Seymour Crawford
Question:9 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Education and Science the amount to be allocated to the National Educational Welfare Board for 2005; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30493/04]
View answerThursday, 25 November 2004
Questions (9, 10, 11)
Phil Hogan
Question:24 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of educational welfare officers to be recruited by the National Educational Welfare Board for 2005; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30494/04]
View answer
Joe Costello
Question:29 Mr. Costello asked the Minister for Education and Science if she has sanctioned the outstanding ten posts to the National Educational Welfare Board, for which funding has been approved; if not, when they will be sanctioned; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30529/04]
View answerOral answers (11 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 9, 24 and 29 together.
The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 established the National Educational Welfare Board as the single national body with responsibility for school attendance. The Act provides a comprehensive framework promoting regular school attendance and tackling the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving. The general functions of the board are to ensure that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education.
To discharge its responsibilities, the board is developing a nationwide service that is accessible to schools, parents, guardians and others concerned with the welfare of young people. For this purpose, educational welfare officers are being appointed and deployed throughout the country to provide a welfare-focused service to support regular school attendance and discharge the board's functions locally. The budget which has been allocated to the National Educational Welfare Board for 2005 is €7.8 million, an increase of €1.3 million, or 20%, on the 2004 allocation.
My Department has already conveyed approval to the board for the filling of a further ten educational welfare officer posts, bringing the authorised staffing for the board from 84 to 94. The additional posts will enable the board to further roll out its services at local level around the country. The percentage increase being allocated to the board for 2005 is more than double that for the education Vote as a whole. This provision will enable the board to continue to develop its services in 2005.
I will keep the board's staffing under review in the light of the roll-out of services and any further proposals the board may put to me in regard to clearly identified priority needs.
I welcome the additional funding but it is short of what the National Educational Welfare Board sought. I wish to draw the Minister's attention to comments made by Mr. Eddie Ward of the National Educational Welfare Board who said that the service is in danger of developing only as a reactive fire fighting agency. What we are asking for is very important in terms of tackling educational disadvantage, given the significant figure of 84,000 primary and post-primary students missing more than 20 days, the drop-out figures and the failure of transition from primary to post-primary education.
I welcome the fact that the Minister will examine the issue. Has she a timetable or plan to achieve the aim of reducing the ratio of educational welfare officer to student from 1:12,000 to 1:5,000? Is this an aim she would like to realise?
The board is currently based in five locations, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. Given the increase in staff, every county throughout the country will be covered, which is real progress. There will be designated staff in the RAPID towns.
I would like if members of the board became involved in the work we are doing in the schools where we are tackling attendance and disadvantage. I would like to see them working more closely with the home-school community liaison officers, of whom there are 370. I do not want to wait until a problem exists where children may have missed 20 days or more. I would like them to work with the people already in the schools to encourage children to remain in school. This is one of the real success stories.
There are 82 co-ordinators involved in the school completion programme. These people link with the other services and primary schools to ensure pupils make the transition from first level to second level. There are 40 specialist teachers working with Travellers and we recognise that Traveller education is particularly difficult. Now that the educational welfare board is based in every county, it should be building on the work others will be doing. I intend ploughing money into these areas next year as part of the overall programme.
It is interesting to note that when we talk about students missing over 20 days, we tend to focus on disadvantaged students who do not attend school. Many of these students go on two continental holidays a year and miss days. They are equally losing out on their education. We should not assume it is a welfare issue, but it is certainly an education issue.
While I have problems with the amount of money allocated, I welcome the fact that the ten posts have been sanctioned and I understand the staff can now be appointed. This matter was raised recently by members of the National Educational Welfare Board in the education committee. Will the embargo on public service workers cause a difficulty in terms of the extra posts announced in the Estimates?
I do not envisage a difficulty in this area. There were comments in the newspapers that I might have to cut back 430 posts. There have been no discussions on that issue. I have received sanction to create various new posts in regard to special needs.
The Minister will be aware that last year the National Educational Welfare Board sought €25 million and this year it sought an extra €13 million. While the 20% increase to €7.8 million would be very welcome, obviously they are seeking that amount of money because they are aware of the problems that exist. It pointed out that 20 days or more are being missed by a considerable number of pupils and that one in seven children leave primary school with literacy problems. Does the Minister acknowledge that there is a need to sort out the problem during the lifetime of the Government? In that context, will she give a timeframe as to when the full roll-out of 300 educational welfare officers will be sanctioned and over what period?
I hope we will never reach a stage where we will need 300 educational welfare officers, because this would be the stick approach rather than the carrot approach. The home-school liaison and school completion programmes, targeting disadvantage and targeting programmes at pre-school and early school level and working with the parents and families is where the real benefit can be gained. If we are successful in this area, we will not need 300 educational welfare officers. Obviously we will continue to expand the service, but now that every county is covered, I hope there will be progress with everyone working in consultation with each other.
The drop-out rates have been increasing over the years despite these schemes being in place.
What has been focused on is that people might not have achieved the leaving certificate or junior certificate. Those who work with the disadvantaged — I believe they are correct — believe we should be focusing on those people who leave school without certification as opposed to just dropping out. Many people obtain certification which is not the junior certificate or leaving certificate, to which we are not giving sufficient recognition.
There are many pupils who do not go from primary to post-primary school. This issue must be addressed.
Equally, the number assessed in the NES document was based on very raw data, most of which cannot be substantiated. I acknowledge there is a problem in regard to the transfer of information from first level to second level, which is why the school completion programme is very useful. This works in a cluster of second level schools and primary schools to ensure all the activities and links exist between the two to encourage children to continue their education.