Teacher conferences - Hanafin vow is cheque book politics

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin’s promise to double the level of State funding for every primary school child in the country — provided, of course, Fianna Fáil return to government after the General Election — smacks of blatant electioneering.

This is yet another cynical example of cheque book politics at its rawest. Yet, it’s not altogether surprising since all the political parties are frantically playing the auction game as the battle for the hearts and minds of voters intensifies on the eve of next month’s election, expected to be called shortly by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

While thousands of new teaching staff had been put in place since 2002, the minister concedes the Government’s spending on education wasn’t enough as schools struggle to cope with costs.

The blunt question voters should put to FF candidates on the doorstep is this: if the capitation grant (money paid per head of pupils in primary schools) can be doubled in the course of a ministerial speech, then why have parents across the country been forced to raise funds on a voluntary basis for basic requirements such as school heating, lighting, insurance, water and refuse charges?

Ms Hanafin is also on the firing line for breaking the pledge or, as she rather euphemistically puts it, for “failing” to deliver on the promise that the size of primary school classes would be reduced to an average of 24 pupils.

Frustrated parents had exactly the same carrot dangled before them five years ago by Fianna Fáil during the last election campaign.

Having reneged on that promise in the lifetime of the outgoing administration, the minister is now reassuring angry parents that the pledge will be honoured within three years of the country’s biggest political machine returning to power.

She concedes more needs to be done to reduce class sizes and stresses that the creation of more teaching posts, to deal with rising pupil numbers, must remain a priority in the next government.

In contrast with her electioneering performance at the INTO conference, Ms Hanafin adopted a hard line against demands by ASTI, the secondary teachers union, for renegotiation of the national deal Towards 2016.

While the broad thrust of her conference speeches may go down well with teachers, parents have a right to demand greater clarity of detail before endorsing old policies dressed anew. Promises are no substitute for action.

That said, her renewed commitment, aired at a press briefing, on reducing the pupil-teacher ratio, will be music to the ears of embattled teachers up and down the country who have to struggle with class sizes of 34 children or more on an ongoing basis.

By any yardstick, it is an outrageous scenario and a damning comment on the skewed priorities of a government whose coffers are awash with more money than any other administration. Even the best of teachers can have little hope of reaching out to pupils in overcrowded classrooms where conditions rank among the worst in Europe.

Ms Hanafin takes credit for targeting pupils with special needs and those from disadvantaged areas. But the fact that 330 autistic children are on waiting lists to attend special schools around the country is an indictment of her ministry.

As a teacher herself (among 20 Dáil deputies still holding onto the teaching job in case they lose their seats) she deserves to be roundly criticised for presiding over a totally unacceptable scenario where the frustrated parents of autistic children are being driven by her department to pursue the educational rights of their children through the courts.