Class sizes biggest issue in education

The president of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) says we have failed to achieve Padraig Pearse’s education vision for Ireland.

“He would warn against the obsession with measuring children’s performance; he would question the use of targets and data collection for system purposes; he would challenge the media preoccupation with league tables, particularly in the north of our country, and with an overcrowded curriculum and a school system tasked with remedying the ills of society, I think he would ask, where is the time and space for teaching, learning and caring?” said Emma Dineen.

Ms Dineen’s remarks were part of her presidential address at the INTO Annual Congress in Wexford yesterday. She said class size is the single biggest issue facing the quality of education our children are receiving.

“A teacher with 32 pupils in a classroom cannot find time to teach 11 subjects to every child in a child-friendly way and evaluate their progress,” said Ms Dineen. “At the same time we want teachers to develop pupils’ self-esteem, open their minds to the pleasures of the arts and encourage involvement in a healthier lifestyle. We also expect teachers to deal with increasing societal problems such as family break-up and parent addiction,” she added.

She said the incoming government needed to take action on class size and increasing workload.

“The very minimum required to bring our class sizes down to the European average of 20 pupils,” said Ms Dineen, “will be a reduction of one per year, for the next 5 years”. In reference to Ireland’s current social problems, the INTO president stated that teachers are seeing first hand, the effect of homelessness and poverty in their classes.

Ms Dineen said that teachers are witnessing the physical and psychological effects of homelessness, emergency accommodation and the direct provision system on the pupils in their classrooms.

She told the congress in Wexford that lack of sleep, a lack of healthy food, no space to do homework and even to play, the inability to ask a friend around to play were all impacting negatively on today’s children.

The three-day congress, which began yesterday is happening in the absence of a Minister for Education as the country continues to go without a government.

Eight hundred national school teachers are attending it and this year the INTO conference will focus on equal pay for new teachers, joining the profession.

Meanwhile, Barry Johnston, independent candidate on the NUI Seanad Panel, said cuts to teachers’ pay must be reversed.

“I graduated with the cohort of teachers most directly impacted by public service cutbacks during the economic crisis. Many chose to emigrate. Those that remained have faced prolonged periods of part-time employment while others that have secured full-time positions work alongside colleagues under differential conditions.”