This is not a new subject in this House, or outside it. The matter has been raised very frequently in the past here, by way of parliamentary question and otherwise. I remember on one such occasion the Minister, while professing sympathy with the proposal, expressed the view that there was no great demand for this change throughout the country. I think he was honestly, but entirely, mistaken in that view, because going through the country and meeting the people who are keenly interested, because they have to be keenly interested in a matter of this kind, one could not but recognise that this was a reform that was very strongly desired and very much required throughout the country. I think it would be no exaggeration to describe the reform envisaged in this proposal as a great national need, and I hope sincerely that, as a result of the discussion, the Minister, who, in recent public utterances, we are happy to note, indicated that this matter was getting fuller consideration than it received in the past, will indicate his agreement with the need for this reform and announce his intention to give effect to it at an early date.
The fact is that the masses of the people in this country have nothing to offer their children but an education, and with the limited opportunities they have in that direction, such educational facilities as can be put at the disposal of the children ought to be freely put at their disposal. For the masses of the children whose parents cannot afford a secondary education, the only education must be that of the primary schools. I agree that that, on the whole, has been very good, and the records of these schools over generations show that the boy and girl in the small national school in a remote area have been able to attain very great prominence, and have had the natural talents and brilliant intellects they possessed brought out and given a full and proper place as a result of that national school education. I think it is most regrettable that, in the process of that education, there should be a position in which a number of the children are denied the full facilities for receiving that education.
There is not an opportunity of making very many new points on this matter, because the points that have been made are those that would strike anybody who takes part in such a debate. There is, however, one aspect which might be mentioned. Above all others, young children are extremely sensitive, and children attending school who feel that they are not in as favourable a position as the children who sit in the same class or the same room are in a very unhappy position. We know that children going to school like to feel that they are in a position of equality, in respect of the little things that are necessary in school, with the other children, and the classification of children by reason of the circumstances of their parents and the handicaps imposed on their children because they are not able to compete with their comrades in the class because they have not got these school requisites to the same extent, and because they know, even in their very early days, that the procuring of such requisites imposes a heavy burden on their parents, is a very unhappy position for such children.
I agree that a good deal towards the provision of school books for children whose parents are not able to provide them has been done by the national teachers, but I ask again why should that be the case? Why should the teacher have to call the poor child out of the class quietly and tell him that it will not be necessary to try to secure any money at home for books, but that he or she will be prepared to provide the books? I know that that is very generally done at present and I think it is very regrettable that our educational system should have such associations as that kind of thing represents. I give all credit to the teachers who do that work, and I think credit can be extended generally to the bulk of the teachers in the country who are always anxious to help their children and whose main ambition has been to see that the children get the best possible training, and get their intellect and brains and opportunities developed to the fullest possible extent in the school. It does not need any great emphasis to show that the disabilities of parents of very humble circumstances and with very little means have been intensified by the increasing cost of books. They are more expensive than they used to be years ago and they are changed very frequently. Again, we all note with pleasure the fact that the Minister has stated recently that in that connection some changes have been made. I take it that that is the result of the work of the Inter-Departmental Committee which examined this matter some time ago. That is all to the good, but it does not go far enough, and the Minister would do a very great national service by going the whole way in this matter, and by making it clear that the children of the humblest parents in the country will have the same opportunities in the national schools, so far as school requisites are concerned, as any other children.
I think, and I have always thought, that amongst the greatest tragedies in this country is that type of tragedy represented by the growing boy or girl who has no opportunity in life. We know that this is a matter of tremendous anxiety to parents all over the country. Any member of the House, any public representative on local bodies or elsewhere, will know, from his correspondence and from his interviews with the people he represents, that it is one of the problems one comes up against most frequently. I believe the position in that respect is intensified because children have not got equal opportunities in the matter of getting primary education. I wind up on the note on which I opened this statement by saying that this, to me, represents one of the most important reforms the House could consider, and I sincerely hope that, as a result of this discussion and of bringing this matter very definitely to the notice of the House, the Minister, who has indicated sympathy and consideration with the general principles of it, will not stop at any half-way house on the road to securing this reform, but will recognise that in bringing about this reform, he is conferring a very definite boon on the parents of these children, and, in the end, is only securing justice for the children of the country, the justice of which their citizenship of the State entitles them to, and which, as Deputy Byrne said, has been actually enshrined in the Constitution.
