I am grateful to the Chair for granting me permission to raise the question and I thank the Minister for coming into the House to reply.
For more than 150 years the Patrician Brothers and their teachers have provided an outstanding educational service to generations of young Galwegians who attended St. Patrick's National School in the city. An essential element of the broad education of life given at the Patrician Brothers' school was having a seventh class to prepare the boys well for entry into the secondary school system. Numerous testimonials exist from grateful parents expressing appreciation of the value of attendance at the seventh class in that school. Time permitting I will refer to some of those testimonials later.
There are 579 pupils attending the school, 18 teachers, two special teachers and a principal. There are four sixth classes in the school with a total of 140 pupils and approximately 70 stay on each year for a further year to attend seventh class and approximately 44 pupils are taken on at the special request of parents of children attending mostly rural schools around the city. At present there are 114 pupils in seventh class made up of three classes of 38 pupils.
The provision of seventh class has existed in that school for the past 150 years. That class has traditionally catered for three distinct categories of pupils: children who have failed to achieve an adequate level of literacy and numeracy which is critical to their further education; children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds who have greater than usual difficulty progressing through the primary school cycle and children who are too young and emotionally ill-prepared to progress and integrate successfully at second level.
Four years ago, the Department of Education informed the board of management that the provision of seventh class should end in June 1990. After discussions with the Department a phasing out period of four years was granted. In the intervening period, because of parental demand, Brother Robert Ruane, the principal, reluctantly agreed to increase the number of seventh classes in the school from two to three to accommodate increased numbers demanding placements in those classes. Despite repeated appeals and representations from parents and teachers to rescind the decision arrived at in 1990 and allow the seventh classes to continue, the Department of Education refused to alter its decision. The chairperson of the board of management, Brother Marcus, was informed on 1 March last that the seventh classes should cease at the end of the current school year.
I consider that to be an educationally regressive decision by the Coalition Government. The Minister, who is a teacher, should know the transition between the child-centred primary education system and the more academically orientated secondary system can be difficult and traumatic for children with learning difficulties. The new curriculum purports to allow children to progress at their own pace. Automatic and compulsory progress to second level makes nonsense of this ideology when it is evident that children are not ready.
While one can agree in theory with the Department's policy that all children should progress to second level after eight years in the primary cycle, this only holds true in ideal circumstances. The reality is that not all children are ready to advance to second level for a multiplicity of educational, psychological and social reasons. One of the most trenchant arguments for a seventh class year is that it allows flexibility in the system and gives a vital chance to those children who do not have an adequate basis in literacy and numeracy and children who are young or immature and provides a much needed opportunity to make transition to secondary cycle easier. Unsought testimonials from parents over the years reinforces that point strongly.
The Department of Education argued that with the introduction of a six year cycle at secondary level that the need for a seventh class is eliminated. However, the proposed transition year is not available in all schools at present and is in most cases a post-junior or leaving certificate year. This is too late for children who for one reason or another are struggling in the first and subsequent years of the secondary school cycle.
Historically, there has always been a demand for a seventh class and at least one seventh class has been in operation in that school for 150 years. Since the population boom of the 1970s, and probably also due to increased pressure on children to achieve high grades at second level, St. Patrick's school has under pressure, provided a second seventh class. Since 1991, again due entirely to demand from parents outside the schools normal catchment areas the principal, Brother Robert Ruane, has provided a third seventh class.
St. Patrick's Brothers National School, since the closure of St. Brendan's, is the only city centre school in Galway. It caters for the school-going populations of the vast sprawls of local authority housing estates on the west and east sides of the city. A significant number of students from those disadvantaged areas do not achieve potential in literacy and numeracy by the end of their primary schooling. Seventh class has been an ideal opportunity to redress that.
Article 42.1 of the Constitution states that parents have the inalienable right and duty to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children. Parents, as the primary educators, should have the option of allowing their children to do a further year at primary level should they deem it necessary for their child's education.
It is a retrograde step to abandon a system that has worked so well and proved educationally successful down through the years. In view of my cogent arguments I ask the Minister to reconsider her decision.
