Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 March 2015
120. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Education and Skills if an analysis has been conducted to assess the impact of the reduction in the number of teachers and special needs assistants on education standards; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8830/15]
View answerHas an audit been done on the impact of austerity on education and on the hundreds of teachers and special needs assistants taken out of schools over the past number of years by the previous Government and by this one? Will the Minister make a statement on that?
While no specific assessment, as referred to by the Deputy - although she did not use the term "austerity" in her question - has been done we measure education standards through published national and international assessment and monitoring of standards. In this regard, I have welcomed the recently published report on the 2014 national assessments of English reading and mathematics, which shows us that literacy standards have improved across the system, in both DEIS and non-DEIS schools. This is also borne out in recent international benchmarks, notwithstanding the fiscal situation. In the context of measuring education standards, the Deputy should note that SNAs are allocated to schools to enable them to support pupils with disabilities who also have significant care needs as distinct from educational needs. Any discussion about the impacts of budget measures has to be considered in the context of the over-riding requirement to stabilise the public finances and move the country onto a pathway of growth. This is the most sustainable way of protecting education standards into the future. It is important to note that additional teaching resources have been provided to schools to cater for increased demographics and also to provide for pupils with special needs. Over the last two years, teacher numbers have increased by approximately 2,300 posts. Budget 2015 includes provision for 1,700 additional teachers and SNAs in our schools in the coming school year. This is a very significant investment at a time of scarce resources. The challenge for all our schools is to maximise what is achieved with the resources that are provided to them.
There have been improvements in reading and mathematics. One principal has sent an e-mail to me asking what the reward for teachers and schools has been. It has been a continuation of cuts that were brought in by Fianna Fáil in the previous Administration, but which were then added to by the current Government, such as a 15% cut in resource teaching hours. The reversal of the cuts has not applied to teaching English as an additional language, which particularly affects areas like my own, where 25% of the population hails from outside Ireland. There has been no reversal of the resource teaching cuts for Travellers, or of cuts to the number of counsellors. While the Minister has said that there has been an increase in the last year, that in no way makes up for the cuts that have taken place since 2009. Is the Minister trying to say we are at pre-crisis levels? The basis for those cuts was that we were in a bailout situation. The Minister is saying we are in a recovery, so when will teaching staff be restored and when will SNAs be restored to pre-recession levels?
In the last two years, teacher numbers increased by 2,300 posts and the number of SNAs and resource teachers increased by 1,700. For the first time, we had an increase in the overall education budget last October. That is an indication of progress. We have gone through very difficult times, but we have turned the corner. Perhaps that indicates that some credit should be given to the Government in terms of the policy that has allowed us to recover our economic sovereignty and start putting money back into areas like education. With regard to the area of special needs, a new model has been proposed. That is under consideration. Areas like the kind of supports to be offered to children with special needs will be part of that. We will introduce it at first on a pilot basis. I will be announcing details of that shortly. It was discussed earlier. The new model will not be introduced, apart from as a pilot programme, by next September.
It is despicable that the previous Government, which brought the troika into this country, particularly targeted children, as the UNICEF report clearly indicated, and gutted the education system with, for example, 100 primary school teachers lost around that time in Dublin West. The present Government has continued to make children and education pay. For example, 98% of second level schools have had to drop subjects. Approximately two teachers have been lost per school. Class sizes are much larger, meaning that there is a mix of levels, and yet the Minister expects teachers to implement a new junior certificate regime. Subjects like accountancy, physics, economics and chemistry, which we keep hearing are essential for foreign direct investment, are the very subjects that are being dropped most in schools when cuts have to be made. Some 30% of schools are losing their guidance counsellors, which seems bizarre in a country with one of the highest levels of youth unemployment. It seems that schools and children are still being made to pay. We heard at the Labour Party conference at the weekend that austerity ended when the troika left. What an insult.
No matter how often the Deputy repeats that mantra, we have had extra teachers and SNAs-----
That is the demographic dividend.
-----and for the first time, we have seen progress in terms of international measures, in mathematics and English in particular. We have reached targets now that we were not supposed to reach until 2020. We have also been improving in terms of retention figures in schools and the number of young people who stay on until the leaving certificate. It is all very well to keep repeating these slogans, but they do no good for anybody. I am giving figures that show improvements with regard to education.
Will the Minister restore all those cuts to teachers now?
