School construction - Shelving child education

THE commitment of any government to the future can be measured in its treatment of children, especially in the area of education. This raises serious questions about the current Government’s sense of values.

More than 40,000 pupils are being taught in prefabricated buildings because their schools are awaiting renovation or accommodation, some for many years.

The state spent €38.5 million in renting prefabs last year. Where new schools, or the renovation of existing schools are planned, this is a waste because it amounts to enormous expenditure to facilitate mere temporising.

The recent collapse in house building could be a mixed blessing, because for the first time in 15 years, construction companies are chasing business, and it should instil a sense of reality in the market. In recent years, much money was spent in the planning process without so much as a block being laid.

Having gone so far, it would not only be a waste of the money to back out now, it would also amount to the abandonment of the moral imperative of ensuring a proper education for our children’s future.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation has consistently called for openness and transparency in relation to the school building programme. Schools that have been waiting for years should not be jumped in the queue for mere political considerations. There should be clear demonstrable reasons. If there is a better case for another school building to proceed first, the reasons for this should be published, so everyone can see the validity of the process.

One Dublin teacher said his school would not participate in a project linking it with other EU schools, because this would involve exchange visits. He explained he would be ashamed to have teachers from other countries visit his school in its dilapidated condition.

That teacher should be even more ashamed at shirking the opportunity to highlight conditions in his school. If we are behind other countries, this should be highlighted in the interest of the children, not hidden due to the vain sensitivity of a teacher.

Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe visited Kilfinane national school in Co Limerick within the past fortnight to announce that plans for a school were being shelved.

Builders for the project had already been selected in March, and work was to begin this summer. If this work does begin within 90 days, the tendering process will have to begin all over again.

Mr O’Keffee should be mortified. And he should tell his government colleagues they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, because they are pursuing a policy that is financially crazy and morally bankrupt.