School funding - Ministers have much to live up to

THE Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) is intensifying its campaign on class size by attempting to enlist all the parents of primary school children to exert pressure on politicians to tackle the problem.

Irish class sizes are the second largest in the European Union, and significantly behind those in much of northern Europe. The Government promised to make classroom size a priority in 2002 by pledging to provide a teacher for every 20 children younger than nine years of age.

Yet a quarter of all children are still in classes of more than 30. This makes it more difficult for teachers to provide individual attention to children who need such help, or even to identify those who may need more assistance.

Síle Nunan, president of the INTO, announced last night that the organisation plans to make class size a huge election issue by making sure that every parent of every one of the 450,000 primary school children knows the size of their children’s classes.

The organisation plans to obtain the signatures of about 500,000 parents on petitions for smaller class sizes as part of a concerted campaign to exert pressure on politicians.

Each of the 3,300 primary schools is entitled to a teacher for every 29 pupils. But smaller schools frequently have a more favourable staffing ratio.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin announced last November that the estimates provided for the employment of 400 extra teachers in the next 18 months, which should reduce class sizes by an average of two pupils. The minister also promised to employ a further 600 extra teachers for the 2007/08 school year, which should reduce class sizes by a further three pupils.

While the provision of those extra 1,000 teachers should go a long way towards alleviating overcrowded classes, it is still likely to fall short of the class sizes promised during the 2002 general election campaign.

With all the hype about the Proclamation of 1916, which promised to cherish all of the children of the nation equally, there is yet much to be done within the system of education, as there are still children coming to school without proper nourishment or adequate clothing. Moreover, when it comes to religious instruction, it is not sufficient merely to allow those children, who do not subscribe to the majority religion of their particular school, to opt out. Some positive provision should be made for their religious instruction.

There is also discrimination against teachers in that the Employment Equality Act allows schools of a denominational nature to discriminate against teachers who are gay or lesbian. But the most obvious form of discrimination is in relation to gender.

There is a distinct over-representation of male teachers in posts that require promotion. As a result the average salary of male teachers is about €7,000 more annually than female teachers. There was also the anomaly of the higher benchmarking awards to secondary over primary teachers.

Unless moves are made to rectify such discrimination, all the talk of celebrating the aspirations of 1916 appears little more than hypocritical platitudes designed to deceive the people of today, rather than recognise and celebrate the accomplishments of the earlier generation.