The school tie

I’m pleased Ruairi Quinn has announced an audit into fee paying second level schools spending of state cash. I’ve never heard of an audit being ordered into how the states money is being spent in this sector before. As a teacher I welcome the audit so that those of us who teach in the non fee paying sector will be assured that whatever monies there are, are being spent on education and nothing else. Fee paying schools in Ireland mostly draw their pupils from those who are advantaged. Since the demise of religious vocations in teaching orders the fees levied have increased exponentially. Add to that the fact that in some parts of the country wealthy parents who would otherwise have spent money putting their offspring through college will now spend that money on their second level education. This means that fee paying schools are still wells subscribed as one second level principal put it on national radio yesterday. Few of the schools charge less than €5k to attend. Indeed I’ve heard of cases where parents with pupils in school who haven’t paid the fee being taken to court by the school seeking payment.

I’ve long believed that this sector needs to have its state support reduced. I cannot understand why the state pays for either for a principal, deputy principal or career guidance counsellor in these schools. These teachers are not in a classroom. Why should the state pay someone to manage a private institution which is well able to independently provide for itself? In the last few years some of these private schools have been able to find the resources to bring in coaches for school sports teams and IT specialists to train teachers on an ongoing basis.

Private schools don’t get a capitation fee from the government but they can get capital support for extensions and all teachers salaries are paid by the state. In terms of savings its no real ongoing saving to say that you won’t grant aid construction since schools don’t build every year and may not need to build if they are selective enough and maintain numbers at existing levels. The real scope for saving is in terms of money earmarked for salaries. Pupil Teacher Ratio in fee paying schools is significantly less than in the rest of the second level schools. Many fee paying schools can afford to employ extra teachers that give the school an advantage over other non fee-paying schools. Check out some of these schools websites. They point out the advantage of lower class numbers.

There are other issues that are outside the remit of the minister but need to be answered by some of the orders and patrons and it’s this; What are some patrons who see their role as providing for the less well off doing as patrons of schools that are fee paying and catering only for the children of the well off? Ultimaltely these are bigger long term questions that we need to ask if we hope to have a better Ireland into the future.

The result of the audit will hugely influence Ruairi Quinn’s thinking in framing Budget 2013. I await the audit and I hope that Ruairi Quinn publishes the audit so that there will be transparency for all of us who teach to.

How the other half learn

Secondary education in Ireland has been free of charge for over 40 years, OK you still pay for books, school transport, uniform and voluntary contribution but the day when schools charged admission fees that helped pay the teacher’s wages are over. That was an enormous advance and surely by this stage you’d expect that in a republic equity. Which makes a comment by Jim Glennon very interesting. There are 6 TD’s in Dail Eireann who went to the same school, Roscrea. And if you go down the biography of other TD’s you see Blackrock, Clongowes, Kings Hospital, Gonzaga etc all well represented. All fee paying boarding schools. Let me out myself at the start, I went to a boarding school too, or rather I was sent to boarding school after the Inter because like many of my generation at that time my parents thought they were doing me a favour and if at 15 your parents said do something you did it.

Boarding school contrary to the popular assumption was not a pleasant place, I doubt whether my educational outcome would have been any different if I’d stayed at the day school. The educational benefits of boarding from my 3 year experience are dubious as many students repeated to get a basic pass but maybe I’m being subjective. The fees at the time cost my parents £600 per annum for the year, you got home only at holidays and mid-term breaks, the distance home was light years. Its now 30 years since I left and from my side of the fence the mystique of paying for an Irish education is the equivalent of a three card trick, you pay for something that you cannot compare against in terms of life experiences and there’s no money back guarantee if you didn’t buy achievement on the Leaving Cert.

Private second level schools can invest in their schools and build swimming pools, pay coaches for teams, run school tours to continental locations but they can do that because teachers the essential component of any school are paid by the state and the school charges enormous fees to parents who have huge resources. Some parts of Dublin have few non-charging second level schools. A survey of intake to TCD a few years ago showed just one ordinary second level school among its top 10 feeder schools. I think the continuance of fee-paying schools is an obstruction towards achieving equity in terms of access to 3rd level. If college fees are brought in why not remove state support for fee-paying schools?

Private schools met yesterday with the Oireachtas Committee and denied cherry picking the best. They complained how their middle class parents are finding it hard to put together the fees for their children. I wonder do these schools know how the other half live? The school book grant has disappeared for most second level schools in the 2009 budget however there was no sitting for the Oireachtas Committee to listen to the parents of these children. In one school I know, if 40% of families make the voluntary contribution, it’s considered excellent. The defence that such schools are essential for the survival of minority religions conflicts with reality that there is no minority religion secondary school in Co Wexford and yet the Protestant Community here thrives because of community integration.
The day of the boarding school is over. State support for fee charging schools are a luxury we don’t need. In a society where scarcity is rife, privilege is a commodity that I think should be rationed. I know my union supports the retention of state funding for fee-paying schools as there are many union members in these schools. But the time has come to put the quality of education of the majority of school going children and the working conditions of the majority of their members ahead of preserving the status quo. If resources in the Department of Education are limited, it’s time to think further than Minister O’Keeffe jumping to Finance’s whip. Now’s the time to restructure our society in an egalitarian way to offer a better and more sustainable future for all.

A modest proposal to shoot yourself in the foot

I had the opportunity last Friday to listen to RTE News at One and my ears pricked up when I heard Sean O’ Rourke say that he would be speaking to a principal who had the solution to teacher absenteeism. I’m all ears when it comes to problems and solutions so I pulled myself closer to the radio for the interview. A local principal who was a former General Election candidate for Fine Gael was supporting the Minster for Education in his efforts to tackle teacher absenteeism. His suggestion was that any teacher absent should be docked 20% of weekly pay if out for a day uncertified leave. Currently teachers are allowed 3 days uncertified sick leave.
The principal claimed he could spot clear trends in teachers being out on Mondays and claiming uncertified leave to attend weddings.
He felt it wasn’t a major problem but teachers should be held accountable for where they should be if not in class. I wonder was this view based on the premise that Batt O’Keeffe released figures that claimed 12,000 teachers were absent without certification on Mondays during the school year. These figures look like there’s a real problem here so lets take a closer look at Batt’s maths! Minster O’keeffe never specified whether he was talking about primary or secondary school.
Firstly there’s 40,000 teachers and 31 Mondays in the school year. So that’s 1.25M working days in the school year. As a percentage of this number of working days that means uncertified absenteeism in the sector on Monday is less than 1%. So that’s the extent of the problem. One feels that the only reason why these figures are being thrown out is to distract from the campaign against education cuts. Fianna Fail is trying to split teachers from parents and is using this information in an attempt to drive a wedge between them. I think if most managers could rely on 99% of their workforce showing up on Monday morning they’d be happy.

I know the Principal well having spent 3 years on the board of management as the VEC representative. Strangely in my time there he never mentioned a problem with absenteeism at the school and I don’t believe there is one. I think however if his proposal goes through there will be one. If a teacher is sick and has to go to a doctor each time they’re out then when the doctor asks how long will I make the cert out for you can bet the teacher will then say, “make it a week”. Teachers are no different to any worker and will of course max out on time allowed. And so human nature being what it is finds a way around the modest proposal of our retiring principal. It’s a shame that when a teacher is retiring that he takes an opportunity to have a pot shot at his fellow professionals who not just owe a loyalty to their principal but are entitled to a loyalty in return.