Myopic government failing to make the grade on third-level education

TRADITIONALLY, politicians aspire to enter cabinet so they can introduce reforms and policies that they passionately believe in. Regrettably, in Ireland, it seems to be more a case of getting bums on seats and crudely balancing books.

Speaking just four days before the general election, Ruairi Quinn gave a solemn undertaking that he would “oppose and campaign against any new form of third-level fees including student loans, graduate taxes and any further increase in the student contribution” if he was returned to government. Well, he was returned to government, as education minister no less, but still finds that he is unable to keep his promise. Worse, he doesn’t seem too concerned about it.

Giving a masterclass in double-speak during a toe-curlingly awful interview on Prime Time last Thursday, Quinn said he’s still vehemently opposed to the introduction of third-level fees but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be reintroduced. I mean, who do people think he is, the minister? Furthermore, he doesn’t regret the auction politics he engaged in before the election, in a desperate effort to buy students’ votes, because he doesn’t believe that he was being duplicitous.

“I don’t regret that because that’s what I believe still and I’m going to do whatever I possibly can so that people who want to go to college are not debarred from going there,” he said.

Silly students. They were obviously stupid for thinking that the man who turned up to Trinity College, and used them for a cringey photo-op a couple of days before the election, would actually keep his promise if he was made minister.

That pie-in-the-sky naivety will soon be knocked out of them as the Government continues to drive a coach and fore through various pre-election promises. While it’s no surprise that politicians routinely lie through their teeth in order to win elections, the craven backtracking from this government, in the eight months since it was returned to office with a huge majority, has been truly breathtaking.

Their well-rehearsed excuse for their inability to keep their promises — because the finances are in a much worse position then they thought despite the fact that the books were opened up to them, and they had meetings with members of the IMF, in advance of the election — is beneath contempt.

Speaking from the opposition benches in 2008, there was no equivocation from Quinn about college fees. Their abolition, he said, “was one of the few serious breaks that ordinary middle Ireland families got from the rainbow coalition” 15 years ago.

Today, he still professes to believe that but is so impotent in government that even though he’s the man in the hot seat, tasked with implementing and driving education policy in the country, he can’t protect a core tenet of his own ideology.

At least the Labour minister can comfort himself by quoting Marx. Unfortunately for him it’s Groucho — “here are my principles and if you don’t like them, I have others” — and not Karl. Members of this Government love talking about the “knowledge economy” and how the education sector will eventually be responsible for returning the country to prosperity and growth but, ask them to adequately fund primary, secondary and post-primary education and they begin to act evasive.

The programme for government, published in the full knowledge of the four-year plan of cuts that had been agreed with the troika, waxed lyrical about the innate importance of education to Ireland’s diseased economy.

“This government’s ambition is to build a knowledge society. Education is at the heart of a more cohesive, more equal and more successful society, and it will be the engine of sustainable economic growth... even in our country’s crisis, we can make progress in education and protect frontline services,” it said.

Speaking at various public engagements since he was returned to office, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has also been at pains to cite the central role education will play in dragging the country out of the economic mess it’s mired in.

“All students, from those studying ABCs right up to PhDs, must be encouraged and facilitated to be independent learners and to experience working creatively in teams,” he enthused in May.

Well, students, especially those hoping to go on to do PhDs, must now be wondering how exactly the Government is proposing to encourage and facilitate them, because Kenny and his ministers certainly don’t intend on giving them the financial assistance that they need to complete their studies.

Having already come after special needs assistants and language support teachers, the Government is now proposing to cut all grants to those students hoping to someday join the knowledge economy by undertaking postgraduate courses. This is despite the fact that Ireland already lags behind the most developed countries when it comes to PhD students — currently the number stands at seven in every 1,000 workers when the figure should be at least 10. Remember, these are the very countries that Ireland is competing with when it comes to attracting sustainable, well-paid jobs.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government, which obviously recognises the importance of attracting sustainable research and development jobs to its booming economy, has just announced a scheme to attract foreign PhD students.

Canada’s education minister is eager to entice these highly qualified students because, as he said, “the country needs more people with knowledge in the field of science, technology, engineering and maths”.

“Research in these fields contributes greatly to our overall national competitiveness in the global market. Attracting and retaining immigrants with high levels of skill will help Canada compete in the knowledge-based world economy. With this initiative, we are telling the innovators of tomorrow that Canada is ready to welcome them and their ideas,” he continued.

Well, at least that’s some good news for Irish PhD students — they’ll find a cead mile fáilte in Canada after their own idiot government actually introduces measures designed to increase the brain drain from our shores.

This administration may pay lip-service to “innovation” and a “smart economy” but how is the electorate supposed to take its outlandish claims, like Richard Bruton’s ridiculous pledge to announce a plan for 200,000 new jobs in January, when it can’t even ring-fence funding for the measly 3,500 postgrad students who currently qualify for research grants?

The proposed cut is especially ludicrous when one considers that a maintenance grant is currently €6,000 and the same students, if they join the 450,000-strong dole queue, will cost the exchequer double that amount — €12,000.

Regrettably, while politicians lie awake at night following bloodcurdling nightmares of rampaging pensioners besieging Leinster House after the threatened withdrawal of their medical cards, the spectre of tens thousands of students protesting in Dublin today is unlikely to cause many too many sleepless nights. You see, they know that a huge proportion of the young people who will today be carrying placards and shouting anti-government slogans won’t be around to voice their displeasure whenever the next election rolls around as many will have been forced to emigrate, in search of work, because of the very policies that are now being implemented by this myopic administration.