VEC axing? The thin end of the wedge

Since I was elected in 2004 I’ve served on Co Wexford Vocational Education Committee. This committee runs 6 second level schools in the county and alos nominates board members to some community schools that it iholds joint trustee status with other patrons. The VEC also provides adult education, traveller education, literacy programs and PLC courses that are accepted by third level colleges as a valid entry route.

That was until today. Last year that great supporter of vocational education Colm McCarthy made the case for just 22 VEC’s. This year the minister has said there should be just 16. Just 4 will remain in place, City of Dublin as you would expect in the largest single local authority in the country and the other 3 just happen to be located in the constituency of the present minister and her immediate predecessor!

Good old Fianna Fail and the Greens! If they are delivering a new standard of service to all of us why then are they not allowing their own constituents to benefit from the claimed improved service delivery? Minister Coughlan tells us that the remaining VECs "will be organisations of sufficient scale to support the evolution of local education service delivery and to meet future challenges So what hen is the actual saving? I’ve been on the audit committee of our own VEC for those 6 years and I’ve yet to see a report n either our own or any other VEC that suggests there’s a huge amount to be saved. I reckon whatever savings are made will probably last the state about 30 minutes.

So the Greens & Fianna Fail know the price of everything and the value of nothing! Wexford is going to be amalgamated with Wicklow and it seems it’s a done deal as the governing body of vocational committees the IVEA has reluctantly accepted the minister’s plan. I’m surprised that there has been no consultation on this with individual VEC’s. As Co Wexford VEC Vice Chairperson I’d expect better. Should I wish to remain on the merged VEC, where will the new HQ be located? For instance we moved 4 years ago to a new HQ that we’ve leased. Will the new HQ be in Wexford or Wicklow town? Will I be paid expenses to go to Wicklow town for meetings? At present I claim only the attendance expense for meetings that mean my absence from home of more than 3 hours and no mileage, about €40 per month usually only clocked up after a main monthly committee meeting . I’m also on audit committee and the Outdoor Education Centre committee. I believe mileage claims will take off as members have to travel further to meetings.

I suppose it’s only coincidental that there remains just a handful of government supporters on the VEC’s. In Wexford’s case just 4 VEC members support the government while Labour alone has 5 members! I’ve yet to make my mind up if I want to serve on any amalgamated body and it may be sometime before the government brings in the legislation. Last year I indicated to the committee that I didn’t want to serve on any VEC board that managed schools where my name wouldn’t appear on a ballot paper, meaning I didn’t want to serve outside the county. It would probably be better for any new VEC to have new and different members to bed down any new ethos.
New legislation is promised so what’s the bet that the membership of councillors will be significantly cut back with board size reduced? An Board Snip Nua will see less local authorities and less local democracy. Soon we’ll see that the axing of harbour boards was the start of the thin end of wedge. The chaos caused by the economic slump is being used to recast the social fabric of this country. An unrivalled unaccountable bureaucracy will be the real triumph of Cowen, Coughlan and Gormley!

Time for teaching unions to unite

This year is the centenary of my union, ASTI. The Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland was founded to represent the small number of lay teachers who worked in what was then a relatively small but privileged sector of Irish society, the few schools who had a few lay teachers who taught the few pupils who went in to secondary school it what was then and mainly up until recent times a rural and agricultural country. In the early days there was a tension in some schools between some of the religious orders who were suspicious if the lay teachers. That is now gone as the orders have effectively handed over to trusts to run their schools as the numbers of religious working in post primary schools has collapsed.

The recent history of my union saw huge numbers enter secondary teaching in the 1960’s as free second level education saw numbers being retained increase after the inter cert. The union gained in strength and ran a very effective pay campaign in the 1980’s under the stewardship of my late colleague as President, Tony Boland. The strike in 2000-01 however has damaged moral significantly. Numbers attending union meetings are much lower now than 10 years ago. Conference will still attract all the activists and the issues that they debate are still representative of teachers. I’ve attended conference myself on a few occasions. I wonder however about the nature of my profession because just as society changed and needed more teachers I detect another change again.

Teaching has become more feminised, teachers often live considerable distances from where they teach, teaching is seen as an income. Each of these challenges needs to be addressed by the union. Societal changes and standards have evolved too. The reality that teaching may be a second income to help finance a home sited miles away from the community where the school is for property price reasons means a teacher isn’t going to return in the evening for a union meeting.
As a member of Co Wexford VEC, I identify at committee meetings with many of the matters of importance to TUI members. Core challenges like classroom management, resources, inspection, league tables, discipline and school management affect us all. I strongly believe that ASTI members have common cause on key issues to teachers on the ground with ordinary TUI members. I voted in favour of merger discussions at the ASTI annual convention in Limerick in 2003. The motion was well beaten then but its time will come again, I’m sure. I represented the local branch at last years TUI conference in Wexford and I own up to being an educational ecumenist. I was a member of the local vocational school board for 3 years and Vocational schools while in patronage are different to secondary schools in terms of pastoral care and teaching quality there’s no difference.
I hope that ASTI members at some stage will share my views. It is in the interest of teaching that a merger takes place. The logical step forward is for 3rd level members of the TUI to merge with IFUT to make a 3rd level lecturers union, so that there will be one union at each level. The advantages for teachers is a bigger pool of activists, elimination of competition for members in Community schools between TUI and ASTI, a stronger voice when dealing with the minister and in a position to deliver more for teachers and pupils. A new union would obviously need a lot of negotiation as both unions have evolved to different procedures with different types of management structure down through the years. But if the good will is there then it can be done. It’s time for teachers to look forward. In the meantime next week, the ASTI convention meets in Killarney for the 87th time. Good luck to all involved.

Electorate deserve better PD exit than Grealish's farce

Recently when I’ve listened to discussion about the PD’s viability I’ve remembered how when I was a child my father brought me to see Vanessa Redgrave in “Mary Queen of Scots”. As the inevitable execution scene appraoched at the end I closed my ears and covered my ears as Mary climbed the scaffold. After what seemed an era had passed I nudged my father and asked at the top of my voice “Is Mary's head off yet?”. The audience broke out laughing. Lets be blunt about the PD’s. The party’s over since May 2007. No party could recover what happened to them. The absence of a grass roots structure accelerates the inevitable. Society has moved on. The will he won’t he farce of the last few weeks only prolongs the agony.

To be fair they’ve had achievements; Harney banned smokey fuel, Liz O’Donnell raised ODA, Bobby Molloy deregulated taxis. McDowell defended Mary Robinson when she was the victim of a crass attack by Padraig Flynn. Their support for divorce, O’Malley’s stand by the republic speech was important. But in recent years the decision to accept Justice & Health in the 2004 reshuffle seemed to have promoted the terminal decline. Co-location defined them and a Fianna Fail that is happy for the PD’s to take the flack for the HSE. They also provided the cover for FF to drive privatisation, tax cuts and to prioritise economic activity at the expense of societal activity.
What intrigues me is that recently they are in negotiations with Fianna Fail and reports are that they will merge with FF. In the unlikely event of these breaking down where will they go? Whatever about the PD’s what does this say about Brian Cowen? This is the politician who told the FF faithful “When in doubt leave them out”. Now it seems that soon we’ll see a permanent temporary little arrangement. Where does this leave Fianna Fail?

What does Fianna Fail actually get? Happy to facilitate the demise of a party that doesn’t threaten it, allowing Mary Harney the plum job of commissioner, perhaps gaining about 20 council seats and the post of Health Minister, the very department that Brian Cowen once described as Angola because there were so many landmines. I must admit to being bamboozled as to why the 2 parties are in negotiations. What is there to talk about from a Fianna Fail point of view? In 2004 FF did so poorly they surely cannot go lower in 2009. So why do they need to merge potentially upsetting FF candidates with new running mates when they could hope to see them off in the election. As any Labour member will tell you a merger doesn’t mean that the voter will follow the party they supported before the merger.

I suspect that while the parliamentary party may want to merge that ordinary members will be reluctant to go into FF. I understand how they might feel. I think the charade engaged in by Noel Grealish makes ordinary members less enthused about merging. For any member of a party that’s in its death throes the final obsequies should be their own business, however would ordinary ex-PD members be welcome in Labour? If they were happy to support our policies, I could live with that and wouldn't loose my head. Unlike poor old Mary Queen of Scots!