Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 28 May 1996

Vol. 466 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Letterkenny (Donegal) School.

Dr. McDaid

I am glad to have an opportunity to raise on the Adjournment a matter which deeply concerns many parents in the area served by the Woodland national school in Letterkenny. The Department will have recently received two separate applications from Fr. Brian Quinn, the manager of the school. The first relates to the appointment of an assistant teacher from September 1996 in view of the increased intake of pupils because of the rapidly increasing population in that developing suburban area and the second relates to the appointment of a full-time remedial teacher, where up to 40 pupils are in need of such a teacher.

It will be noted that a teacher already on the staff was appointed two years ago as a remedial teacher for five schools, including Woodland, but time allows her to teach only English readings; she does not have time to teach basic mathematics. It is appalling that those children are denied that basic education. A recent reply from the Minister on this subject stated that she could not provide additional remedical teachers at this time. I understand she is constrained by the Minister for Finance as far as resources are concerned, but she should double her efforts in this regard.

The second application is currently more pressing because it affects the ability of the school to place many children on its roll next September. Unless an additional teacher is sanctioned for li = "2" fli = "2"September, the proposed intake of 52 junior infants will have to be reduced to one maximum class of approximately 33. Furthermore, this would mean a possible intake of 85 junior infants in September 1997 which would exceed two maximum class sizes.

It is now rather late in the day to tell up to 20 sets of parents that the school cannot accept their children in September. I am informed that the board of management does not intend to accept responsibility for this matter and proposes to tell the parents that if a teacher is not sanctioned they will have to event their anger on the Department of Education. I am sure the Minister, as parent, will understand the desperate disappointment in all those homes where plans are already afoot to send young children to school for the first time in the autumn. She will also understand that for many of those children the entire education process will be delayed by a year because it would be virtually impossible to place them elsewhere.

The people of the Woodland area have made heroic efforts in recent years to provide the extra school accommodation required because of the increasing population. They deserve more than to have their children refused entry to school purely because of an inadequate number of teachers. I appeal to the Minister to ensure this does not arise.

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

As has been indicated to the House in the past, remedial education at primary level is a matter in the first instance for the ordinary class teachers. Therefore, the majority of pupils with remedial needs would be helped within the scope of the normal teaching service. However, it is acknowledged that remedial teachers constitute the main additional resource for addressing the problem of under-achievement in primary schools.

Substantial additional resources have been allocated to this area in recent years. In 1995, an additional 55 remedial teachers were appointed to primary schools and 223 schools benefited from this allocation. This brought the total number of remedial teachers in place to 1,188. Of the 3,203 ordinary national schools throughout the country, approximately 2,285 now have the services of a remedial teacher, either on a full-time or shared basis.

I recently launched a major new initiative aimed at bringing special targeted help to children in urban and rural areas who suffer serious educational disadvantage. These children too are worthy of our concern and support. Members will be only too familiar with the difficulties faced by many of our children from disadvantaged backgrounds and the life long problems which can result from failure to address the special educational needs of these children.

Under my recent initiative I am targeting significant resources in both staff and funding at selected schools in urban and rural areas which suffer from serious educational disadvantage. I have commissioned the Education Research Centre to invite applications for participation in this new initiative and I expect that the target schools will be contacted very shortly in relation to this matter.

I am satisfied that my record in developing the remedial teaching service since my appointment as Minister for Education provides concrete evidence of my commitment to the children in question. Since my appointment I have approved the allocation of an additional 241 remedial teachers to the service at primary level. I am also satisfied that, within the overall resources available to me, I have succeeded in bringing about significant improvement across the entire range of special needs services. The school referred to by the Deputy currently shares the service of a remedial teacher with four other primary schools.

Of the 178 ordinary national schools in County Donegal, 106 now have the services of a remedial teacher on a fulltime or shared basis. This includes nine schools allocated a remedial service in the current school year as part of the recent distribution of posts. This means that approximately 78 per cent of pupils attending ordinary national schools in County Donegal currently enjoy a remedial service.

At this stage 87 per cent of the pupils in our primary schools have the possibility of access to a remedial teacher. This is a big improvement on the position when I took office in 1993 when 77 per cent of pupils had the possibility of such access. It is a matter of regret that it is not possible at present to meet the needs of all pupils for remedial teaching as, unfortunately, I do not have unlimited resources. As Minister for Education I have to consider demands for improved services across a wide range of special needs and unfortunately, I am not always in a position to meet all these demands. I have to decide priorities and try to allocate available resources to best effect.

In the current year I have adopted a particular focus on the special needs of children who suffer from educational disadvantage and have sought to target resources at this area in an effort to break the cycle of disadvantage in education.