I wish to share my time with Senator Rory Kiely.
Adjournment Matters. - Remedial Teacher for County Limerick Schools.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I thank the Cathaoirleach for allowing me to raise this matter on the need for the appointment of a remedial teacher to service the primary schools at Ballingarry, Granagh, Kilmeedy and Banogue in County Limerick.
These schools have a large number of multiple classes and the children are in need of remedial teaching. There are 95 children in Ballingarry girls' school, 35 in Ballingarry boys' school, 95 in Granagh national school, 93 in Kilmeedy national school and 59 in Banogue national school, a total of 377 children. Pupils of the schools have been assessed by the Brothers of Charity at Bawnmore and remedial help has been recommended for them. Consequently, pupils have had to transfer outside the school area where remedial help is available. Some of the parents are forced to pay for private tuition for children in need of this assistance.
All the nation's children should be treated equally. Children in smaller rural schools should have the same facilities and opportunities as those in large urban areas. However, the children in Ballingarry, Granagh, Kilmeedy and Banogue schools requiring remedial help are being deprived of it. This is unfair and discriminatory. I appreciate that the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Jim Higgins, was not in office when previous decisions were made, but I ask him to convey to the Department of Education our wish to ensure that the situation is corrected and that a remedial teacher will be appointed for the commencement of the next school year to the areas I have mentioned.
When a child is in need of remedial teaching, it is important that he or she gets help at primary level. The problem of educational disadvantage must be addressed at this stage. It is important that the identification of problems is made at an early stage in a child's school life. Children who are unable to cope with school must be professionally assisted and the inability of schools to cope with these children must also be addressed. Children with problems in Ballingarry, Granagh, Kilmeedy and Banogue do not have a remedial teacher and are thus being discriminated against by the Department.
Under-achievement in school is not unique and is present in all communities. With the expectations and pressures placed on children to perform, it is essential that remedial teaching is available to all who require it. Learning difficulty is viewed as the gap between the attainment by pupils and their potential. Remedial teaching aims at closing the gap by providing additional specialised teaching on an individual or small group basis.
In the schools I am discussing there are children in need of this assistance and until it is available to them the education system will have failed them. The absence of remedial teaching is clearly identified in the transition of pupils from primary to secondary schools. Such pupils experience extreme difficulties and many do not complete secondary education.
Some months ago we discussed long term unemployment. People who need remedial teaching and do not receive it are more likely to be in the category of the long term unemployed because of their failure in the education system and because they do not reach their potential as a remedial service is not available to them.
I thank the Minister for State for coming to the House and I look forward to his reply.
I support Senator Neville's call for a remedial teacher in the schools he mentioned. I am familiar with them; one of them is in my parish. Rural schools are as deserving of remedial teachers as urban schools. I have an interest in these neighbouring schools with which Senator Neville is very familiar.
I received a letter last year from the Minister for Education. Although there has been a change of Government, she is still Minister for Education. In her letter she said there would be adequate funding and that she was interested in providing remedial teachers. I trust she will give a positive reply to the need for remedial teachers in these schools. It would be interesting to know the number of remedial teachers in rural schools in her county. I have pleasure in supporting the matter raised by Senator Neville about the need for remedial teachers in these schools.
I apologise for the inability of the Minister of State at the Department of Education, Deputy Currie, to come to the House. Unfortunately, he was already committed to another engagement and could not be here.
As has been indicated to the House in the past, remedial education at primary level is a matter in the first instance for the ordinary class teachers. The majority of pupils with remedial needs would, therefore, be helped within the scope of the normal teaching service. However, it is acknowledged that remedial teachers constitute the main additional resource for addressing the problem of under-achievement in primary schools.
Substantial additional resources have been allocated to this area in recent years. In 1994 an additional 100 remedial teachers were appointed to primary schools and 350 schools with approximately 34,000 pupils benefited from this allocation. This brought the total number of remedial teachers in place to 1,133. Of the 3,209 ordinary national schools throughout the country, approximately 2,061 now have the services of a remedial teacher, either on a full-time or a shared basis.
The Minister for Education recently announced her intention to appoint an additional 55 remedial teachers in the current year. Decisions in relation to the allocation of these posts will be made shortly following the collection and analysis of information from schools by the Department's primary inspectorate. The posts will then be allocated on the basis of priority of need, as indicated by the information collected.
Of the 148 ordinary national schools in County Limerick, 103 now have the services of a remedial teacher, either on a full-time or shared basis. This includes 23 schools allocated a remedial service in the current school year as part of the recent distribution of posts. This means that 85 per cent of the pupils attending ordinary national schools in County Limerick currently enjoy a remedial service.
I can assure the Senator that the needs of Ballingarry, Granagh, Kilmeedy and Banogue national schools will be considered in the context of the allocation of remedial posts in 1995.
The Seanad adjourned at 10.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 17 May 1995.