Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
Question:67. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education the steps she is taking to ensure all schools have access to appropriate physical education and school hall facilities. [57261/21]
View answerTuesday, 23 November 2021
Questions (67)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of having adequate facilities, crucially space, in our schools. In September 2018 a significant monetary commitment was made to ensure all secondary schools would have access to physical education, PE, facilities. This was reiterated in the national development plan last month. However, schools are not seeing any changes, with some waiting years for crucial school hall facilities. When will these be delivered?
I wish to confirm to the Deputy that the majority of schools have a general purpose room or physical education hall and practically all schools have outdoor play areas. In addition, many schools use adjacent local facilities, including community halls, public parks, playing fields and swimming pools.
Investment and expenditure on PE halls is an element of the overall expenditure and investment in the school building programme. The provision of PE halls and outdoor hard play areas such as basketball courts form part of the accommodation brief for all new school buildings or where a major building or refurbishment project is being delivered for an existing school. The Department provides general purpose rooms and PE halls with the construction of all new primary and post-primary schools, respectively. These facilities may also be provided where a major building or refurbishment project is being delivered for an existing school. In addition, the Department’s design guidelines for all new schools provide for outdoor multi-use games areas, in other words, hard play areas, and the level of play space provided varies with the size of the school. For example, a new 24-classroom primary school with special educational needs classes is provided with three ball courts, two junior play areas as well as a secure hard and soft play area and a 100 sq. m sensory garden. In respect of new post-primary schools, a new 1,000 pupil post-primary school is provided with six ball courts and a 200 sq. m secure hard and soft special education play area.
The main focus of resources over the past decade and, as the Deputy will appreciate, for the coming period is on the provision of additional capacity to cater for increasing demographics, particularly at post-primary level and for special educational needs provision. The Deputy will appreciate the immediate priority of the Department is providing new and replacement school places each year to ensure every child has a school place. However, the second half of the national development plan period will see an increasing focus on the upgrade and refurbishment of the existing school stock. This will include a PE hall build and modernisation programme to ensure students in all post-primary schools have access to appropriate facilities to support PE provision. The ancillary accommodation needs of primary schools, such as general purpose rooms, will also be considered. Details of large-scale projects being delivered under the school building programme may be viewed on the Department's website. In addition, a list of large-scale projects completed from 2010 to date may also be viewed on the website.
I thank the Minister but many schools throughout the country have no access to school hall facilities at all. Many talented students want to study leaving certificate PE but cannot access it as their school does not have the facilities. This is not good enough. It creates a real inequality. What will the Minister do to ensure all students who wish to study PE at leaving certificate level will have the same opportunity to do so and that their school will be provided with the resources to facilitate this? It is my understanding the Department is currently only focusing, as the Minister said, on school halls for new builds or where schools are undergoing significant renovation. This means schools operating in older and existing buildings are losing out. Is it the case the Department is not allowing applications for hall facilities for existing school buildings? Will the Minister reverse this policy decision to allow all schools have access to adequate PE facilities as committed to under the national development plan?
As I have previously outlined, the Department has a significant pipeline of projects to be delivered over the coming years to meet capacity need managed under the large-scale capital programme and the additional school accommodation scheme. This involves in excess of 1,200 school building projects across various stages of planning, design, tender and construction. The current delivery status of these projects is listed on a county by county basis on the website, as I have said to the Deputy. There are currently 377 schools, or 338 projects, listed on the large-scale capital programme, which would be expected to provide new PE halls at post-primary level where none already exist, or general purpose halls at primary level where none exist. Under Project Ireland 2040, the education sector will receive a total of approximately €4.4 billion in capital investment over the period of 2021 to 2025.
The Deputy is correct the focus at present is on new builds and where there is a significant refurbishment of a school but equally I appreciate the importance of this area of provision. It is part of our plan going forward.
The challenge is that schools are obviously operating in real time. We must allow enough flexibility for the older schools to be able to have these facilities as well. Otherwise we are creating a real inequality. We must work in real time and in the here and now, in the same way as we do in terms of ventilation, having clean air in schools and all of those things. The problem in general with the approach of the Minister and the Department is that everything will be okay in time to come. However, teachers are at the coalface and have to meet the challenges here and now. They have to ensure there is equality within their own schools and between schools as well to meet the real needs of the students who are there currently.
I want to be very clear to the Deputy there is an absolute commitment from the Department to provide all the necessary provision and opportunities necessary within the education sector. It is true to say we have presided over the single greatest investment in education in the most recent budget. Equally, there is a breadth of vision for education with respect to the provision of new builds, senior cycle reform as discussed earlier and the provision for special educational needs referred to by the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan. There is an enormous breadth of vision for education and indeed enormous investment in education by the present Government. Specifically with new building and the refurbishment of existing buildings, there is a particular concentration at present on the provision of places for all students, but an equal emphasis is being placed on the provision of appropriate facilities and resources for students also.