Minister for Education Helen McEntee has told primary school principals that she will establish a national convention on education "to hear and to understand peoples' thoughts, hopes and aspiration for the education system of the future".
Ms McEntee addressed primary school teachers at the INTO annual congress in Galway this morning.
She told delegates that "serious thought needs to be given to the role and capacity of schools and those who work in them and the evolving needs of students, with a technological revolution under way, a rise in intolerance and existential threats to our democracies worldwide".
The minister received a generally warm reception from teachers.
In a hall where some delegates held up posters calling for the enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill, there was applause when Ms McEntee called for an end to "the barbarity" of what was happening in Gaza and referring to "the children in Gaza who are living through unimaginable pain, hunger, suffering and loss".
However there was loud grumbling when the minister referred to funding for primary schools.
She said she would do everything in her power to "make further progress" and that money spent on education was money well spent.
The minister said she was absolutely determined that a new national therapy service would be established so that children with additional needs get the therapeutic supports that they need in school.
Referring to staffing shortages in the area of therapies, she said the Government was committed to doubling the number of Speech and Language and Occupational therapy places in third level colleges.
Ms McEntee will address post-primary teachers in Killarney later today.
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