Minister Norma Dolores Foley-Umbridge

Hem, Hem. Hello, is this turned on?

Good afternoon my dear teachers, my colleagues. I know that you were unable to invite me today, and that’s such a pity, because I have such good news to share with you.

I know this is a one way video, and also that my twitter machine only seems to work one-way, but I can just imagine all of your smiling faces looking up at me as we have such fun at conference.

Well, it is lovely to be back at conference, and there are a few messages that I’m sure you’ll be delighted to hear.

We at the Ministry care about education. We encourage innovation and change.
Sometimes, we like change for change’s sake, so long as it doesn’t cost us too
much. Sometimes, we need to prune. Especially if you’re up to something too
expensive for our tastes.

First, Schools Are Safe™.
I know that this is true because Micheál has told me. That nasty virus does not
affect our Wonderful Children so you know that you can be safe when you’re in
school.

We have done everything in our power, that we’re bothered to do. We’ve told
you to open the windows and have given you permission to turn on the heating
for more than five minutes a day. We’ve told you just what kind of mask we’d
recommend that you buy from your own money.

Oh, I have heard rumours that some of you think that smaller class sizes
would help. This is not true, and if I hear any of you repeating it, then you
will have detention – and will be expecting you to write out “I Must Not
Tell Lies” until you get the message.

So really, listen to all I’ve said and then just do what I say, not what I
do in that lovely Convention Centre. Soo much space.

Second, You Will Get Your Vaccine
Again, this will happen when we’re good and ready, or have our stuff together,
or when we can be bothered, whichever is later.

Now, I can almost hear the trouble-makers say that the government has
changed the vaccination schedule. Piffle, I say. The vaccination schedule is as
it always has been. There have been no changes, and if you thought it was going
to be May, or June, then you surely realise that we actually meant August or
September (or possibly later)

I honestly don’t know what the fuss is because, as we all know, Schools Are Safe™

Now, I have Exciting News!
Our latest ICT grants have come out, and you’ll be delighted to know that we
have allocated lots of money to ICT. Now, it may look like we have cut it by
about half, but look at my smile, and listen as I tell you how much you did
get! It’s wonderful!

Extra good news because we have been able to secure magical machines that
won’t need replacing in a few years, so in the year 2035, you’ll be able to
(expected to, even) keep working with the machines we’ll let you buy in
September.

Now, you may not be able to get them all in one go, but you could always
bake up an industrial quantity of rice crispy buns and sell them to each other!

Apparently, there have been some ruptions about support for children who
have , hem, hem extra needs. Apparently Josepha got in trouble for using the
word ‘normal’ so I’d better tread carefully.

Anyhoo.

As I said, I am firmly in the corner of these children.

I will stand by their needs and be fully aware of their needs. However, that
doesn’t mean that I’m actually going to DO anything. Changing the way that
things are done is not why I got in to politics.
But, I cannot stress enough that I’m for those children. I’ll use lots of words
to say so, (but just don’t go expecting anything like extra funding, more SNAs,
allocations for next year and the like)

So that’s it from me for now! Remember, the Ministry supports you, and if you have an issue please see me for detention once we’re back in school.  I’ll ask you to keep your distance from me.  Oh, and do bring a quill.

Education in Ireland has had a few rough years.

There are a number of issues to contend with:

• Large Class Sizes
• Historical underspend in infrastructure
• General poor funding of the education sector
• Political ill-will towards teachers and our unions
• Poor relationship between the Department of Education and stakeholders in general

There are, of course, many more issues that would raise the blood pressure of the very many of us who care about how education happens in this country.

A key issue – a measurable issue, is the financial value that the State puts on the Education Sector. On this measure alone, we can see that the Government, the Minister, and thus, the Department, severely undervalue education.

The World Bank shows that, of the OECD countries, Ireland spent 3.5% on education in 2017. The same year Norway spent 7.9%, while Sweden spent 7.6%. The OECD average that year being 5%. (Source here)

The evidence of this lack of funding is everywhere. We have numerous schools where classes are in permanent prefabs; we have chronic underfunding of initiatives; we have higher class sizes than most other European Countries. The chart below from the C.S.O shows that, in 2016, there were 22 European countries with smaller class sizes than us at Primary level. At Upper Secondary level that number rises to 30.

Yes.

30 countries in Europe have smaller classes at second level than us. (CSO Data page here)

This is all happening in the context of rising numbers of students each year. Our schools are bursting at the seams, and any chance of expanding buildings or opening new schools are tied up in labyrinthine paperwork and applications.

And yet despite all of this chronic underfunding, our students still manage to do well on standardised tests. (Not a fair metric, but they do have the advantage of being measurable)

To be clear, this success at tests has happened despite the chronic underfunding. In Ireland teachers have regularly filled the gaps and put in that extra effort to help their students. What the chart above does not reflect is the level of pastoral care provided in our schools. The time spent in relationship building, the voluntary out-of-school activities that take place, the school shows, the matches, the tours.

A friend of mine now teaches in Ireland after a number of years teaching in the UK. One of his earlier impressions was just how little funding there is in schools. We are all familiar with the Windows 7 machines being held together with good will and wishful thinking. This is not sustainable.

As the population grows we need to look at how to fund education properly. There are a few aspects that need to be fixed:

• The abhorrent two-tier pay system whereby anyone employed after 2011 is automatically on an inferior pay-scale
• The cuts to capitation that have never returned to pre-recession levels
• Proper infrastructure funding – buildings, broadband, computers

With regard to the last point, yesterday’s announcement by the minister for a further investment of €200 million for ICT between now and 2027 is ambiguous. Is that ‘further investment’ simply picking up where the last round of funding ended. In which case the €200 million will work out as an annual reduction on ICT spend.

Unfortunately, despite my wishful thinking, I believe that the current government has no intention of fixing any of these issues as they do not want to put any more money into our schools.

So yes. We have had a rough few years, but they are likely to continue for a while yet.