The crisis of school places has dominated the start of the school year. Hundreds of children in Fingal (north and west county Dublin) and hundreds more in Kildare, Meath and other areas have been turned away from their local schools – jam-packed due to a total lack of planning.
An attempt is being made to say this demand could not have been predicted, but this is patently untrue. The crisis is in precisely those areas where house-building has been relentless. Blanchardstown, Swords and Balbriggan are the fastest growing areas of western Europe. The Fingal Socialist Party councillors recently brought this issue into the council chamber, demanding that the non-availibility of a school place be categorised as an emergency, with the necessary emergency response by local and national government.
In some cases, land was rezoned for housing by councillors with no or insufficient school sites reserved; in other cases, the Department of Education has not purchased sites from developers and then funded and built the school buildings. As well, developers try to hold onto sites and have to be paid top dollar for them at residential prices. Scandalously, the taxpayer recently paid out ?10 million for a site in Ongar, west Dublin. This swindle could be ended immediately with Dail legislation and only persists because of the cosy connection between developers and the main parties.
As reported before here, the crisis has led to the implementation of a “Catholics first” policy in national schools with Catholic patrons, leading to the exclusion in some places of a disproportionate number of non-Irish children – a worrying and unwelcome form of segregated education. However, the core of the problem is simply demand exceeding supply, due to the abysmal failure of the Department of Education to build schools in time for the local population.
The state must now act as patrons to establish secular, inclusive schools that represent the new demographics in Ireland. School sites should be identified, acquired and the building commence alongside any new housing, so that schools are ready to open when children come along. Resources need to be provided to assist non-Irish families to acquire language skills needed. 100% state capitation funding is required to run schools efficiently and equally. A local school place for every child and an equal, democratic school system is a right.
The Socialist spoke to a teacher in an Educate Together school in the Dublin area:
“The situation in the school is quite pressurised. There's over 300 pupils packed into prefabs. There is no PE hall and only a very small yard. A new school promised three years ago is still not completed.
“The shortage of school places and the enrolment policy of the Catholic schools means in some parts of the country there is a form of segregation in primary education. This is extremely unhealthy.
“The government aren’t providing enough funding for language support teachers. Children with language difficulties are taught in corridors because there is no where else. Children with little or no English are lucky to get five minutes one-to-one interaction with their teachers who in general do not have the necessary training to teach English as a second language.
“This puts enormous strain on the teachers and staff and affects all pupil as we try to grapple with teaching the curriculum to classes of up to 30, each with their own learning needs. The good work at this school is all down to the tireless work of the staff and teachers, with no real investment or support from the Department of Education.”
