We need to look critically and openly at the remedial strategies that are being used in our schools, Fionnuala Kilfeather, of the National Parents' Council-Primary, says in the Education and Living supplement of this newspaper today. She has a point. While many people in education still call for more remedial teachers in our schools - the number of such teachers varies between 1,589 and 1,811, according to Department of Education figures - the real problem seems to be access for all children, whether at primary or second level, to these teachers when they need them.
All three teacher unions want the level of remedial teaching at primary and second level schools increased. However, according to many other people involved in education, what is needed, in the first instance, is a thorough-going review and monitoring of the current remedial service.
Another survey, published in the same supplement, shows that up to one third of school desks are empty on any given day in schools in the Clondalkin area of Dublin. Reading difficulties contribute significantly to the cycle of absenteeism and early school-leaving. The reading achievement of pupils in Clondalkin and the inner city where, by sixth class, 42 per cent are three to four years behind the standard expected and 30 per cent are one to three years behind, compares unfavourably with the more affluent areas of the city.
Meanwhile, the OECD is saying that up to one quarter of Irish adults are in the lowest literacy category. But Senator Joe O'Toole, general secretary of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, takes issue with this finding. He challenges anyone to consider their circle of acquaintances and to conclude, as the OECD does, that one in four of them has a reading difficulty. Perhaps it is time he widened his circle of acquaintances.
A recent article in Learn, the remedial teachers' journal, asserts that there are difficulties with access to, and participation in, remedial services in primary schools. The authors identified pupils with an average to above average reading achievement on a standardised test who were in receipt of remedial services, and others, with low achievements, who were not in receipt of such services, even when they were available in their schools. It appears that some remedial places are occupied by pupils with average to above average ability at the expense of other pupils with lower achievement in reading.
The Department of Education last year commissioned a study of the State's primary school remedial services. This study, which began last January, will report next June. As well as looking at the primary sector, which employs over 1,200 remedial teachers, perhaps the Minister should, at this mid-way stage, consider a complete review of the remedial service at both levels. Given that there is an annual investment of £42 million in remedial education, should we not be getting better value for money?