`We really need to look critically and openly at the remedial strategies that are being used in our schools'

A recent international report on the low level of Irish literacy has added new weight to a call for more remedial teachers. All three teacher unions want the level of remediation in primary and second-level schools increased. But some claim it's not an increase in numbers that's needed but an assessment and a monitoring of the current remediation service.

Fionnuala Kilfeather, national co-ordinator of the National Parents Council - Primary, wonders if there is a need to increase the number of teachers. Maybe there's a better way, she says. "We really need to look critically and openly at the remediation service and ask how useful the remedial strategy is. Are tax-payers getting value for money," she asks.

Brendan Culligan, a remedial teacher for the past 15 years, is an in-service tutor and designer of courses on literacy and learning difficulties and author of a guide on how to improve children's spelling. He also is convinced that the service needs to be assessed, reviewed and monitored.

The INTO in its survey of remedial education in 1994 urged the Department of Eduation to undertake research into the operation and effectiveness of the remedial teaching service. A survey is currently being conducted at the Educational Research Centre at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, and the results are due at the end of this academic year (see panel).

There are over 1,500 remedial teachers working at primary and second-level schools throughout the State. A number are shared between two, three or more schools. In some districts, a remedial teacher could be expected to travel between as many as 11 schools. According to the Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin, the estimated annual cost of the remedial education service is £42 million.

But, says Joe O'Toole, general secretary of the INTO, a third of our primary schools do not have access to a remedial teacher at all - and, he says, there is only one psychologist for every 1,500 pupils. "Until relatively recently, the number of remedial teachers was miniscule. We need a nationwide remedial and psychology service for our primary schools now. This can be done through the appointment of about 500 more teachers to the service."

At present there are 1,242 remedial teachers helping children with special needs in primary schools. This includes 51 remedial teachers who were newly appointed to the service for the current school year.

A review appears to be necessary, since the Department itself does not seem clear as to how many remedial teachers are working at second level. "The total number of ex-quota remedial teachers at second level is 569," Martin said in reply to a question in the Dail this month - but, according to the Department's salaries section, the total is 347: 128 in 440 voluntary second-level schools, 79 in 80 community and comprehensive schools and 140 in 243 vocational schools. According to the ASTI, there should be a rememdial education teacher in each one of these schools.

The recently-released OECD International Adult Literacy Survey found more than half the Irish people surveyed are in the lowest two levels of literacy, with just 13.7 per cent in the highest category. Some 25 per cent of Irish adults are in the lowest category.

Large numbers of pupils in second-level schools have "major literacy and numeracy problems," according to John White, the ASTI's deputy general secretary. This has to be dealt with - "but it's no good saying that it's going to be dealt with over the years."

It would be wonderful, says White, if children came in from primary schools able to read and write but they don't. "There are significant numbers of pupils in second-level schools who need the expertise of a remedial teacher and they're not available. So the matter has to be addressed as an immediate concern.

"Every single year, there is a motion at the ASTI annual congress which states that the extent of remediation services is absolutely insufficient. Teachers will also say that it's an increasing problem."

White points out that in 1993 the Government's own Committee on Special Education Review suggested that 226 extra remedial posts be created at second level.

Outside the three teacher unions, the Irish Learning Support Association is the largest group of teachers. Its chairman, David McKeon, says that members feel that having to visit up to four, five or six schools means that they cannot give a proper service. "They find added stress in having to be in several different schools," he says. "They find they don't have as much support from colleagues because of having to visit so many schools."

The association is constantly trying to improve the psychological service to schools, says McKeon. "It's very inadequate. The remedial teacher is the one that the psychologist would meet, who is involved in the implementation of the assessment. The remedial teacher would also interpret the assessment, tell parents and teachers what the results were and how they are going to move on. It's a co-ordinating role. That's not set in stone but very much the way it works."

There are so few psychologists, he says, that they don't have time to do anything other than the assessment. "They have a huge backlog that they are trying to get through. The remedial teachers are the ones left to do as best they can in the situation.

"We feel that there are not enough remedial teachers in the education system . . . the only way you're going to alleviate the problem is to put more into the system."

At second level, says McKeon, there are pressures on remedial teachers to take on other duties to the detriment of their remedial work. The way a school is organised can cause pressures, resulting in remedial teachers "having responsibilities for other subjects or other administrative duties - these are the kinds of things that are coming up."

A survey by the TUI shows that many remedial teachers do not get the time allocation for testing etc and that providing learning support for students with learning difficulties in ordinary classes is often difficult. Rose Malone, the TUI's education/research officer, says that remedial teachers spend at least 12 and not more than 15 hours on recognised remedial work with class groups of not more than 16 pupils and on an individual basis. They are given about three hours a week for testing, liaison with parents and acting as a resource for other teachers. They spend the rest of their 22 hours at ordinary teaching.

"There is a lack of continuity between special class provision in national schools and remedial provision at second level," says Malone. Ex-quota remedial teachers are appointed on the basis of need as identified by the Schools Psychological Service, in second-level schools. The school must make an application to the Department for an ex-quota remedial teacher.

Remedial teachers are "very thin on the ground," says Jean Geoghegan, principal of Christ King Secondary School, Cork, in spite of "an absolute essential need for remedial teachers in second-level schools. Their role is multifunctional. I've no allocation from the Department for them - they don't believe our needs are acute enough. So, out of our own resources we allocate 30 hours a week for remediation."

Geoghegan feels that the school's remediation programme is highly successful. "We can diagnose, provide tuition and a modified programme and bring students to a satisfactory level of achievement."

Maryellen Lennon, a remedial teacher for the past 20 years, based at Dundrum College, Dublin, says "there's a need for five remedial teachers in this school alone. The way that society is going it's worse than the Seventies or Eighties - there's so much distraction, it's very difficult for kids to settle down and work."

She points out that 70 per cent of the students who come in "are not stupid or backward. There are emotional problems. They missed some part of their reading in primary school and because they are troublesome they get left behind."

Fionnuala Kilfeather, of the National Parents Council - Primary, urges the introduction of a more structured, formatted assessment of pupils "so they don't fall through the net." This assessment could look at the current needs of children, she believes, and ensure that their needs could be dealt with at the appropriate time.

"We really need to look critically and openly at the remedial strategies that are being used in our schools," she says.