Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 December 2023
356. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Education the main initiatives she has taken to improve the quality of secondary education since 27 June 2020; the additional funding provided in successive budgets; her plans for 2024; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55299/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Programme for Government sets out this Government’s intention to continue to develop our educational system to meet the needs of all students and to tackle disadvantage from an early age. Progressing this ambition, while responding to the particular challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in the Ukraine, has been a key priority for my Department since 2020.
I am pleased to say that over recent budgets, significant additional funding has been provided to post-primary education, including through the delivery of thousands of extra teaching and Special Needs Assistant posts. Since 2020, post-primary related funding has increased by an estimated 30 percent (over €830 million) to over €3.6 billion including school staff payroll costs, school grants, capital costs and a share of grants to agencies who deliver services to the education sector. The figures exclude additional funding provided for COVID-19 measures and Ukrainian students. In addition to these investments at post-primary level, there have also been significant increases in funding for school transport and a range of other services and supports for students in all our schools and not just post-primary.
In regard to the quality of post-primary education, in June 2020 as the Deputy will be aware, the challenge of COVID-19 meant a rapid switch to distance learning, during the unprecedented closure of schools. Schools and educators took on a range of approaches to support their pupils’ continuity of learning during that period and, in immensely challenging times, demonstrated great innovation including the use of digital technologies and online learning platforms for teaching and learning. In supporting schools, my Department provided resources and supports including enhanced ICT grants, updated guidance for teaching and learning in a remote context and an expanded supplementary programme of learning to take place in students’ homes or in schools over the summer of 2020.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an OECD international test that takes place every three years and aims to measure how well 15 year-old students are performing in three areas – reading, mathematics and science. I am very pleased to say that the 2022 assessment found that students in Ireland are significantly above the OECD average in all three domains, with performance in reading literacy among the highest across OECD and EU countries. Other key findings include that:
• Ireland’s placing in all three domains has improved since 2018 - in reading literacy, we have moved from eighth to second of all countries; in science literacy, we have moved from twenty-second to twelfth and in mathematical literacy, we have moved from twenty-first to eleventh.
• the overall performance in science showed a significant increase in comparison to the 2018 cycle of PISA.
• in all three domains of mathematics, reading and science, Ireland had a smaller proportion of lower-achieving students than the OECD average
• both male and female students in Ireland significantly outperformed the OECD average in all three domains.
In relation to the curriculum, the Framework for Junior Cycle continued to be embedded over this time period, with 2022 being the first full year of examinations in which all subjects were examined based on the reformed Junior Cycle specifications. Review and evaluation of this major reform is ongoing, with a longitudinal study commissioned by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to explore the experiences of schools over a period of four year. The study will run for four years to 2024. The first two reports have been published by the NCCA.
In March 2022, I announced an ambitious programme of work for a reimagined Senior Cycle where the student is at the centre of their Senior Cycle experience. In September 2023, I announced a significant acceleration of parts of the programme, with national introduction of the first tranche of revised Leaving Certificate subject specifications in schools in 2025, two years earlier than previously planned. Draft specifications for six of the subjects in this first tranche, including Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Arabic, Latin, and Ancient Greek, were published on 7 December 2023 and a public consultation on the drafts is open until 23 February 2024. Work by Subject Development Groups on the revised specifications for Business and the specifications for the two new subjects of Drama, Film and Theatre Studies and Climate Action and Sustainable Development is also at an advanced stage and a public consultation on draft specifications for these subjects will take place early in the New Year. The schedule for revised specifications to be completed as part of the second tranche of subjects has been published and is available online.
In my September 2023 announcement I confirmed that Additional Assessment Component(s) (AACs) will be introduced across all new and revised subjects to spread the assessment load more evenly and also to assess a broader range of skills than traditional written examinations.
A draft revised Transition Year Programme Statement has been published and a public consultation on the draft concluded in October 2023. Work is now underway within the NCCA to finalise the Programme Statement, pending its introduction to schools in 2024.
A total of €8 million was allocated to the Senior Cycle Redevelopment programme under Budget 2024. The additional resources secured in Budget 2024 will support the further implementation of the programme by providing funding for the staffing of a number of positions at the NCCA, the SEC, and Oide, the newly integrated teacher support service.
Other curricular initiatives include development of new curricular specifications in SPHE/RSE and in Physical Education at Junior Cycle, and in Modern Foreign Languages (Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Lithuanian and Portuguese) at Leaving Certificate.
As with any new subject, these have been supported by the provision of high quality Continuing Professional Development (CPD) noting that the quality of our teaching profession is a critical factor in sustaining and enhancing the quality of education outcomes. In that regard, my Department integrated the four Department-funded teacher education support Services into one single professional learning service, Oide, in September 2023. Through Oide, my Department promotes the quality of teaching and learning through the provision of a wide range of teacher professional learning and supports for teachers and principals. These include an induction programme for newly qualified teachers, dedicated support for school leaders, national teacher professional learning for curricular and policy reform and ongoing support for teachers. A new NQF Level 9 Graduate Level Diploma in SPHE/RSE education commenced in January 2023 for post-primary teachers and is now available alongside a range of existing postgraduate upskilling programmes.
In any consideration of quality within education, it is important to note that the Department’s Inspectorate has a statutory duty to inspect and report on the quality of educational provision in recognised schools, centres for education and other education settings. It plays an important role in sustaining and assuring the continuity of educational provision for all children and young people in our schools, especially those with special educational needs and vulnerable learners. The Inspectorate has adjusted its inspection programme on a number of occasions, for example, during the pandemic and in response to the Ukraine crisis, in order to support schools and the education system, while also helping to ensure that educational provision is as effective as possible.
In addition, an extensive range of supports have been made available for schools in relation to supporting the embedding of digital technologies in teaching, learning and assessment, in terms of both financial and professional learning and other resources.
The Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 was published in April 2022 and builds on the achievements of the previous Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020. It aims to further support the school system so that all students across our schools have the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills they need to navigate an ever-evolving digital world successfully. The strategy is underpinned by an overall investment of €200m, €50m of which has already issued directly to schools. In addition, €50m in grant funding was issued in November 2021 as part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) to address the needs of learners at risk of the digital divide. Again this builds on the overall investment of €210m under the previous strategy.
A further €13m is invested on an annual basis in the Schools Broadband Programme. Through continued investment all schools, regardless of location, will be provided with appropriate broadband connectivity. In addition, NRRP funding of €13.5m is being used to help ensure that all primary schools will be provided with high speed connectivity through the Schools Broadband Programme.
In furtherance of student well-being, Cineáltas, which was published on 1 December 2022, is the Department’s whole-education approach to preventing and addressing bullying in schools. Cineáltas is dedicated to the prevention and addressing of bullying, cyber bullying, racist bullying, gender identity bullying and sexual harassment, among other areas, in schools. It is centred on a child right’s based approach and provides a collective vision and clear roadmap for how the whole education community and society can work together to prevent and address bullying in our schools. Cineáltas contains a number of actions aimed at increasing the participation of children and young people in policy development at a national level and at school level. These actions include the establishment of the Student Participation Unit in the Department of Education to promote the participation of children and young people into the development of Department policy.
