Cultural Relativism & the Education Cuts

Contrary to what many government TDs might like you to believe, the past is not a foreign country. In 2002, when the Fianna Fail promised to invest in the education system, it was because Ireland needed to improve its system if its youth were to receive their right to an adequate education and if Ireland was to compete on the international stage. This has not changed.

Over the past few years, Fianna Fail ministers have travelled the length of the country visiting schools congratulating themselves on the resources they invested in our nations youth. Some of those congratulations were even deserved. Since Fianna Fail came to power, mainstream schools have become more open to special needs children’s to the point where the service was almost adequate. The Leaving Cert Applied and transition year programmes were relatively successful. Traveller education had improved and the introduction of language support staff in schools where large segments of classes possessed poor English language skills meant that pupils suffered less than they might otherwise have as a result of the massive levels of immigration.

For the most part, the government has made the right choices in education. Where it was criticised it was for its failure to provide sufficient funding for the initiatives it introduced, not because it made the wrong choices. But now, Cowen and co. have changed their minds. While ‘standing by’ past decisions, they’ve decided to roll back on those same decisions. Apparently while in 2002, Ireland needed to reduce class sizes to a 20:1 ratio, in 2008, that’s not necessary in 2008 where a ratio of 28:1 is portrayed as a luxurious excess .

The government and its supporters moan that a large portion of the education budget goes toward salaries. They use this fact to justify their decision to remove primary teachers from their posts. They claim that the money is being invested in new school buildings instead. What they fail to mention is that education spending in Ireland remains low. Few in the OECD spend less on their children’s education. The department of education pays for salaries, while parents, teachers and boards of managements are left to fundraise in order to pay for luxuries like electricity and water. Parents pay for books and uniforms and school building projects spend decades awaiting department approval. When you take these facts into consideration, it’s hardly surprising that salaries take up most of the budget. The government refuses to pay for almost everything else.

Of course, the government points out that Irish teachers are paid more than most of their European counterparts. Leaving aside the fact that the working environment these teachers endure is of a far poorer quality than those experienced by their European neighbours, for a Fianna Fail government to use this fact as an excuse for the savage cuts inflicted on the youth of the nation while maintaining that their past decisions were correct is a joke. Fianna Fail was responsible for negotiating the pay deals that saw these teachers receive such salaries. Why accept a deal that you can’t afford to honour?

If in 2008, it is ‘patriotic’ to inflict an inadequate education system on children, then why did the government spend so many years indulging in anti-patriotic actions such as hiring language support teachers, paying special needs assistants and attempting to reduce class sizes? What sort of Orwellian cognitive somersault is required to hold the position that in 2007 the government was right to hire special needs assistants, but that in 2008 it is right to fire such staff? Why, all of a sudden, is it patriotic to stop funding Protestant schools when a few months ago, it was patriotic to provide additional funds for such schools? Why was right to defend the most vulnerable members of our society in 2007, but in 2008, we must prioritise providing finance to the horse racing industry, sporting organisations and railway projects over providing services to the elderly and children? Either the wrong moves in the past, or the wrong decisions are being made today. Cowen and co. can’t have it both ways.

I’ve never been a big believer in cultural relativism, but the government’s latest move would leave the most extreme proponents of the theory flabbergasted. Morality does not change over the course of a couple of months. Cowen claims that he’s not for moving, but he said the same on the subject of the 1% levy for minimum wage workers and on the issue of medical card levels. If it’s a choice between ending up on the opposition benches and halting the cutbacks, we all know what he’ll do. One can only hope that Fianna Fail’s spin-doctors, don’t confuse the nation’s moral compass too much before the local elections, otherwise, we could end up with a decade of morality inversed government.