Unpacking and Unpicking the Programme for Government in Primary Education
The newly unveiled Programme for Government is about to be ratified by all the people going into government and I was curious to find out the plan for primary education. I had heard rumours that the divestment/reconfiguration plan where 400 schools would be multidenominational by 2030 had been dropped and I wasn’t surprised to see that was the case. I also wasn’t surprised that there wasn’t a single mention of it in any of the media coverage. You guessed it — free books, free lunches and free buses are what primary education is all about these days. Although, to be fair, there was a little more to it, even if it is depressingly unambitious. I’m going to summarise the plans and let you know what I think.
Reducing Class Sizes
Possibly to appease the union, one of the headline promises is to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level to 19:1. This target would finally bring us in line with other civilised countries though I would argue the way we do class size doesn’t mean this target would see classes of this size.
Supporting Small Schools
On to appeasing the IPPN, Ireland’s 1,300 small primary schools will see support through a new Small Schools Project. This initiative, which is being piloted by the IPPN, promises administrative help to rural school communities. On a positive, it is good that small schools may finally buy into the excellent research that IPPN did from 2003 to 2005. However, are we really getting to the root of the issue of small schools in Ireland?
Empowering Principals
Another fist pump for IPPN people, according to the document, principals and Boards of Management can look forward to trials of administrative supports aimed at reducing their non-educational workload. Forgive my cynicism but I can’t see it going anywhere.
Improved Application Systems
The government plans to roll out nationwide common application systems for special classes, which they say will simplify the often-stressful school application process. I find this interesting because it feeds into my wish for a nationwide system like this if we have to keep the patronage model. Policing it properly will be key. I’ll also be interested in families that don’t want a religious-run special school for their child and how that will work.
Diversity and Inclusion in Teaching
Efforts to increase funding for student teachers will focus on diversifying the teaching profession. My concern here is that when they say this, they seem to be focusing on migrant teachers. At best they might mean teachers of different faiths. However, what about teachers who may not have a faith or may have a lapsed faith? If we are going to focus on diversity of teachers in the system, we have to focus on patronage. I see this idea as pie in the sky without addressing patronage.
There is also a workforce plan to ensure a sustainable pipeline of educators but I’m not sure what they have in mind. The focus is still on economics and housing rather than why are teachers not staying in the profession?
Childcare Integration
The government aims to expand after-school and childcare services within school buildings and campuses. While most people will be happy with this — you’ve guessed it — I’m wondering about patronage. If these childcare services are integrated into schools, they will have to uphold the ethos of the school. Do we need the church to also control childcare as well as education?
Special Education Initiatives
Plan for Special education include an increase of special schools and classes nationwide. As always, what happens then? Bums on seats doesn’t solve the underlying issues still facing children with additional needs. The government is streamlining application systems for hiring additional Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) and Special Education Teachers, which is long overdue.
A new National Therapy Service in Education is on the horizon, doubling college places for key therapists like speech and language specialists and creating therapy assistant posts to enhance support in schools. I don’t think this will be enough but I guess it’s a start.
Digital Education
The government has finally decided to throw ICT into the primary curriculum as a subject. It’s a bad call as we saw from when the UK did the very same thing back in the early noughties. Despite twenty years of resistance from people that know what they’re talking about, the government has decided to listen to industry. Welcome to the era of coding by numbers.
Facilities and Infrastructure
Increased funding for school buildings will focus on creating more PE halls and will continue to line the pockets of the Vatican as every single cent of tax payers’ money used to build 90% of schools and extensions are gifted to the Catholic Church. From 2018 to 2023, this was over 1/2 billion euro.
Fighting Educational Disadvantage
A new DEIS Plus Scheme will target schools with the highest levels of disadvantage. This is the one area, which I can’t criticise because it’s needed. I’m also happy to see the Home School Liaison Scheme will also expand, providing more support where it is needed most.
Free Schoolbooks
It would be melodramatic to say the free schoolbooks scheme is going to devastate the primary education system but if ever there was a more cynical and stupid way to try and get some easy votes, this was the scheme that did it. We’ve spent over 20 years trying to move away from the reliance on textbooks and this scheme sets that back. We can expect the textbook companies to have very nice stands at the education expos.
Sustainability and Wellbeing
Plans to expand wellness initiatives and anti-bullying programmes are not unwelcome but they will need to be resourced properly. Unfortunately, the plans are still based on the 2016 wellbeing guidelines, which are highly flawed.
A Failure to Move on School Patronage
However, the government’s lack of progress on school patronage is deeply concerning. The previous commitment to establish 400 multidenominational schools by 2030 seems to have quietly disappeared, leaving Ireland’s education system firmly under the control of religious patrons, despite growing calls for inclusivity. While there are passing references to supporting a “diverse and inclusive” school system, no concrete actions or timelines have been provided. This inaction leaves families from minority faiths and non-religious backgrounds without equitable access to education free from religious instruction, perpetuating a system that fails to reflect Ireland’s increasingly diverse society. True inclusivity cannot be achieved without a meaningful commitment to reforming school governance and providing secular options for those who need them.
Overall, this is a very conservative plan for primary education and looking at the potential candidates for the ministry, I don’t think we are in for any of the necessary changes primary education has been crying out for for years. The status quo will probably be relieved at the government plans but there are no signs of Ireland’s diversity abating and I don’t really know how they are going to ignore the inevitable madness of the patronage system. However, leaving religion out of the patronage argument, there seems to be no efforts to look at governance in general so schools can finally get to focus on what they are there for — that’s not free childcare, or free lunches, or free books or free buses — it’s to educate. Wouldn’t that have been a lovely focus?
