Labour on Education Disadvantage and the Great Schism

As Cian highlighted, Labour has a plan for a War on Poverty. (Makes me wonder are they no longer Anti-War.) A big part of their plan is to tackle educational disadvantage. Though after reading it, I don’t think Labour have quiet grasped what needs to be done. But first I have to say I agree with Cian that Labour are worried. They have seen their poll numbers drop and are being to see that the Fine Gael relationship is not what they need to increase their numbers. The Great Schism of the Opposition maybe beginning. But back to education.

Labour say that:

The number of young people leaving school without their Leaving Certificate has remained stubbornly above or at 18 per cent since 1991. However, in Dublin 17 that figure is a staggering 59 per cent.

This truly is bad, but Labour fail to grasp the nettle of what needs to be done to change this. The school leaving age needs to raised to the end of Leaving Cert, with the Leaving Cert Applied being greatly extended to meet the needs of people. In this world today, there is very little that can be done without formal qualifications, and in an increasingly globalised world, this is only going to increase. FAS schemes should be introduced into schools for people wishing to take that route.

Allowing people to leave without some sort of qualification is disgraceful. Labour’s proposal to track people who leave school is useless.

I like the way they mention homework clubs, which are a particular pet topic of mine. They don’t say much about them, but at least it’s in there.

Another part of there plan is a “15:1 pupil/teacher ratio up to age 9 and a classroom assistant in each class.” Where are we going to get these people? We have the lowest unemployment in Europe, yet we seem to need more scientists—interesting fact: we have the most per head of population in the world—more Gardai, more teachers, more doctors, more, more, more. Where are these people going to come from? Where are all the teachers in the universities? Sure, you can say increase wages to attract more, but where will they actually come from? That, I think, is a very important question that no one seems to be answering.

Another proposal is a Healthy Eating Programme, including school meals. Yet again, this is Labour trying to raise kids for parents, which, in fairness, sometimes has to be done. But healthy eating can be done without the need to bring in school meals. The cost of refurbishing schools to fit kitchens with the capacity to prepare hundreds of meals would be enormous and take valuable sports and classroom space, not to mention about the running costs. Simple solution: stop kids going down town to have lunch; they will bring sandwiches, happy days.

Adequately resource the National Educational Psychologist Service to ensure that children get assessed quickly, and thus have access to the learning support they need [...]

Resources, resources, resources. Resources are all well and good, but unless you have the staff willing to work at this, then it is useless. I went to a primary school that had a part-time special needs teacher. Not once was I given any help although it was probably clear enough I was dyslexic. So, how do you solve such a situation? You have to put in place performance evaluation. If a teacher, special needs or not, is not performing, they must be fired. However Labour are not going to say this and annoy their union friends. You will not get quality in the education system until you start trimming the shite.

They make no mention of school vouchers at all, something I am quiet fond of. We need more schools, better equipment, better chances for our children. Does it actually matter how they get it as long as everyone gets it? If some business man wanted to set up a school to teach kids, I would be as happy to see my tax money go to him as I would the state if it means the kids are getting a decent education. I have talked about his before.

I could go on more about this report but it is 55 pages long and I have more stuff to do. It good to see Labour returning to it’s true self; even if I disagree with it, I can respect it.