Green Party Education stops at 8?

A while back I looked at the Green parties 50 steps for education from step 1-4. It was supposed to be a step a week but nothing has been announced in almost 3 weeks. Have they abandoned the 50 steps? Have they drawn a blank on ideas? Or are they taking a summer break.? Love to know the answer to that. Anyway I can only deal with what they have announced so here we go step 5-8.

Step 5 Children should not have to wait years for suitable school buildings. Dahm right I say not only should this happen but also it should not matter who provides the buildings. Providing these places comes first costing comes a distant second. With that in mind I was thinking maybe they would come out in favour of a Swedish type private school voucher thingy. But nothing as innovative as that they simply say we will spend more. €269 million more to be precise . Standard fair really but every little helps.

Step 6 Representation for second-level students on boards of management.

Now here is an interesting idea. They seem to focus more on the rules of the school rather then the actually running of the school. To me the rules are the rules and while students would for instance want the uniform done away with that decision should really be up to the management. I don’t really believe in the “If students have input into the rules, the rules are more likely to be respected,” idea. However in matters like what to spend school funding on what subjects to teach or drop, the extent of the religious ethos in the school, the provisions of school transport to the schools etc students should have an input at management level. .

Step 7 Literacy report recommendations need to be implemented immediately

In Government the Green Party will implement the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Education and Science on improving Adult Literacy levels. However we will front-load the investment, increasing the current spend to €125 million in the first year of office. Now I have not read the report and really have better things to be doing then reading the report.Not saying I wouldn’t read the report at some stage though. But I will presume it is full of decent measures that should be implemented and soon.

Step 8 Urgent review of school bus catchment boundaries needed. This I have to say is a very positive idea. If parents have a choice in what school they can send their children this can lead to schools having to compete with each other in the area of quality of teaching. Now while this is still going to have parents choosing schools based status rather then quality lets face it how many parents choosing a school on status will choose to send their kids on the school bus. The whole nature of bus services needs to be looked at. Following all the recent school bus crashes something needs to be done. School buses need to be inspected more and adhere to higher safety standards.

So that is steps 5-8 some interesting ideas some standard lets spend more ideas. But still it is good to see them laid out. Have the greens stopped with the 50 steps I am not sure. Maybe Paul Gogarty TD Green Party Education Spokesperson is on his holiers no chance of making a longer school year then?