Sir, - There was a great irony in the publication of an article in your paper ("Primary Disgrace", The Irish Times, April 22nd) on how to spend the proceeds of Ireland's new prosperity on the day when Ireland was ranked 11th, ahead of Britain, Germany and Japan among others, in a new league table of the world's most competitive countries.
Your article suggested that the gains of our economic success should be aimed at primary schools, yet made no reference to the crying need for extra spending in our second-level schools which have contributed in large measure to this new economic prosperity.
The International Institute of Management Development - the body which produces the World Competitiveness Report - found Ireland to have the best education system in the world (among 46 countries surveyed) and clearly linked our economic success to the quality of our education service. As the chairman of IDA Ireland, Mr Denis Hanrahan, has noted, "education is the Irish economy's single most important competitive advantage".
But OECD figures showing Ireland to have the largest classes in second-level schools across the European Union mean that talk of our boom economy rings hollow with parents, students and teachers in second-level education. Two-thirds of Ireland's second-level schools have general subject classes of more than 30 students and practical classes with more than 24 students.
Reform of the second-level education curriculum in recent years has resulted in the introduction of new programmes and syllabuses which demand considerable interaction on an individual basis between the teacher and pupils. How is this to be accomplished in classes of 30 or more students?
We support the need to increase spending at primary level as well, but your article makes no reference to second-level education. Such an absence could be taken to imply that no need exists for extra spending at second level. Yet nothing was done for second-level schools in the last Budget. Failure to tackle the largest second-level class sizes in Europe is unacceptable when one considers that the State coffers took in an extra £1.1 billion last year.
The hours of class contact per student provided by second-level teachers in Ireland are now among the highest in Europe. In fact, one of the most remarkable findings from the OECD's latest report on education shows that costs per student are being suppressed by as much as $636 dollars per student simply because of the longer hours of teaching time being offered to each student by Irish teachers. Irish teachers are "carrying the can" for inadequate State expenditure by devoting longer hours of teaching time and classroom contact to students.
It is time for politicians in all political parties to stop their lipservice to education. The ASTI recently commissioned Lansdowne Market Research to assess the views of the general public on funding for our schools. An amazing 85 per sent of parents with students in second-level schools felt that more State funding was needed for schools. Clearly, such strong views cannot be ignored when the State now has money to invest in education.
Education is critical to young people's life chances. Unfortunately, second-level schools are experiencing a shortfall of 20 per cent in terms of meeting everyday running costs and they are depending on "voluntary" fund-raising just to stay in business.
The economic success of this country, around which your series of articles revolves, has been built upon its quality education service and the success of our education system. Therefore it would be insulting if one of the critical contributions to this success in our second-level schools were neglected when the fruits of this economic success are being spent. - Yours, etc.,
Charlie Lennon
General Secretary, ASTI, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8.