Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2006
118 Mr. Morgan asked the Minister for Education and Science her views on the fact that literacy and numeracy difficulties among pupils are still a matter of concern; and the way in which she proposes to deal with same. [25810/06]
View answerThe achievement of high literacy and numeracy standards is one of the primary goals of education, in my view. Since achievement in literacy and numeracy are such fundamental prerequisites for the development of personal and social competence, I believe that the education system should enable every individual to develop literacy and numeracy skills to the greatest extent possible, in accordance with their capacity to learn.
Schools generally have relatively low proportions of children with significant literacy difficulties as evidenced by comparatively high overall achievement levels in successive international surveys of reading of 15-year olds. The most significant levels of literacy and numeracy difficulties tend to be concentrated in designated disadvantaged schools.
I propose to target significant resources to ameliorate literacy and numeracy difficulties in disadvantaged schools through the measures announced in the DEIS action plan. These measures include a maximum class size of 20:1 in junior classes and 24:1 in senior classes in the 180 urban/town primary schools serving the most disadvantaged communities and increased access to literacy and numeracy support services and programmes for all 320 urban/town primary schools. I have also sanctioned the recruitment of 12 literacy and numeracy tutors to provide in-school support and guidance to all teachers in these schools.
In addition, I am making training in "Reading Recovery" available to all urban/town schools. "Reading Recovery" is designed to provide targeted support to younger children who are failing to learn. In addition, a number of off-the-shelf training packages will be made available to all teachers with a view to improving teaching methodologies and developing more robust assessment systems at classroom and school level. A new Family Literacy Project will also be implemented. Finally, the School Development Planning service will support schools in developing their plans and policies for teaching literacy and numeracy and in setting measurable targets for the reduction of serious literacy and numeracy difficulties.
I believe that these measures will equip our teachers and schools to tackle any outstanding literacy and numeracy problems in schools. I am confident that we are putting in place a world-class system to support even the most vulnerable pupils and I am confident that literacy and numeracy achievement will improve considerably as a result.
