and is dependent on a spurious rash of what I consider to be narrowly conceived notes and aids from various publishing houses.
The principal responsibility of a Minister for Education is to provide for schools the basic environment in which teaching and learning can take place unimpeded. Many Irish schools do not have this provision guaranteed and, therefore, they start from well behind. Later I will refer to the need for language laboratories, technology rooms and so on if we are to take our place in 1992 in competition with other EC countries.
The real wealth in Irish eduation is the integrity of the teaching force but this is not something which will continue without careful cultivation and renewal. I call on the Minister to unleash that potential and let the young unemployed teachers make their much-needed contribution in Ireland rather than in the far-flung fields where they now have to venture if they wish to pursue careers in teaching.
I turn briefly to career guidance counsellors. I emphasise the word "counsellor" because the emphasis always seems to be on career guidance and also the quota teaching provisions where specialist teaching service is now available only on an ex-quota basis in schools of 500 plus pupils. In a time of high unemployment and when there is such demand for places in higher level education, the reduction in ex-quota teachers is inexplicable, particularly in the area of career guidance. Take the workload of the average career guidance counsellor. Expertise and professionalism are required in the constant review of entry requirements to third level institutions. There are the needs of industry and employment opportunities. Teachers try to gear females to male-oriented jobs and away from traditional careers which are no longer options on the jobs market. As we know, there are very few positions available in the areas of teaching, nursing and in the public service.
A one-to-one relationship is essential between the teacher and the student. I am talking about careers. I have a particular interest in the counselling area having taught in an inner city school for 25 years where parents did not place much value in education. One could say that the counselling aspect of career guidance is the Cinderella. Now more than at any other time urgent counselling, advice and support is essential on a one-to-one basis. It is not just students from lower socio-economic backgrounds who need that, it is students from all backgrounds. There are broken homes in all sectors of society and not just in the lower socio-economic area. There are high levels of unemployment in areas where little value is placed on educational achievement.
The need for professional, specialist advice from the career guidance teacher cannot be ignored. The career guidance teacher is already overburdened trying to address career options, subject options and form filling. How many students still do not fill in the CAO forms properly despite the enormous efforts of the career guidance teacher? We have calls from Galway each year asking if teachers and parents would sit them down and help them fill out the forms. Mistakes are still made despite the input made by the career guidance teacher and others in that area. The poor career guidance teacher also has to put on career exhibitions. Counselling is very much in demand and was never more needed.
The structure of school buildings is a matter about which I feel much concern. I have spoken to teachers who do not wish to spend a lifetime teaching in prefabricated buildings. I spent 25 years teaching in such buildings and I survived but it cannot be tolerated any more. Last May 578 second level schools were surveyed and of those who responded 40 per cent hold classes in prefabricated buildings — 80 per cent of those for four years or more; 20 per cent for ten years; 42 per cent for 16 years or more. When I went to companies who specialise in the construction of prefabricated buildings, I was told that their lifespan was 10 to 15 years. Prefabricated buildings over 15 years old are certainly not safe. The Minister was present for an Adjournment debate which centred on a school in Richill, Castleconnell, in the east Limerick constituency where the prefab was blown down. Fortunately the children were at home; they had a day off. Otherwise there would have been many fatalities. We are talking about highly dangerous buildings. I mentioned that there are 35 fewer caretakers. Schools are not maintained properly and they are deteriorating rapidly. There is a golden opportunity for the building industry to bloom in the construction of schools.
I will not be put off by demographic trends. People who have emigrated may not come back to this country. The greatest specialists in projection have stated that you cannot accept more than a year or two of demographic projection. At second level there will not be any sizeable reduction in student numbers. A huge number of students will go through the system in the next ten years. These buildings are needed. They cannot exist in prefabs.
As regards facilities, I am not talking about high technology rooms but about basic equipment that I would expect to find in second level schools. If we want girls to avail of male-oriented subjects we must have technology rooms for them. One school in the city of Limerick which collected £300,000 to build a gym found when they made approaches to the Department of Education for equipment and basic furniture, that they could not have it because it was an unauthorised building. I find it extraordinary. The parents contributed the full cost of that gym and they were told it was unauthorised. I do not know what that term is supposed to mean. It could mean anything. All it meant to that poor principal was that he was not able to put in the furniture and had to go back to the parents again.
In relation to finance, at a cumulative rate of inflation over a decade of 124.7 per cent the capitation grant would need to be £224 to keep pace with changes in the real value of money. I want to make a particular point regarding parents' contributions. There is indirect taxation. If 55 per cent of schools contribute £25, that makes £5 million plus fees paid by students and I am talking in terms of £2.45 million in relation to students who sat the intermediate and leaving certificates. If you were to round it off, you are talking in terms of almost £10 million. There are other areas where parents contribute, taxpayers' money, PAYE workers by and large. That is indirect taxation. Let us admit it. Parents are paying for quality education. The sad part is that there are many schools where parents cannot pay and so there is inequality. There are students who will not have those facilities as a result of not being able to contribute the moneys they should.
With reference to the six year cycle, that option is not very expensive. It would cost around £3 million if it were to be provided for all students. If you think in terms of our second level education and its lifespan for students, let us look at the figures: Ireland, five; Belgium, six; France, seven; Greece, six — Greece, as a poor country, can afford six years — Italy seven to eight; The Netherlands, six; the UK, seven; West Germany, nine. Irish students finish their post-primary education at a far earlier age than do their European counterparts. In Ireland it is 17 years of age; Belgium, 18 plus; France, 18 plus; Greece, 17.5 plus; Italy, 18 to 19; The Netherlands, 18 plus; United Kingdom, 18 plus; West Germany, 19. We are the poor relation when it comes to keeping our students at school.
Despite all of this, we still have half of the schools providing students with the option of taking the following programmes: VPT, third year leaving certificate, the transition year, and going through all those options which will become part of the senior cycle when it is addressed. There is a very good consultative paper from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and I would go along with most of what they said in this paper issued in May 1990. They are advocating the six year cycle with the opportunity for students to move over and back, to have fluidity, mobility, to have students that are vocationally oriented, perhaps not very academic, to pick and choose from the various routes they suggest in that document.
I appeal to the Minister to have a debate in this House on the whole ethos of that senior cycle when it follows through — as hopefully it will — in 1992 after the revamped junior cycle. I call on the Minister to look now, not in 1992, for the resources to ensure that when this senior cycle comes on stream teachers will be able to avail of in-service training to make it suitable to students. The one point I would make very strongly is that the system as it stands at senior cycle level is not relevant to the needs of many of our students.
I have taught the senior cycle programme which, I found, kept the students of the school in which I taught in Limerick off the streets. They would have left because up to intermediate certificate the education system was largely irrelevant to their needs. They would have been among a high percentage of drop-out students without qualifications or any form of employment except that the school had a pilot programme for senior certificate, the students took it, they found it relevant to their needs, they found skills other than academic rote learning, memory, analysis and all the other things we find in the academic leaving certificate and tested only by the leaving certificate. Those students could go into the community and be accepted. They could do a good day's work when they were offered work placement. They found that they had a value on themselves, their confidence was enlarged and they had a role in life.
That is one aspect of the various options within senior cycle that I feel should be kept intact in the revamping of the senior cycle. The reason I say that is because we must not underestimate those 80 per cent of students who do not go on to third level. The whole emphasis in education debate in this country seems to be permanently on points and entry to third level education. We must look towards the 80 per cent who have cooperative skills and practical skills. They feel rejected and dejected unless they have relevant progress adapted to their needs.
There are many other things I would like to say to the Minister. There is a golden opportunity between this and the introduction of the Education Act for widespread debate. This is really only introductory from my point of view. I hope the Leader of the House will initiate a debate in this House so that as Oireachtas Members we will be prepared. It will be the role of Oireachtas Members to contribute to a wide-ranging debate on education, and it should not be debated exclusively by educationalists and Oireachtas Members but by the country as a whole. It was stated already today in a previous debate that the country as a whole is absolutely obsessed with education.
There is no point in saying that we cannot give resources for the next ten years. For every parent and every student you get one educational experience in your lifetime. Projections about demography and fixing everything at the end of the day are not acceptable. You get your chance and you take it. Most of us, whether positively or negatively, have been affected by our educational experience.