A TEACHERS' union leader and a prominent educationalist have challenged the Coalition to come up with the resources to make good the educational promises contained in its "21 goals for the 21st century".
In an otherwise largely aspirational list, the Coalition has pledged that every 12 year old will be able to read, write and log on to the Internet, and every school leaver will get at least a post Leaving Certificate qualification.
Other promises are that within one term of office all 12 year olds will speak Irish with confidence, and every 17 year old will have a satisfactory performance in at least the Junior Certificate. More aspirational is the pledge that every 12 year old will be able to speak a continental language by 2010.
Another interesting pledge is for increased opportunities for participation in adult literacy programmes, which under the present Government have been extremely underfunded.
The INTO general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, said the Coalition's three educational goals were "a great idea as long as we get the resources".
He stressed that all these promises could be realised if resources were made available for smaller class sizes, proper "high tech" equipment, more remedial teachers, greater support for special education, more school psychologists and counsellors, and comprehensive in service provisions for teachers.
The Professor of Education at University College, Cork, Dr Aine Hyland, responded positively to many of the goals as outlined. However she stressed that the key factor in making the Internet accessible to every 12 year old was making the resources available for such a programme.
"Technically and in teaching terms it's not a problem, but the equipment does not come cheap," she said. She pointed out that up to date computers were needed to access the Internet, and the kind of out of date computers which industry is proposing to sell to schools under a recently announced scheme might not be suitable.
On the other hand, teaching 12 year old children to speak Irish with confidence was "perfectly feasible".
Prof Hyland felt the goal of all students achieving at least post Leaving Cert qualifications was realisable if PLCs were defined to include all present PLCs, FAS, CERT and similar qualifications, and apprenticeships.
She gave a warm welcome to the mention of adult literacy, which she pointed out was very poorly resourced at the moment. "I hope the promise will be matched by the kind of resources adult literacy and particularly the National Adult Literacy Agency deserve.
Fianna Fail's education spokesman, Mr Micheal Martin, said the point,about the Internet raised the question about what the Coalition had been doing in recent years about logging schools on to the Internet and developing information technology in education.
He, was "perturbed" by a promise that children should be able to speak a continental language in 13 years, when the Government was supposed to spell out what it was going to do over the next five years.
He was critical of the pledge on 17 year olds performing satisfactorily in at least the Junior Certificate, stressing that all students should develop beyond Junior Cert by means of the various Leaving Certificate programmes. He asked whether the pledge on quality teaching implied a criticism of the quality of current teaching.