Being part of the problem

I’ve just got an email in relation to a protest next week about the reduction in SNA posts. It’s an issue I put a motion to Wexford Borough Council last October asking that SNA’s be retained. Despite the motion the 2011 budget cut the funding and when Ruairi Quinn became Education Minister he accepted the FF Green plans. When schools closed for Summer some SNA’s were let go. A circular letter from the Department said that schools would get 90% of their SNA allocation before the Summer and the 10% balance would be re-assessed in September. In the intervening period there exists the uncertainty for an SNA as to whether they will ever get a job again doing what they love. On the other hand there is the cap of 10,575 full time equivalent posts, a reduction of 200 posts on 2010.

Why is it so that so many parents are exercised? Not so much that all the parents believe that they will lose a SNA completely, they clearly won’t. More because we have a record in the country of not providing for children with learning difficulties. More because many parents have learnt that the only way to get something is to fight for it. There is a fear there among parents. The reality of that fear bonds these parents together and ironically for the Department of Education makes them a greater lobby than if the department had funded the SNA and learning intervention historically. The National School system was founded on a premise in 1832 of “If it can’t be efficient make it cheap, and if it can’t be cheap make it efficient”. Any minister in the department needs Dr Who’s tardis to understand this department’s century old policy. It was the original social department of the state, predating social welfare, health and outlasting Lands and the Gaeltacht. Inspectors for the department visited children in the care of religious orders at residential homes and some were concerned at what they knew but the department turned a blind eye. I always suspect being a member of the Knights of Columbanus was central to getting on in some government departments like Education.

It seems to me that Wexford is worse affected by the reduction in SNA hours comparatively more than anywhere else. Why? The matter was raised at a VEC meeting where we were given the Departmental press release that blamed the increase on numbers qualifying for SNA’s on pressure by parents on professionals to produce reports that would result in the child getting an SNA. Professionals buckling at the prospect of parent power? That’s a new one on me, one that I find hard to swallow as it conflicts with what parents in Wexford told me when I visited a school here last year. Parents were concerned that there child was been given a 10 minute assessment in a classroom situation after which a decision was made on the application for an SNA. Questions were asked about the consistency on a national level of decisions on similar applications and the inconsistency of qualifications of those deciding on who got an SNA. Rather than parental pressure being the cause of the upsurge it strikes me that the pressure was downward from the department on those deciding on applications for SNA’s.

The department has seen it all before and will see it again, The department will survive and endure. That’s the problem. Education come’s pretty far down the department’s list of priorities. Time moves on and the world is a different place. That proves true for everywhere except in Marlboro St. For parents of children relying on SNA’s challenging the economic orthodoxy is one thing but taking on the mandarins at the Department of Education may well be a step into the unknown. In the past they’ve pursued a sex abuse victim of the principal convicted of these offences as she had the temerity to seek compensation from the Department. Cutting striking teachers pay in Christmas week didn’t cost this Department a second thought.

As a department it’s dysfunctional but can’t be abolished, how else would we provide for education? Ruairi Quinn has a job of work to make the department human. I wish him well and I hope that when the remaining SNA hour4s are reviewed in September that the matter that affects Wexford is resolved.

FG’s graduate tax will make 3rd level education a luxury

So Fine Gael have got off the fence and lined up with Fianna Fail. To be fair to them they’ve waited a while and while I welcome their 3rd way document as it contains a whole lot more than just funding of third level, graduate charges are what the media have focussed on rightly as it will lob on to those who wish to teach an additional levy on their PRSI. I welcome some aspects of the Fine Gael document but its important to have clear blue water between Labour and FG on the question of funding 3rd level. I always understood that we pay taxes to support education. Fine Gael has rushed into the announcement and had not thought through their policy. I couldn’t believe how complimentary Education Batt O’Keeffe was to FG this morning on radio, if I was an FG’er I’d have cringed! Let’s talk about 2 things I should know something about, science degrees and higher diplomas in education. FG’s plan to make students pay 30% of the cost of their education will see science graduates paying for much longer than graduates in other disciplines like Arts. FG’s proposal means a charge of over €16,000 per per science graduate in real terms, (figures from FG’s document “The 3rd Way” P 6). If this is to be paid off over 4 years, the time period needed to acquire this degree it would mean an additional €4,000 in levies on science graduates. Students wishing to pursue a post graduate course such as Higher Diplomas in Education will face additional costs Science is one discipline that has traditionally, along with arts, drawn under graduates from across the social spectrum. These levies will be presumably on top of other levies already in place because of the economic down turn. Who would want to be a teacher and pay at both ends backwards for your degree and forwards for your pension at extortionate rates? The average starting salary of 3rd level graduates is about €27,000 gross. I’m also worried at the prospect of a brain drain while we’re supposed to be developing a knowledge based and smart economy. FG’s plan is based on the premise that graduates automatically are protected against unemployment. As we know this is not the case at the moment, many graduates are losing their jobs. These charges will lead to a brain drain as graduates move to other countries to avoid paying charges, this at a time when the country needs to foster the knowledge economy. Presumably while at the same time foreign trained graduates would not be liable for the charge. Secondary students will consider leaving the Republic for Wales or Northern Ireland where already colleges have empty places and a student loans scheme where you pay as you earn significantly less than what FF or FG now want to charge. I want to see local graduates get jobs in the future at Coca Cola in Drinagh not pack their bags to work in R&D abroad.I’m also disappointed that Fine Gael are now opposed to the aim of having 72% of our LC students progressing to 3rd level. I am worried at the implications of less student places at third level will have for points as these will inevitably rise. Surely this will put more obstacles in the way of those from disadvantaged backgrounds where there is a poorer emphasis on education as away to self development. Fine Gael’s programme reeks of inequality. It will neither empower nor support a future for our young people. Fine Gael should remember that education based on equal access and universality is the only possible road to prosperity for our country and future generations. At this time we must strengthen participation in education, not force people to opt out. Social investment is imperative in dealing with the current economic crisis and laying the foundation for a decent cohesive society in the future. Do we actually need to rebrand our IT’s as a university or indeed does this just use up some of the €500M that they aim to raise. Has anyone heard of a campaign for university status for Tallaght, Letterkenny or Carlow? This all might sound fine during an election but why pile on extra to the already stretched cost when these colleges have not applied for upgrades to university status and the present universities by their own admission do not have enough money? Back to the drawing boards for FG, Should be plenty for them at NCAD!

O’Keeffe’s special needs cuts hit the vulnerable again

A cut is not a cut if it’s indefensible decision. It seems that this government have given cuts such a bad name that now they deny that they are cutting. All they do is merely allocate scarce resources in a more equitable way! Nonsense, this is not about improving a child’s life chances, it’s about accountancy. Such an indefensible cut is the decision announced by Education Minister to remove some special needs education assistance from primary pupils using as bogus cover advice that the pupils benefit more by being in an ordinary class, even one that will be more over crowded from next September. It reminds me of the excuse offered by Minister Hanafin to justify her removal of disability allowance from 17 & 18 year olds. She said it prevented their entry into the workforce and claimed she was acting on the recommendation of voluntary groups.
Batt O’Keeffe has asked people not to cloud the issue with emotion. I agree so let’s deal with facts not ministerial spin. He rubbished the suggestion of his decision as being a cut. The pupils concerned are described by the Minister’s term “mild”. The type of child the minister is thinking about can have slow speech and language development, poor memory, limited attention span, emotional disturbance and visual or auditory impairment. Minister O’Keeffe finds it hard to believe that the INTO could want a teacher for just 3 or 4 such children. What he clearly doesn’t understand is that a teacher has a choice in classroom, either ignore these children and teach the class in which case they make no progress or else spend as much time with these children as possible and as a consequence the work and development of the class slows down.
The department already allocates funds through the General Allocation Model for each school with pupils who need learning support. The suggestion of schools being all the same and all doing the same thing is wide of the mark. Schools cannot be all things to all people, schools are encouraged by the Minister to specialise and provide services in their community. Indeed some schools who wanted to provide for pupils with either learning difficulties or for those who are gifted, experienced their own difficulties and were refused by the department citing duplication as some schools already provided that service in the community, some ironically now on the list released on Friday for a reduction in staff. Many of the schools on the list are schools that would be well known for their focus on helping pupils with a learning disability. I particularly note St Senans NS in Enniscorthy. This school has a fine tradition of providing for pupils with learning difficulties. Schools like this don’t need the Minister’s folksy potted logic on possible learning outcomes in already overcrowded classes. They need the Minister’s support. In reality these schools could have avoided these cuts if they ignored the needs of their pupils in the first place. In short they’re being shafted because they achieved and the Minister doesn’t want to pay the price and he’s hiding behind a report, just as Minister Hanafin hid behind the voluntary groups.
If a school can fill a class with 11 such pupils then the funding will remain in place. In total there’s 128 classes nationally with number below 11 with over 800 pupils involved and 128 teachers facing dismissal. Minister O’Keeffe denies that this cut is due to budgetary reasons, a claim backed up by Minister Willie O’Dea on radio over the week-end. This claim is mere spin and an insult to the parents, teachers but most of the children involved. In fact the bar, set at 9 by the Department of Education, has now been raised by the Minister to 11.The schools that identified the need for teaching pupils in a targeted approach must retain these supports.
Minister O’Keeffe has not published the advice on which he claims he’s working on. Minster O’Keeffe should explain why it is that classes of less than 11 are not in the pupil’s interest while those of 11 or more remain of benefit and schools with such will keep their allocation. He should also explain what will happen at second level schools that similarly target resources for pupils with mild learning difficulties. Will he now move against learning support and Special Needs Assistants in these schools too?
This cut is indefensible, the Minister must reverse it.

Batt’s Man U week-end no compensation for 70,000 education protesters

Yesterday while 70,000 protested in Dublin against the education cuts, the minister responsible was far from the maddening crowd enjoying the delights of the Sretford End! It seems that Minster O’Keeffe had a long standing commitment to watch Sunderland play Manchester United. Sunderland were of course managed by former Cobh Ramblers star, Roy Keane until Thursday and while all politics is local, once Keane had resigned as manager, you’d have thought there was no need for the Minster’s attendance.
Last June, I was on holiday in Manchester too. My family spent a wonderful afternoon at MOSI. This is the museum of science and industry. Central to the museum work is the importance of encouraging a child’s imagination. Our youngsters loved the art in the original Manchester railway station, the world’s first. The emphasis is on hands on learning and activity. It’s fabulous! The teachers I met were aghast to hear that there was nothing with such an imaginative curriculum in south eastern Ireland. They may find it even stranger that Minister O’Keeffe has abolished financial grants to schools that teach chemistry or physics.
Is it too much to expect that Minister O’Keeffe might visit places like MOSI and come back invigorated for his brief? Somehow I think I it is, he seems more intersted in the nation's finances every time he talks!

Molesworth St was chock a block last night as thousands of parents, teachers, and some pupils gathered to vent their frustration and indeed anger at the budget cuts that Minister Batt O’Keeffe is determined to roll out in schools around the country. The demonstration was organised to coincide with Labour’s motion condemning the cuts most notably the impact on Pupil Teacher Ratio, the disadvantaged and special needs education. The meeting was addressed by the leaders of teacher unions, patrons and parents associations, as well as Labour leader Eamon Gilmore and Fine Gael’s Education Spokesperson Brian Hayes.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe is determined to press ahead full in the knowledge that the greens are on board despite their agreement prior to entering government to increase the spending on tackling disadvantage and reduce further the PTR. It is clear that FF & the Greens have the numbers to see off the opposition and will hang together rather than hang separately. As a teacher I take exception to the minister claiming that teacher unions are hysterical and scare mongering of the highest order. The facts are that school bus fees will rise to €300 per annum, Education for Special needs will be ignored and that English teachers will be limited to 2 maximum. Add to that the cuts in funding for LCVP, LCAP and Transition Year and the ban on substitution for colleagues absent on school business. This farcical plan will mean teacher reps unable to attend VEC meetings. I’ve already refunded money to 2 classes who had hoped to travel to a college laboratory in January. The suggestion that its only going back to 2007 is ludicrous, I remember 2007 very well, it was the year my soccer team won the Wexford Wicklow League Cup, in 2009 there will be no such competition, there'll be n soccer team. It is teams like this that make school tolerable for some pupils. when I go to watch Wexford Youths I take pride at how many ex-pupils play in the League of Ireland.

However the motion will further embarrass the Greens and FF. It is clear that next week will see farmers outside the Dail and this is a group that is well organised and will get a similar number to the gates of the Dail. In the back ground there’s also the possibility of protests by the disabled and I get the idea that for weeks to come the budget cuts will be a hot issue. Once Christmas is over and the fiscal position tightens even further as the banks call in the guarantee scheme and unemployment rises, I believe a supplementary budget is inevitable. Lets be clear it’s going to be like this all the way to the local elections in June. All the bluster about greens pulling out is just that, aimed at shoring up what’s left of their credibility.

Ask yourself this, if there was a general election and the greens succeeded in holding a number of seats who’d take them serious in any negotiations to form a government? Could you keep a straight face if sent to negotiate with Paul Gogarty? That may be in the future but what’s certain is that in the short term the issues that brought about 12,000 people onto the streets last night persist.

I was delighted to see a good representation from Co Wexford. The piece of video shows a number of parents from North Wexford marching immediately outside Leinster House. It was good to meet so many Labour colleagues; Cllr’s Michael Conaghan, Aodhán Ó Riordáin, Seán Ó HArgáin, Ged Nash and soon to be Cllr Maria Parodi as well as Roisin Shorthall, Eamon Gilmore, Ciaran Lynch and Michael D. Fianna Fail and The Greens may have inadvertently brought back to the Irish people a sense of community and collective concern. I wondered for an hour or 2 on budget day if Ireland had lost its sense of outrage as a result of economic affluence. Thankfully I was wrong. I’m barely audible with the noise from the demonstration. You can listen by clicking, unfortunately the FF & Green government is not for listening. On another note, I was pleasantly surprised as I drove up to Dublin to see that the hills around north Wicklow had a covering of snow. I'm dreaming of a white Halloween !

Mighty Mouse in the constituency but Mini Mouse in Dail Eireann

The late Jim Kemmy once brought howls of laughter to the Dail when he used the above to describe the ceaseless posturing of Willie O’Dea. I am reminded of that gem because I’m worried that some government TD’s may be suffering from nausea after their endless U-turning on Budget ’09. I’m not surprised Brian Lenihan now looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights as a week ago FF back benchers gave him a standing ovation on TV while now they are queuing up to call RTE Radio for a review of the proposed abolition of medical cards for over 70’s.

I’ve always valued FF voters as most are from lifelong FF families. They don’t change their minds often. As someone who wouldn’t change his own vote, I really appreciate if an FF voter says they’ll back you. It’s something I could never say back to FF. I don’t think I’m the only Labour councillor who is getting that type of feedback lately. That’s why I admire Joe Behan and what he did, He’s turned his back on the politics of speaking out of both sides of the mouth. I note Joe Behan mentioned education cuts when he took what is a brave step in slamming the FF door shut behind him. However the focus has deliberately been taken off his courageous action by the smoke and mirrors of other FF backbenchers happy to say anything on the national airwaves on Over 70’s med cards to get the media off their back about every other cut in the budget package.

A week on from the budget and other than1982 I cannot remember a budget that has been as controversial. Medical cards for Over 70’s and the 1% levy grabbed the headlines but as a teacher I always look at education estimates and budgets. What struck me straight off was the clinical shafting of everything that schools try to do. I have never seen such a blatant attack on the majority of second level schools. Cutting every school means that well funded schools lose a little but poorly funded schools lose a lot.

There’s 32 cuts. They include grants for Home Economics, Physics, Chemistry, Equipment for Resource Teachers, Paid cover for teachers out of school on school business, Centre for Talented Youth, Educational Disadvantage Committee, 1,200 second level teaching posts and 200 other primary posts are gone. Funding for English language support teachers, secondary school buildings, LC Applied Programme, LC Vocational Programme, Transition Year, Back to Education Allowance, school libraries, school transport, IT, youth services, traveller education programme is cut. To be fair to FF & The Greens, something’s have gone up. Student Registration fees up to €1.5K, Pupil Teacher Ratio, the retirement age for some teachers and the price of books in disadvantaged schools.
If there’s one that really is beneath contempt it is their decision to postpone the EPSOM Act. This act is a commitment from 2003 and the national euphoria following the Special Olympics in Croke Park. It was a promise to those children with special needs that they would have a right to an education plan for their developmental needs. This act wouldn’t cost a bob but its funding implications for schools and services would presumably put a strain on FF and the Greens need to cut stamp duty for commercial developers or the remove value for money criteria for public contracts for Tom Parlon’s buddies. The reality is that childhood development is not like infrastructure, you cannot delay the emotional development of a child and expect that when resources allow you can come back and start up where you left off. What FF and the greens are going to learn is that school kids are not like bicycles that can be parked in a shed on a wet day and taken out when it’s sunny. This government need grinds on education and I think they’re about to get it! Next week Labour table their motion on class sizes and lets see FF TD’s support their local schools.

Class size, time to turn the tide

Yesterday was a red letter day for our youngest. She set off for her first time to Gaelscoil Charman, Wexford. Its our nearest co-ed primary and we’re really delighted how well our children have progressed at the school. The principal, teachers, staff, parents, pupils and wider community have a forged a unique bond down through the years of mutual support cast from a resolute campaign to have the school built in the first place.

Watching its construction 4 years ago rightly gave us a huge sense of achievement. Watching Sean Óg Ó hAilpín open the school gave pupils a sign that only the best would be provided into the future.

Within months however, a letter came home in the bag from the INTO school steward. Class sizes, something you cannot see from the road, were significantly up in the county and despite the government’s commitment to provide more teachers nationally the PTR was rocketing. Because Co Wexford’s population is increasing this puts great pressure on our schools. When Mary Hanafin became minister 4 years ago she dismissed her 2002 election commitment to reduce the PTR as a “noble aspiration”. The INTO organised a public meeting in Wexford in March 2007 to discuss the matter. Another promise from the government has come and gone and still the PTR remains high while Brian Cowen who was supposed to provide the money is now concentrating on bringing down is golf handicap.

Each Autumn the Department of Education release average class sizes based on returns from the previous school year. Co Wexford always features at the high end of this survey. The highest class size in a rural county in Ireland is usually in Wexford, In the past its been 41, 40 or 39. Last year, even Mary Hanafin was embarrassed. When Ruairi Quinn asked for the information it was withheld until Spring. She delayed the release of the results

A year ago Fianna Fail, The Greens & PD’s promised to reduce the PTR to 27 pupils per teacher. Yesterday my daughter was one of 29 pupils in a classroom. In this school year it is supposed to drop to 26. Nobody believes it will. What parents do believe is that teachers are struggling to cope in some schools. At Crossabeg near Wexford a school designed for 6 teachers was supposed to have opened its extension today. However, not a sod has been turned. Numbers have rocketed; teachers and classes work in cramped conditions. No rooms to teach in and no extra teachers to reduce the numbers in a classroom. 5 years ago FF built a pony palace at Punchestown instead of schools. Now the same government is opening golf clubs when they should be employing teachers.
That’s why INTO is organising a campaign in October on the issue of class sizes. I support the campaign of my fellow teachers. The Labour Party is also launching its own campaign to coincide with the union's campaign. Ruairi Quinn found out that over 40,000 pupils are still educated in drafty prefabs, 400 schools nationally are going nowhere on the building list. The time has come to make this government to put its money where its mouth is. The time has come for Labour's voice to be heard.

Hayes language plan gets me thinking

Last week’s Fine Gael proposal to segregate pupils with poor English from the rest of the class certainly sparked a bit of controversy. When I checked out FG’s website on Thursday morning to seeexactly what Brian Hayes had said, for some reason there was no mention of his views there.
Since Hayes’s appointment as FG spokesperson on Edcuation he has succeeded in unsettling his opposite number. He doesn’t seem to play by the usual rules, famously turning up at a ministerial press conference much to the displeasure of then Minister Hanafin on that occasion.

The reality is that at present principal teachers apply for up to 4 hrs a week for a pupil for one to one tuition in English which usually takes place when the class is doing Irish. If you enter our school system at the age of 12 you are exempt from learning Irish so generally this time allocation dove tails on the timetable with the pupil’s availability thence the 4 hour limit. Now add those 5 periods a week to 5 periods allocated for English to each class and that works out as a third of the week studying English as it is.

However Brian Hayes’s plan would visualise a pupil being immersed in English until he or she has a competency good enough to learn in a classroom environment. Many of the objections have been on the grounds that the pupil’s relationships with peers may suffer or at the use of the word segregation with its inference of educational apartheid. To be fair the apartheid system was designed to last for ever where as this plan is that when the pupil is competent in English they can take their place in the classroom. It is hugely frustrating for pupil and teacher to be together in a class, the pupil not being able to understand and the teacher due to the increasing PTR not being able to deal with the learning difficulty. If intervention can prevent this type of frustration building up what harm is it?

My own feeling is that there are subjects like PE, Art, Materials etc where the pupil participates or learns a skill and where aptitude rather than competency in English is key to progress. I think that Deputy Hayes’s proposal should be looked at in conjunction with the curriculum and there may be some merit in his plan to help some outcomes but I wouldn’t use the word segregation to describe it. I agree with John White of my own union ASTI, I would call it intervention.
However I wonder how many such pupils we have in the system. Some how I think these numbers have peaked. Given the downturn in the economy I think fewer families from Eastern Europe are coming here. Those that are here have been immersed in the language for some time now. I wonder is it an idea that has already dated?

Given that the Department of Education is also looking at cuts on the instruction of the Department of Finance where could the funding for such an idea come from? What was interesting was that the present Minister made no response to his opposite number in FG. If it was an FG own goal, where was the government to rub FG’s face in it? Telling indeed!

Niall Power and I discussed the mate on Beat102103 last Thursday morning. Click on the column above to download