The problem of one and two-teacher schools in various places around the country has been discussed at length by the Minister and myself on more than one occasion. It has also led to much consideration in small communities around the country. I want to say immediately that in putting this matter down on the Adjournment I am aware of the Minister's views and the Department's views and I am certainly aware of the views of teachers and communities.
There is a consensus on the need to give some from of support to the smaller schools. I want to put it clearly on the record that small schools — I am talking about the one and two-teacher schools particularly — are dotted throughout the country and are interwoven into the fabric of rural society in Ireland. They are the focal point of hundreds of Irish villages. Without a doubt the national school has been a constant factor in rural Ireland for a century and a half. These schools have been symbols of learning, of continuity, progress and stability and they are an enduring monument to a continuing development in education at primary level since 1831.
I am addrssing tonight the difficulty which arises from the threat to close down such schools. There is a view, to which the Minister will readily subscribe, that one and two-teacher schools are excellent in their own way. Every school is different. I want to put it clearly on the record that because a school is small it does not mean it cannot provide the same level of service as a large school. There is the question of maximising resources at different levels in different places and that has to be looked at.
The one-teacher school creates a particular difficulty to which I will come back and which the Minister has referred to on a number of occasions, namely, of one teacher dealing with all areas of the curriculum. The point to which I am directing attention tonight is when a two-teacher school loses a teacher and becomes a one-teacher school.
When a school goes from a two-teacher to a one-teacher school the community begins to think of the death a the school, or thinks the school is on its last legs. People begin to move out and transfer their children to other schools. Consequently, one-teacher schools are closed down. That is a pattern we have seen in many places. I was talking to people in two-teacher schools who thought they were going to lose a teacher next year and they said to me that in that event there are already four families who indicated they were going to move their children to another area. A one-teacher school can provide an excellent service. It is where there are 26, 27 or 28 pupils that the difficulty arises in trying to cope with all the different problems that arise.
The closure of a local school, in terms of other social aspects is a devastating blow to any area and it has adverse effects on the community generally. It is the beginning of the pattern of emigration, it is the beginning of the breakdown of the rural fabric, the beginning of the breakdown of the rural infrastructure. As Tussing said, the one constant factor in every village is the national school. There are more national schools than there are churches. GAA pitches or Fianna Fáil cumainn. The national school system is a widespread organisation and I am proud the members of my union are to be found throughout the country and are so closely involved with the community. It is also important to put on record that the distribution of population in Ireland is different from that of any other European country. Only in Ireland do you get a couple of houses here and there, up hill and down dale. In other countries towns tend to be built around a certain area. The cost of rural electrification in Ireland was very expensive because of the distribution of population.
The distribution of the primary education service in Ireland is very extensive because of the large number of schools. When you realise that there are 3,500 primary schools in the country as opposed to fewer than a 1,000 post-primary schools, it gives us some idea of how widespread is the primary education system. Because they are part of each community one-teacher schools need to be supported in the sense that they need to be given every opportunity to have a second teacher.
We have to accept that one-teacher schools are disadvantaged in many ways, not that there is any conspiracy to retain their disadvantage. Educationally they are under extraodinary pressure to deliver in the large one-teacher school. When I say large I am talking about schools with more than 20 pupils. They are the schools I am concentrating one tonight. The Minister indicated on a number of occasions that one-teacher schools are, in effect, disadvantaged, perhaps not in an economic sense but disadvantaged in their own way. They need a comprehensive support programme of positive discrimination. What do they want? They want more teachers, more caretaking services, more access to remedial and special education. Those are the issues on which they need support.
I am homing in tonight on the staffing area. As an immediate step I call on the Minister to reduce the retention figure from 28 to 25 pupils. That means, in effect, that the two-teacher school, which has numbers down to 25, will retain those two teachers, and at the stage when it becomes a one-teacher school if the numbers continue to fall at least it should be below the 25 figure. It should be 24 or fewer and at least there will be some possibility of teachers coping with those levels of enrolment.
It must be accepted that the task of teaching eight different curricular class programmes to 28 pupils is an impossibility, physically, intellectually and every other way for one teacher. It just cannot be done. Therefore, I ask the Minister to intervene at this point and help out. I should have said at the beginning that my professional colleague, Senator Mullooly asked for some time to speak on this matter. I ask that he be allowed five minutes at the end and perhaps the Chair would indicate to me when I have five minutes left?
