Ceist:
34 Mr. Coveney asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of remedial teachers required to provide a service to an acceptable standard to all those primary schools without a remedial service. [25866/98]
Other Questions. - School Staffing.
My Department has estimated that an allocation equivalent to approximately 140 remedial teacher posts would be required to provide a service to all primary schools currently without access to a remedial teacher service. The precise number of posts required would be determined by such factors as the locations of the schools in question and the numbers of pupils involved in each individual case. My capacity to allocate additional remedial teacher posts in any given year is dependent on resource availability and the level of competing demand from other special needs areas.
I recently allocated 60 additional remedial teacher posts to national schools with effect from September 1998. There are now 1,302 remedial teachers in place in the primary system. I am currently examining the scope for further development in this area, in keeping with my objective of ensuring that a remedial service is made available to every national school in the country.
Mr. Coveney:
I assume the Minister will agree that every child has the right to be given an opportunity to fulfil his or her academic potential. Why will he not give higher priority to ensuring that children most in need of teaching assistance get it from a remedial teacher? At present 704 schools are still without the service of a remedial teacher. Will the Minister commit himself to a timetable to ensure that every primary school will have a remedial teaching service for mathematics and reading?
Since I took up office I stated that is my number one priority. The difficulty has been caused by an intermittent commitment to addressing this problem over the years. During the past five or six years 40 or 50 remedial teachers may have been appointed in one year and none the following year. There was a stretch of two years when not one additional remedial teacher was appointed. If we have strategic objectives for primary school teaching, we should aim to achieve them. Every school should have access to a remedial resource. At present there are approximately 700 schools that do not have access to that service. Addressing that problem is a priority. I signalled disadvantaged schools and the provision of the home-school liaison scheme as priority issues. The home-school liaison scheme has been a great success story, but it suffered historically because no resources were allocated to it for a number of years. I have no difficulty committing myself to a timetable and a target of providing a remedial resource to every child in the country. From here on in we will consider case loads of approximately 30 pupils. The circumstances will be governed by the location of small rural schools, the category into which many of the schools that do not have access to a remedial resource fall. When we reach that stage the journey will not be over. I do not want to hog the time allocated for this question and I will give way to the other Deputies offering.
Perhaps I nodded off momentarily, but I did not detect the timescale envisaged from the Minister's reply. Will he clarify if it will be announced in the budget that it will be this year or will it be over two years? What is the problem with making available to the House the full review of the remedial education scheme? I have had to seek that information by way of the Freedom of Information Act. What is the secrecy about that report? Surely it should be available to Opposition spokespersons.
There should not be any secrecy about the report on the remedial teaching system. I will undertake to provide that to the Deputy. I am not in a position to pre-empt what will happen later today. I set a timetable at the INTO conference last year in that I said I hoped to ensure every school will have access to a remedial resource within two years. I gave that and other commitments at that conference and, on foot of that, Senator O'Toole said he would canonise me.
After execution.
I will not wait in anticipation.
After martyrdom.
In any event, I will endeavour to see what I can do to improve on that. If we achieve that objective in terms of a remedial resource for every school or cluster of schools in the country, we then have to look a bit further because there are still about 71 schools that have over 500 pupils and one remedial teacher. We have two schools with over 900 pupils that have only one remedial resource. We have to advance step by step.
(Carlow-Kilkenny): I rise in awe in the presence of a saintly Minister. It is something new in this House. Is the reality that the Minister is dealing with teachers who do not exist? Making a priority of remedial teachers, which I support, is very important but has the Minister enough teachers to do that? Has he enough teachers to reduce the pupil teacher ratio, which would make a big difference? The demand for remedial teachers might not be as important if one had smaller classes.
The Minister already mentioned the fact that schools have secured remedial teachers in recent years, but I want to highlight the fact that it is only a token remedial teacher for 600 pupils. I know of one example where six schools have one remedial teacher between them, so one school has to drop out every second week in order to share the teacher around all six schools. That is a nomadic form of remedial teaching. Will the Minister be specific and say how he sees remedial teaching developing? What we have at the moment is not remedial teaching, but a gesture. Has the Minister got enough teachers to reduce the pupil teacher ratio, which would be a help in teaching normal classes?
The Deputy raised the issue of teacher supply which is a key one in terms of my objectives for improving staffing in schools, including remedial teachers and other categories. A number of months ago I outlined my initiatives regarding teacher supply. The matter was actively raised by the INTO prior to last Easter's conferences, particularly in relation to substitution days. There is a question later from Deputy Gilmore on the issue of teacher supply.
We literally packed the teacher training colleges this September and 1,000 places will be provided between full-time undergraduate courses and 18 month conversion courses. Within 18 months we will have an additional number of teachers within the system. We are also negotiating with the University of Limerick with a view to providing a one year conversion programme for those who have completed the higher diploma in education.
We have also reached agreement with St. Mary's in Belfast that anyone with Irish in the B.Ed. course there will automatically qualify as a primary school teacher in the Republic. Prior to this they had to do an exam here, following the completion of their course. We have a range of initiatives and have packed the teacher training colleges with 1,000 places to try to meet the expected growth in appointments. Last year 600 primary teachers retired, which is 200 more than the previous year. It is anticipated that 600 will retire in 1998.
(Carlow-Kilkenny): People have written to me and other Deputies saying that they have been passed over once again. Can we tell them that there will be no teachers for them next year?
I did not say that.
(Carlow-Kilkenny): Would the Minister say it, without his halo?
I will communicate with the Deputy.
In relation to isolated rural schools that have been mentioned by other Deputies, has the Minister explored the possibility of taking on retired teachers — whether they retired early or in the normal way — on a part-time basis? In some instances, if there was a retired teacher resident in an area it would be much more cost effective to pursue that avenue.
That is a very good point. We will be making provision in future for part-time hours. To some extent, the post by post approach has certain rigidities about it, whereas if you can have a framework whereby part-time provision can be made, it can be easier to deal with schools in rural areas. Some schools use retired teachers for substitute purposes. That is a possibility, particularly in the next year or two when there will be teacher supply difficulties. Deputy O'Shea is correct in saying that and I would not have a particular difficulty with it. I hope that by providing hours it will facilitate schools.
This also concerns the issue of one teacher schools. Where we are appointing second teachers it could be argued that both teachers in what was formally a one teacher school — I am giving Deputy Ring his cue — could suffice in terms of the remedial needs of that school. As we appoint the additional teacher to one teacher schools I think that should suffice.
We have spent 15 minutes on this question. We must proceed to the next question, but I will allow a brief supplementary question to each of the following Deputies who have already indicated they wish to contribute: Deputies Timmins, Naughten and Crawford, in that order. The Minister will give one reply to these brief supplementary questions.
Would the Minister agree with me that the primary purpose of remedial teachers is to assist children with reading difficulties? If we had a uniform method of teaching reading to pupils we would not require the number of remedial teachers we have. What are the Minister's views on the commencement of teaching reading to children? Does he believe it should be taught in junior or senior infants class? This gives rise to much difficulty in later years.
I want to ask the Minister three brief questions. First, can he explain why my own constituency of Longford-Roscommon has two of the lowest percentages of remedial teachers in the country? Second, over 30 special children in mainstream education in County Roscommon have no remedial resource. Will the Minister consider allowing these children to be on two roll books — one day a week at a special school and four days a week in a mainstream school? Third, will the Minister consider giving a grant of up to £1,000 per child for back-up services for those children in mainstream primary education who cannot get resource or remedial services or personal assistants in the primary schools?
Once again, I want to draw the attention of the Minister to two small primary schools in the Cavan-Monaghan area. They were part of a group but were left out when the overall group got facilities. One of those schools has a major remedial need, yet it was completely ignored. I support the proposal made by Deputy O'Shea that schools like that should be catered for by a part-time teacher, if necessary, to get over this crisis. I have written to the Minister privately about the matter.
The Deputy is making a statement.
I am heartened by the contributions which illustrate a consensus in the House that remedial teaching is the number one priority of most Deputies. I have heard that before in the House. It is important in terms of policy formulation and the priorities that I and the Department attach to these issues.
As regards Deputy Timmins's point, reading is obviously essential. While there are different methodologies and approaches, reading is extremely important in infant classes. For the first time ever this year, on top of the capitation grant of £10, we are facilitating a capital grant for infant classes, which will allow teachers to buy equipment and materials. The key to literacy is greater availability of books and easier access to reading materials. We can do more for schools and teachers in terms of helping children develop their reading ability.
As regards Deputy Naughten's question, I outlined earlier that history has a lot to do with deficiencies in the remedial system.
Deputy Martin is the Minister now.
The Deputy has identified the situation in Longford-Roscommon. In terms of the overall programme, we will certainly endeavour to improve the situation in line with our commitment and our priorities.
Is that a commitment?
The Deputy mentioned special needs. We have already announced an initiative on special needs whereby, for the first time, child care assistants can be appointed to national schools in respect of children with special needs, as a right. That initiative was basically about automatic entitlements for children with special needs, both to a basic staffing schedule and child care assistants. About six weeks ago we announced that we had appointed 90 child care assistants to special schools under that initiative. We have received a number of applications from national schools for posts in respect of children with special needs.
On the issue of dual enrolments, I do not know the case to which the Deputy refers. It is an issue that has arisen recently. It has not been the practice in the Department to allow for dual enrolment. However, I am sympathetic to the concept where it facilitates the integration of children into the mainstream.
I take Deputy Crawford's point on the schools in Cavan and will have the matter checked again.