I would like to start my speech where Deputy Coughlan left off. I would like to endorse fully the compliments he paid to the former Archbishop of Dublin, Most Reverend Dr. McQuaid, for the wonderful way in which he contributed to the archdiocese of Dublin and other areas of the country in the field of education. For many years the people of Dublin city have regarded Dr. McQuaid as being one of their best leaders. In the field of education he did wonderful work for the children of the city of Dublin. This work was also projected into other fields, like health. As a doctor I have been very much aware of the way in which Dr. McQuaid gave so much assistance in the setting up of hospitals and also the help he gave by sitting on the boards of different hospitals and assisting in the management of them. The work which Dr. McQuaid did and the progress which he achieved in the archdiocese of Dublin over the past 20 years are a tribute to this great man. May I take this opportunity of wishing him the best of health and activity in his years of retirement?
This is also an opportunity for me to welcome the new Archbishop and to wish him the very best of success in the great task which is ahead of him. His pastoral work will, on many occasions, bring him into the field of education. One aspect of education which has been, perhaps, most neglected by successive Ministers and Governments is that in regard to handicapped children. The Minister will accept my criticism when I say that very little has been done to help the handicapped child to realise his full potential in education. Much could be done. One does not want to blame this inactivity or lethargy on lack of interest in the problem itself. One realises that the handicapped group of children in our society never had, and never will have, much voice in education. Some of the greatest faults of our educational system are shown by the defects which exist at present in the inadequate educational facilities for mentally and socially handicapped children. The percentage of mentally handicapped children in our society is increasing. As medical science advances in its efficiency more babies are born prematurely at the viable stage of 28 weeks in the gestation period. These babies are kept alive but the incidence of brain damage among them is far higher than it is among children who are born at full-term. The number of handicapped children born into our society now is far greater than ever before. Because of this, a realistic programme should be adopted by the Department of Education to provide the facilities necessary to each and every one of these children in order to give them a chance to realise their full potential and to obtain proper and adequate educational facilities suited to each particular handicap. Hand in hand with mental subnormality go the other diseases which from time to time come with very little warning to the notice of the medical profession. We had the drastic instance of this happening with the thalidomide babies. The Department should be in a position to see that in the years to come children with such handicaps will need special facilities at least equal to those of normal children. A handicapped child needs perhaps better facilities than the normal child.
The next greatest disease to come into our sector of the handicapped classes would be that of spina bifida. Over the past six years, with the assistance of surgery to cure this condition and to keep the child alive, and with the complications of hydrocephaly, we have a large number of children now suffering from both spina bifida and hydrocephaly and one of the features of this disease is that it is essentially physical. There is no mental subnormality attached to it and in fact in many cases the opposite has been observed, the child in fact, being of a very high level of intelligence. Many of them have well above the normal IQ, but the provision for getting these children to and from special schools and the relaxation of mind necessary for the harmony in the home in parents knowing that adequate education will be provided for their children who suffer from this affliction are not there and it is silly for us to say that we have any realistic programme of educating handicapped children.
There are many sectors of education in which a handicapped child could do extremely well. I do not want to go into the different types of diseases which result in keeping a child away from the normal school centre. There are many, but it is not for me to outline them to the Minister and it might not be appropriate on the Estimate to do so, but there is the field of languages which could be taught in the home with the many modern teaching methods available in the form of teaching aids and special tape recording systems. These could be made available free to many children who were tested and seen to be responsive to this type of education and who would not be in a position to travel to normal schools or even to a centre of special education.
Again the field of mathematics is a field in which physical handicap does not require a child to be in the centre of education. I have in mind two young constitutents of mine who, because of the peculiar and very rare disease from which they suffer, are unable to stay regularly at school; and if, as their parents have on a few occasions asked me, these language courses were made available they could at least continue some form of systematic and methodical education at home when they were laid up because the peculiar disease they have does not affect their mental capacity in any way. It merely affects their school attendance and so unfortunately their academic progress is inhibited by lack of ability to attend school. It is most unfortunate to see a child with a perfect IQ falling behind his class and behind his age group when this could be avoided. There are not a vast number of these cases but there are certainly many cases that could be helped of children who could make normal progress or who could contribute very constructively to society and play a very active part and feel that they were playing a very active part in our society later on.
This also gives rise to the consideration of the provision of such facilities as home tutor facilities on a similar basis as that on which home nurses are made available to the ill. If home tutoring facilities were made available in cases where a child was unable to travel at all or where it was injurious to him to do so, or where he suffers from cystic fibrosis, and gets recurring infections every time he goes out, but who has normal mental capacity, that child could develop normally in an academic fashion and I would like to see arrangements made whereby these facilities would exist, and not just for the rich. I am sure that many Deputies have had private tuition in the home or tuition of some kind in such matters as music, and it is not all that expensive to provide. It can be most productive and it is of course probably the most productive form of education we can get. The handicapped child who cannot travel to either the special school or to the normal centre of learning should be considered for the provision of a home tutor type of education to which the child would be responsive and adaptable.
With regard to handicapped children generally, one of the best types of education I have seen in practice work with these children is the Montessori type of teaching where children can be taken into play groups as soon as they are toilet trained. Certain children can come into a group at the age of a little over two years and can communicate and learn the different ways of suggestive learning as available through the Montessori system. I am personally disappointed that the Montessori system of teaching is not recognised by the Department. I think it is an invaluable system of learning for infants and even for those of higher grades, but certainly for infants in a small group, it is excellent and unsurpassed by anything I have seen in education in this city.
There is another aspect of educating the normal child who may possibly have some form of impediment. One of the commonest forms of impediment which one comes across in connection with the normal IQ child is a speech problem. There are very few people in Leinster House who suffer from it, so it is probably difficult to convey a true picture to politicians because politicians are known for their verbosity and their ability to speak, but the child who has found difficulty in expressing himself and cannot give a full account of himself at oral examinations should have a little more provision made for him in oral examinations than is there at present. There are many children in school who live in fear and dread of the oral Irish examination. They must pass Irish if they wish to go to university. If a student has a serious speech defect which has been certified by a doctor and the school manager, account is taken of this by the Department. However, a boy of 17 or 18 years who is doing his examination realises that the piece of paper he has is not worth much if he does not pass the oral Irish. I should like to see some provision whereby he would not have to sit the oral Irish examination; if this were done he could concentrate with an easy mind on the other subjects and thereby give a good account of himself. Now such a student must concentrate to a considerable extent on the written part of the Irish examination in order to compensate for his difficulty with the oral section.
Recently the Department of Health set up a school of speech therapists but even with the full number of graduates in the current year they will not be able to tackle the problem to a great extent. Even if the problem is tackled quite substantially there will remain a fear in a certain group that the oral Irish testing will not be to their advantage. I have had experience of a few cases of students who were doing their leaving certificate examination and in some instances their fear of oral Irish affected their studies. Sometimes it can be a contributory factor in their terminating their studies at an early age.
There are those with a physical handicap who cannot commit their knowledge to paper and it would be appropriate on this Estimate to discuss the possibility of abolishing the old type of essay examination and introducing a system of multi-question examination. Some higher centres of learning here are considering this practice which is used widely in the United States. My experience of this new type of examination is that it eliminates much of the stress and strain that is experienced in the older examination system. We need not be revolutionary or radical in changing the method of testing but I should like to see some system introduced such as the one I have mentioned.
There were many fellow-students of my own at school and university who did not acquit themselves as well as they could have because they were not essay writers. The multi-choice question examination system would eliminate this factor and it would give an accurate picture of the knowledge acquired by the student. Questions would be phased in such a way that an overall picture could be obtained of the knowledge of the pupil. In addition, where the papers are corrected by computer one does away with the risk inherent in other examinations. The human element is taken out of the marking of papers. Most students hope their papers will not be examined in the late hours of the night by an examiner who is suffering from migraine, for example. The human factor is eliminated in this multi-choice question examination.
The Department of Education, through the school managers and teachers, are the first people who can elicit any sign of disability in a child. This can be overlooked at the regular school medical examinations because it can take some time to assess a child's ability to speak properly. As with mental and physical development, speech development has many phases. The classification of children into different categories can be detrimental to the child who has a minor speech defect; such a defect can cause him to be classified at an early stage as being a slow child or a child who has a subnormal intelligence. The wrong type of handling in such a case can have catastrophic effects on the child's mental attitude to learning.
We are aware of the shy child who does not speak in class because of a slight defect and if he is put at the back of the class he can vegetate there. In the same way the bright-eyed, vocal child can be brought to the front of the class and can be coaxed. It is only fair to say that many children who suffer from speech defects, particularly those that are of an emotional origin, have a high degree of intelligence. Many of them have a well-above normal intelligence.
A certain amount of frustration is felt in the sections of the medical world which deal with problems like this. There are many children who could be helped at an early age and whose education need not suffer in any way if the teachers were more aware of these problems. A minor hearing defect can be picked up at a regular school examination but, in the case of a speech defect, unless it is caused by some physical abnormality like a tied tongue or a cleft palate, it will not be picked up immediately. The teacher has a vitally important role to play in this matter. One cannot over-emphasise it when speaking on the subject of handicapped children or on the subject of a child with perfectly normal intelligence who has a speech problem. The referral of a child of this kind to a psychologist, or to one of the special speech therapy centres in Dublin, is of the utmost importance. Speech therapists and people who have any knowledge of this subject say that the earlier the defect is detected the greater the chance of effecting a quick cure and bringing the child back to a normal educational pattern.
It is not unusual to see children deliberately pretending they do not know the answer to questions they are asked in class because they cannot pronounce certain words. I believe the Department have not become fully aware of this. I am not saying that I am the only one who is aware of it. Many Deputies have referred to it. The number of special classes provided in the suburban areas that I know of are very few. Classes are provided in schools around the suburbs of my constituency and the progress made by the children and the benefits they derive by being transferred to a class of this kind are quite noticeable. There does not appear to be any stigma attaching to the fact that they are in a class with a special system of teaching or a softhanded method of education.
In the field of education we must be aware of the ability of the child and his ability to communicate his knowledge vocally or on paper. We should have a look at our system of examinations, the way they are presented to the child, the way the child is assessed, and the way we assess and classify a child when he is leaving school. His total Irish education is assessed in a two-hour or three-hour examination. His total mathematics knowledge is assessed in a two-hour or three-hour examination. I have always felt that this was at fault.
Many friends who were at school with me did not do well in their examinations but did extremely well in life afterwards. They proved themselves to be very capable and to have a very wide knowledge of their subject but, on the day appointed, they did not acquit themselves well. The multi-choice system of examination could lessen the number of students who do not acquit themselves adequately from the point of view of the knowledge they have accumulated over the years. Any Department or any group of officials who issue a certificate to a boy, and particularly a certificate which states that he has failed, have a great responsibility.
A constituent of mine is having great difficulty at the moment. He is an orphan. He obtained two honours in his leaving certificate and passed in Irish. He did an honours mathematics course which he failed. Because he failed in maths, even though it was honours maths, anywhere he shows that sheet of paper with "failed" after "mathematics" he will be looked upon as a dumb-bell who cannot add. This is the fault of the system of examination. Under the multi-choice system a child might be asked 1,000 questions and he marks off one answer in a series of possible answers, one of which is correct, and he could come out having answered 40 or 50 or 75 per cent of the questions correctly. We must take into account the human ability to put thoughts on paper and the ability to write quickly and clearly. Those factors would be eliminated from the assessment at the end of the child's time in secondary school, and in the university unless he is doing a specific course which necessitates a certain talent for being able to write long essays very quickly.
The Minister mentioned some very important matters in his speech such as community schools, primary, secondary and university education, higher institutes of education and school transport but he did not refer at all to the part played by his Department in the physical education of children. Anyone who has gone through school is aware of the importance of being strong and physically fit to endure the long hours of study which are necessary to obtain a degree and to pass an examination. I could hardly believe this was not referred to by the Minister.
Many prominent speakers did not give proper attention to the National Council for Sport which was set up in the life of this Dáil. It is no harm to mention that the National Council for Sport was set up following a suggestion by this party. Soon after we called on the Taoiseach to concentrate more on sport, to allocate more money for the administration of sport and for the provision of sporting facilities, the National Council for Sport was set up. This is a stepping-stone towards the establishment of a Ministry for Sport. The voluntary members of the National Council for Sport deserve the greatest tribute this House can pay them for the wonderful work they have done. They are an example to other Departments that if we get a group of people who have a common interest, the talent available in nonelected personnel is tremendous. These people on the National Council for Sport show what a group of unpaid, voluntary workers can achieve in a very short time in stimulating interest in physical education and sport. The Minister should refer to them when he is replying and should pay tribute to the extremely good service that they have given to the country.
One anomaly that I find in regard to education is the fact that most of the centres of higher education in Dublin are on the south side of the city. I do not agree that all the intellectuals in Dublin are on the south side. There should be a balance in the provision of educational facilities in this city. There are five centres of higher education south of the Liffey and only one north of the Liffey. Yet, there is a higher percentage of the population resident north of the Liffey and that population is rapidly expanding. There is a higher percentage of children north of the Liffey and a higher percentage of adults. The only centre of higher education on the north side is Bolton Street College. On the south side there are the Rathmines School of Commerce, Kevin Street, University College, Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. If one wants to mention the Apothecaries Hall as a centre of higher education, which technically it is although it does not function all that much, then, statistically, there are six centres of higher education on the south side. I am not including the Albert College because it is destined to be transferred.
The cost of travelling from my constituency across the city to Belfield, which may involve taking two or three buses, imposes an unfair burden on students living on the north side of the city. Those travelling from the north side—they are very few—to Trinity College also experience difficulty in travelling. This affects their educational progress because it involves having to be in buses for a considerable period and standing at bus queues, perhaps in the rain. As one who travelled a good deal by bus to university I know that a great deal of time can be wasted in travelling by this means.
There is a very strong case for building the next centre of higher education that is to be built on the north side. In regard to the hospital services available there is a difference between the north side and the south side of the city. In discussing local government it is possible to indicate the number of office blocks built on the south side as compared with the north side. Public representatives on the north side of the city hear complaints from constituents who have to cross the Liffey in order to get to a centre of higher learning. Those on the north side who work in the Civil Service have to go south of the Liffey in most cases. This involves extra expenditure in bus fares and lunches out. This disadvantage is something we inherited. Most of the colleges I have mentioned were in existence when the country gained its independence. There is a strong case for building the new centre of higher education on the north side.
In August last a garbled statement appeared in the newspapers to the effect that the centre of higher education scheduled to be built on the lands of the Albert College in Glasnevin would not go ahead. On behalf of my constituents I would ask the Minister to indicate, when replying to the debate, why the centre of education in Glasnevin is being shelved, why progress has not been made in the building of this centre. I do not have to go into any great detail in order to convince the Minister of the necessity for a centre of higher education in this area. If the Minister cares to travel that part of the city with me, or with any of his colleagues who represent the area, he will see the massive expansion that has taken place both in local authority and private dwellings and will realise the urgent need that exists for a centre of higher education.
It was with regret that I heard that the Ling Physical Education College is being closed down and that the Department of Education are taking over the functions carried out by this college. It is appropriate on this Estimate to pay tribute to the Ling College which produced so many extremely well qualified physical instructors.
This is something which I notice is omitted from the Parliamentary Secretary's contribution. He mentioned the National Council for Sport, the National Youth Council and the amount of work done and he mentioned other aspects of physical education but it was not until Deputy Clinton called for a statement on physical education that we had a statement from a member of the Government, a junior Minister who is responsible for physical education and for sport. It was not until Deputy Clinton said that there was a responsibility on the Department to make a statement regarding the progress of the National Council for Sport, the ways in which the money had been allocated and the progress made, that the Minister's Parliamentary Secretary, Deputy O'Kennedy, adverted to this matter.
One of the omissions in his speech, which is possibly an oversight on his part, is the lack of reference to any system of providing physical recreational facilities for young females. I have had many representations made to me by mothers in my constituency regarding recreational facilities for their daughters. Traditionally, physical activity was always a male pursuit and, perhaps, the prerogative of that sex but in recent years females are keen to become involved in athletics and in football. They have formed soccer teams in the city and are keen to play basketball and volley ball and take part in athletics. If one observes, as I am sure the Parliamentary Secretary and the Minister have observed, the massive gatherings at the Kennedy stadium each year when the community games take place and sees the hundreds of boys and girls participating in these games, one realises the importance of providing adequate recreational facilities for both boys and girls. It is tremendously important that we observe at all stages in education the old motto Mens sana in corpore sano, a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Perhaps it is significant that when, in UCD, which traditionally had a Wednesday half-day for university sports and the holding of inter-university competitions, this was abolished, the incidence of psychiatric complaints among students increased fantastically. One is tempted to say that the general policy in education now is to produce academics rather than men, to produce people with rubber-stamp degrees to show they have passed through a certain recognised course provided by one of our higher institutions of education. Much criticism can be levelled at that system because the type of person coming out with degrees now is not always the type one would like to see emerging, not the kind of graduate the country would hope for. Higher centres of learning, vocational and university, should be producing leaders of the community and leaders in industry, both men and women. I venture to say the change of emphasis in the past decade to academic achievement from overall ability to make use of academic knowledge acquired in the universities was a mistake. I would rather see a graduate coming out with perhaps 10 per cent less academic knowledge and 90 per cent more leadership. We have resorted to producing an assembly-type graduate and to over-emphasising the importance of storing information in the memory of the student. To some extent, we are taking away the personality and natural talents of the student by this.
The pendulum must swing back. Other countries have made similar mistakes and have seen what happened. Their countries are now without any form of leadership apart from trained administrators, people who have done a special course in artificial leadership. The fact that sport appears to be discouraged rather than encouraged in a university is a tragic mistake. I can always remember a colleague of mine being told by a professor in front of an examiner from England: "This man might make a great rugby player but it will be a long time before he passes this exam." He passed the examination and made a great rugby player. He became an international and I am glad to say that he is now a natural leader in his community.
Stifling natural talents at any stage in a student's life is detrimental to society at large. Any higher centre of education, and particularly the universities, when planning courses and accepting students should take fully into account the academic, economic, social and cultural needs of the society and the community to which the graduates will return. In this regard I should like to mention specifically the field of medical education. The Minister criticised me here once for advocating the training of doctors for export. One of the points I was making at that time was that, while much money was being spent on the education of medical students, there were many people in several areas in the country who had hardly any medical facilities available to them because of a shortage of medical doctors. The reason for this situation is because some of these areas are so isolated that a doctor would find it difficult to set up practice in them or he might consider the difficulties involved in the education of his children in such areas. It was for that reason I suggested some time ago that the local authorities, or the Department of Health, or the Department of Education, or even all three combined, should devise a system under which those areas in which there is the greatest need for graduates should be assessed in relation to that need and that students wishing to pursue a course leading to a degree in medicine should be subsidised completely on the understanding that on qualifying they would agree to serve in their respective areas at an agreed remuneration. In this way they would be giving of their knowledge and training to the people who helped them qualify.
Perhaps I am more familiar with the medical aspect of education than with any other. For any child who wishes to go through university but whose parents may not be able to afford the cost involved it is a fair deal that, if his fees and accommodation are paid, he would return to an area in which there was a shortage of medical personnel. The same could apply where there is difficulty in filling teaching posts. Such a system would overcome the problems that are being experienced in areas along certain parts of the western seaboard, for example.
I would like to see the re-introduction of night classes for students at UCD. Many potential students were very upset when these classes were discontinued.
Another matter that is causing much concern both to parents and students is that of the ever-increasing fees of the universities. Perhaps a system could be introduced whereby the parents of a potential student could budget for about four or five years in advance of the student entering college in the knowledge that, all being well and the student reaching the standard necessary, a certain amount would be required for fees, books and so on. The only unknown factor they would have to contend with would be rises in the cost of living. However, this would not be possible if university fees should continue to increase to the extent to which they have been increasing recently. I would like to see, also, some system whereby expenses of students would be subsidised by the Department of Education, on a graded basis, as costs increased and that such would apply to books which, as we all know, are very expensive. The fact that in this academic year students in UCD went on strike and caused the closure of the university for some considerable time must be the strongest indication yet that the increasing fees are totally unjust, badly timed and the result of general mismanagement by those at the top in the educational institutions and in the Department. Those of us who were approached by students to have the matter raised here did so but were allowed to raise it on only one occasion. At the time those who should have been doing something about the matter seemed to be apathetic towards it. Although the matter was resolved eventually, it would have been more opportune to have taken action in the early stages so that the fears of many intending students could have been allayed.
A child may inherit some money that will enable him to pay his fees for, say, his first year at university but it is hard luck if he finds on obtaining his leaving certificate that the university fees are to be increased by 25 per cent. The Department should make a statement in advance on any proposed increase in fees.
