The Socialist Party believes that free education should be provided by the state for all children and young people. The majority of people agree with us. Eighty four per cent of people surveyed by the Educational Research Centre in 2004 believed that the government should meet all of the costs of primary and secondary education.
But free education does not exist and the reality is that schools are severely under-funded. This lack of funding means that the educational needs of hundreds of thousands of Irish young people are not being met. Successive governments have neglected the education of Irish children and youth.
The education system is still recovering from the cuts in the 1980s. Fianna Fail and the PDs trot out reams of statistics to justify their claim that they are dealing with the problems in the education system. Yet ask any parent or teacher about the reality on the ground and you will typically hear the story of schools that don’t have enough money to cover their running costs such as heating and electricity bills. Of overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated or prefab school buildings and the constant need for fundraising to raise funds to pay the ESB bill or to buy computers and sports equipment.
The crisis in the education system put simply is caused by a lack of funding. According to the OECD spending on second-level education in the South is so low that the Republic of Ireland is ranked 29th out of 30 countries. The OECD report says that the average spent by OECD countries on education is 6.3% of GDP – the Irish government spends 4.5%!
All areas of the education are under funded but primary education receives the lowest funding. It is stating the obvious to say that the most important time for a child’s education is in their early years. There is no state provision of early childhood education (pre-school) in this country and primary education receives the lowest funding. Forty six per cent of the country’s students are at primary level. Yet primary education receives less than one third of total education expenditure.
This lack of funding is the main cause of the various problems in the education system. Many schools would be “bankrupt” without the contributions and fundraising by parents. It is highlighted by a problem that faces every parent with a school going child in the country i.e., “voluntary contributions” and fundraising. All parents have to pay an annual contribution to the costs of running the schools (at both primary and second level). This levy is called voluntary, however any parent who has been late in paying this voluntary contribution will know that they will receive a constant stream of reminders from the school until it is paid. In reality these “voluntary contributions”, plus the money raised by parents through fundraising is a form of unjust local education tax. Increasing charges for heating and electricity and local service charges such as water charges are depriving children of classroom resources.
John Carr, general secretary of the INTO summed up the situation when he said: “Higher fuel bills mean fewer books in schools. Higher waste charges mean fewer classroom materials. Higher water charges mean vital computer equipment cannot be repaired and replaced…. I have principals telling me that they spend almost as much time on fundraising as they do on leading teaching and learning. Education is not a charity”- 6 November 2006.
Class sizes
The “overcrowding” in classrooms acutely exposes the crisis in education. Class size is the main focus of campaigns being run by the INTO and the ASTI. In 2002 the government claimed it would reduce class sizes to a ratio of 20:1 (pupil/teacher ratio) for all primary school children under nine and a ratio of 15:1 in disadvantage areas. According to the INTO the South has the second highest-class sizes in the EU. 25% of pupils are in classes of 30 or more; A further 50% are in classes of between 20 – 30. According to the OECD (October 2006) 111,000 primary school children are in classes of more than 30 pupils.
Five years after its election the government is still only appointing new teachers on the basis of one for every 29 children (primary schools). It claims it will reduce this figure to one for every 28 in 2007 and one for every 27 in 2008.
Only 15% of children (primary schools) are in classes of the size promised by the government in 2002. Or to put it another way 85 out of every one hundred children are in classes that exceed recognised international best practice and this government’s own target. In North Dublin 40% of pupils are in classes of 30 or more, in Fingal its 38.15%, Cork 31%. At second level 35,000 Junior Certificate students are in classes of 30 plus and up to 90,000 in classes of 25 or more.
In 2002, the McGuinness report on staffing in second level schools recommended an extra 1,200 classroom teachers. According to the ASTI none of these extra teachers have been provided as all additional teaching posts have been in the areas of special needs, guidance counseling and English language support.
The crisis in class size and also the provision of schools (and in fact the provision of all educational resources) is set to increase unless there is a fundamental increase in education funding. The OECD estimates that there will be a 19% increase in the school going population in the next 10 years.
There are obvious reasons why we need smaller classes. Smaller class sizes mean that pupils get more one to one attention etc. Currently on average a pupil will get no more than eight minutes a day direct attention from their teacher. It results in 10% of children leaving primary school with significant literacy problems. No significant progress has been made in literacy levels among 12 year olds in the last 20 years. 20% of adults are not functionally literate and a similar number have problems with basic numeracy.
School Places
In recent years the problem of class sizes has been added to by the lack of school places in many parts of the country, but in particular in the areas of new major housing development. This is a major issue in Dublin 15 and also in parts of Dublin North and North County Dublin. Essentially they are one and the same problem that result from a lack of teachers, but also in some areas because of a social infrastructure deficit in the provision of schools or the lack of funding for new buildings and extensions.
The Socialist Party believes that a lack of planning and funding should not be a barrier to a child starting their education. An emergency task force should be established to assess the immediate and future provision of school places for all children. In the event of a shortage of school places, the Department of Education must provide in advance of the new school year quality temporary classrooms and sufficient teachers for all pupils based in the grounds of existing schools where this is possible. This temporary accommodation should be replaced through the building of extensions to schools or the provision of new schools in the areas affected within 12 months.
The government claims it is providing record levels of capital funding for the building of new schools and for the building of extensions and much needed renovation projects. This is simple not true. In the majority of cases the government only provides a percentage of the capital funding needed for these projects. Take for example the Walshestown National School in Louth. They were offered a grant of only €350,000 to build a school that cost €590,000. The shortfall of €240,000 has to be raised by 64 parents!
Carrakennedy National School near Westport, Co.Mayo was built in 1906 and needs replacing. The grant offered by the Department was only €250,000 but the cost of the new school is €1.4 million.
In August 2006 Laytown pupils were being taught in a former jockey’s weigh-in room and had to take an 18 mile bus trip because there was no local school able to take them in.
Crisis in all areas
The crisis in education extends into many other areas such as the severe lack of IT resources with only one computer for every ten second level pupils. According to a survey by the INTO 80% of schools in Donegal do not have a PE hall, in Clare 63%, Kerry 70% and in Dublin 14%. But in Dublin 60% are deemed to be too small or unsafe. Seventy two per cent of secondary schools have totally inadequate science resources. There is also a crisis in the provision of English language teaching resources for pupils whose first language is not English. Ten per cent of the population is migrants who have been encouraged by the government to come here to work. Yet the government is not providing the language support resources needed to ensure that their children receive a decent education. This lack of resources also impacts on other children because it puts an enormous strain on the already over-stretched teaching staff. Every area of the educational needs of children is under-funded and under-resourced.
Special needs
There are significant numbers of pupils with special needs that are not being catered for at present. The problems faced by these pupils are in the areas of the lack of provision of resource teachers and in psychological assessment.
In 2006 the Department of Education and Science issued guidelines on Individual Education Plans for students with special needs or learning difficulties. But many schools are having major difficulty implementing these guidelines because of a lack of additional resource teachers and problems with getting pupils needs assessed by the National Educational Psychological Service. No additional resources of either extra teachers or extra time has been allocated to implement the Individual Education Plans. School principals believe that the only way to meet the needs of these students is through the assistance of a resource teacher. Only 36% of second level schools have a permanent full time resource teacher. Even though 11% of pupils require assistance from a resource teacher. The other schools only receive part time assistance or an allocation of so many hours per week of a resource teacher. A resource teacher is a fully qualified teacher with responsibility for students with special educational needs. Many schools are therefore not able to introduce Individual Education Plans and the education of thousands of students is suffering as a result. In April 2006 the ASTI estimated that 89% of schools had students with special educational needs that had not been formally assessed! This is due to the understaffing of the National Educational Psychological Service.
Fundamental change needed
The Socialist Party believes that there needs to be a fundamental transformation in the funding and provision of resources for the education system. All schools should be funded but also run by the state in order to ensure equality of learning which is why we believe that all schools currently under the management of religious organisations should be transferred into the direct control and management of the Department of Education.
Every young person has the right to a decent education. And that education should not stop when they do their leaving certificate just because they can’t afford to go on to third level education. This is why the Socialist Party calls for a living grant for all students at third level so that money is not a barrier to working class youth attending university.
In order to overcome the deep crisis in the education system the Socialist Party calls for:
• State funded secular education provided free for all from early childhood to university.
• The provision of 100% capitation funding to cover the total cost of running schools to eliminate the need for “voluntary contributions” and fundraising. Scrap all waste and water charges for schools.
• The involvement of the teachers unions in developing a strategy to bring the teacher pupil ratio in all schools down to 15:1.
• A school place for every child. No new major housing developments without adequate school provision. Establish an emergency task force to assess and provide for the immediate and future provision of school places for all children.
• An emergency school building programme with 100% state funding to end the scandal of temporary, sub standard, and outdated school buildings.
• Full time resource teachers for all schools for pupils with special needs.
• Extra resources for the National Educational Psychological Service to eliminate waiting times for the assessment of pupils with special needs.
• The provision of classroom assistants for all infant classes and full time secretarial and caretaking staff for all schools.
• For adequate English language teaching resources to be provided to all schools with pupils for whom English is not a first language.
• A living grant for third level students.
• Laptop computers for all pupils with funding to cover technical support for both hardware and software needs.
• The provision of indoor PE and outdoors sports facilities for all primary and second level schools.
• The upgrade of science laboratory facilities to modern standards with the provision of laboratory technicians to assist in the classroom.
