Some schools not using 'stay safe' programme

Some schools and parents are still refusing to accept the Department of Education's "stay safe" programme to reduce children's vulnerability to abuse.

The programme is not mandatory, but Minister for Education Mary Hanafin told the Dáil she could not see "why anyone would object to teaching the programme, or why any parent would object to his or her child being taught".

However, when Labour's education spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan called on the Minister to make "stay safe" mandatory, Ms Hanafin said while she would keep the situation under review, she would prefer if the schools themselves appreciated the programme's value.

It also emerged that Garda vetting procedures will be extended to all people working with children and vulnerable adults, starting in mid-November.

During questions Ms Hanafin told Olwyn Enright, Fine Gael's education spokeswoman, that the Garda vetting unit has substantially increased numbers. Vetting would be extended to teachers, caretakers, bus drivers and others working with children.

"We will be able to start that immediately once the extra resources and staffing are put in place, which I understand will be in the middle of the month."

On the "stay safe" programme, Ms Hanafin said 99.7 per cent of primary schools had participated in the initial one-day in-service training.

Based on a sample survey, 80 per cent to 85 per cent of primary schools were teaching the programme, "but the percentage may be higher".

The programme aims to teach children the skills to recognise and resist victimisation or abuse.

It also aims to "enhance their self-protective skills by lessons on safe and unsafe situations, bullying, touches, secrets, telling and strangers".

Ms O'Sullivan said "she could not help thinking how useful that programme would have been to many of the young children abused in the Ferns diocese", and could not understand why the programme was not mandatory.

Ms Hanafin said she had looked at the books for the various classes on the subject, and she could not understand any objection. It was not being implemented in schools where parents objected.

"The reasons included a dislike of the emphasis on yes/no and a preference for right/wrong in the moral context. Some parents felt the basis of the programme was quite dubious."

In some schools where the programme was offered parents had the right to withdraw their children. The department had evidence of 46 children being withdrawn, of whom 26 were from one school.

It was clear, she said, "there are particular issues in very few schools", and she would prefer schools and parents to appreciate the programme's value themselves rather than make the programme mandatory.

In relation to the Ferns report, Ms Enright said it had shown "how some priests appear to have abused their positions as managers of boards of management to gain access to children in school".

She asked if Ms Hanafin intended to change procedures for appointing people to boards of management.

The Minister said vetting of boards of management was a wider issue because it raised the question of whether people working in a voluntary capacity were vetted. "While protecting children we do not want to destroy volunteerism in the country. In the first instance the vetting will cover teachers, caretakers and bus drivers."