Launching “Your Child and Schools in Ireland” 20/02/08

INTO Press Release : Speech by John Carr, General Secretary, Irish National Teachers Organisation, Launching “Your Child and Schools in Ireland”

20th February 2008

Speech by John Carr, General Secretary, Irish National Teachers’ Organisation
Launching “Your Child and Schools in Ireland”
Belvedere College, Dublin 1

Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to be here this evening to launch “Your Child and Schools in Ireland”. I believe that this is an important occasion and am confident that by providing relevant information in an accessible form to migrant parents that the gateway to a better future that is the education system will be opened still further and, that significant benefits to many people will flow from it.

“Knowledge is power,” said Sir Francis Bacon and what better knowledge to provide to people than knowledge of the education system which will open up whole futures and change lives. That is in essence where I believe this project will make a very real difference in the lives of newcomer parents and their children. It will change lives by opening up the opportunities that education provides.

It is particularly appropriate that we in Ireland should be welcoming of newcomers to our country. Generations of Irish people were at one time, emigrant workers and outsider children in foreign lands. They left these shores because of oppression, economic hardship and a desire to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Many primary teachers knew, as they taught their classes in schools up and down the country, that they were preparing the majority of pupils for the emigrant ship. My own Organisation the Irish National Teachers Organisation had as its first President the philanthropist Vere Foster who those of us of a particular age will associate with the headline copybooks in which we learned to write. He knew the importance of education – indeed the cover of each book contained the line, “A nation’s greatness depends upon the education of its people”.

He was not alone an activist on behalf of teachers but also on behalf of the poor and the emigrant. He voyaged to America as a steerage passenger and wrote up detailed accounts of the emigrant experience in a Parliamentary Paper which led to legislation on passenger conditions and out of his personal funds he financed the fares of several thousand emigrants from post famine Ireland. Because of his services to teachers he has an honoured place in the history of our Organisation but I think if he were alive today he would be very heartened to see two of the causes that he espoused so well during his lifetime – education and migration – linked as they are in this project tonight.

Yet in the space of one generation the story of hardship at home, emigration and making a new life in a strange land has almost been completely re-written. Decades of emigration has been replaced an influx of people from all over the globe in search of work, security and personal fulfilment.  The Ireland that our ancestors left behind is now a land of opportunity attracting people from all corners of the world.

Our country has a reputation for the Cead Mile Failte. While the cynics might allege that historically it had more to do with relieving the transient visitor of a few dollars, there is no doubt that we are known as a people that are friendly, interested in others and who have time for people. I often wonder, if large numbers of the newly arrived would concur with our traditional reputation.

Many newcomers and their families find themselves excluded from many aspects of Irish life, particularly the world of work. Others whose family members are in work often find themselves in low paid employment and at the mercy of unscrupulous employers. Indeed many of these people will from bitter experience equate Irishness with exploitation.

That said there is no doubt that in recent years much has been done at school level to open up the opportunities afforded by education to newcomer children and their families. Our schools are the first real point of contact for international children with Ireland and its people.

Our schools are a unique bridge between those of us who are newly arrived and those of us who have been here a little longer. What the newly arrived will learn about Ireland, its peoples and its traditions and culture will be mediated through the experiences of their children in our schools. Consequently, as educators and trade unionists we must ensure that this is a positive experience that will accommodate a  diversity of cultures in our schools and lay the foundation for a brighter and better future.

We must be prepared to demand that the state play its full part and we must insist on the provision of the necessary resources. That is not to imply that the state has been inactive in this arena but to demand a continuously improving response from the state to meet the changing needs of schools. The Department of Education and Science has produced “Intercultural Guidelines for Schools” which support and enrich the Primary School Curriculum. Such a development is essential if future generations of children are to be helped to develop the skills to live together in harmony, aware of and welcoming of diversity. However, the development and distribution of guidelines is on its own, simply a first step. Further investment must be provided in the form of teacher training.

The state has responded to the linguistic needs of international children and has provided extra teaching resources provided certain enrolment criteria are met. There is a need to review this level of support because there is clear evidence that in some areas it is inadequate. The policy whereby this support is only provided for a period of two years is wrong and this period must be extended. At the end of two years many children have a very superficial level of language learning, a level that may enable them to engage with other children in the schoolyard for play activities. However, many children at the end of two years lack the language skills to engage with for example, mathematical or scientific concepts. These require more time and therefore that time must be provided. The Department should also ensure that adequate financial assistance is provided to schools to enable them to purchase much needed appropriate language teaching materials.

Contrary to what is often alleged, our schools have met the challenge of change and now well reflect the new social landscape. That landscape, once dominated by an almost exclusively white, single faith, English speaking people has ceased to exist. The post-colonial, introspective, relatively poor Irish people of even a generation ago have been replaced by a confident, affluent and demanding population who increasingly define themselves according to European and world viewpoints rather than insular, narrow and even sectarian perspectives. Along side these are the new Irish families with different life views and customs, beliefs and backgrounds. Yet both groups share at least one common goal – they want the best for their children. And both groups are to be seen today side by side, perhaps one of the few places where they are really side by side, in primary schools. There, the children of new Ireland sit beside with the children of immigrants – the new Irish.

The recent school places controversy in north Dublin led to the public spotlight being placed on school enrolment policies, particularly in Catholic schools. I want to say that I believe that that focus was unfair. All over Ireland, Catholic schools have shown that they are inclusive, welcoming places of learning for all children, regardless of background. And what received less coverage last year was the lengths to which many teachers, particularly principals have gone to provide a school place for every child in an inclusive and welcoming manner.

As I said, much progress has been made to help international children in Irish schools and we must acknowledge that. The work of the hundreds of English language teachers has helped thousands of international children to access the school curriculum but we must not be complacent or stop there. 

The fact remains that all children in Ireland are in overcrowded classes. If these children, with their different needs are to be helped to meet their full potential then class sizes must be reduced. The one teacher cannot be expected to successfully meet the ever more diverse needs of more than thirty pupils in the same classroom. All children deserve a fair start in life, an equal chance to reach their potential and avail of life’s opportunities. Overcrowded classes restrict growth, limit potential and constrain opportunities.

The Department’s response today is a litmus test of our intentions as a civil society. It is more than a sentimental testing of our “cead mile failte reputation”. We are laying the foundations of future social cohesion and economic prosperity. It is a test of the efforts that we are willing to put into building the Ireland of tomorrow. This will not be an easy task. The creation of an Ireland that is open, tolerant and pluralist, an Ireland that is greater than the sum of its constituent parts, is a challenge that cannot be built on sand.

Our schools, properly resourced and funded are capable of being accessible and user-friendly places of learning, open to everyone whatever nationality. They are perfectly positioned to give the kind of leadership in multicultural awareness and effective community integration that we as a society requires today. Properly resourced and supported our schools can welcome the stranger, break down the barriers and build the bridges so that as a society we can reap the benefit of the cultural and societal enrichment that our changing society offers. This production is an added resource.

I want to warmly congratulate the Jesuit Refugee Service Ireland for their work on this project. Particular thanks go to Eugene Quinn, National Director of the Service who has overall responsibility for this important work. I also acknowledge and thank on your behalf Caroline Fahey, Project Worker with the JRS/Community Links School Programme for her dedication to the project. It is a testimony to her organisational skills and talents that such a fine resource has been brought to fruition.

In conclusion, let us acknowledge that there are significant borders to cross, many bridges to build before the inclusive society to which we aspire becomes a reality.  Building Bridges was an election theme of President Mary McAleese. In the millennium year she argued that “we all have a stake in building a future which respects and celebrates diversity – a generous sharing Ireland that encompasses many traditions and cultures and creates space for all its people.” This project will make a significant contribution to the building of that future envisioned by our President.

I can think of no finer words with which to conclude in relation to this project than the words of Margaret Fuller the American author when she said, “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.” I am confident that many candles will be lit from the torch that is “Your Child and Schools in Ireland”. ENDS

Notes: The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international Catholic non-governmental organisation, founded in 1980. The mission of JRS is to accompany, advocate and serve the cause of refugees and forcibly displaced persons worldwide. JRS operates at national and regional levels with the support of an international office in Rome. It currently works in fifty countries worldwide.

JRS Ireland focuses its work mainly in the areas of integration, detention and support for the international work of JRS.

This booklet has been compiled from information about the Irish educational system which is available from the Department of Education and Science, the Irish National Teachers Organisation, Citizens Information Board, the Reception and Integration Agency, the National Educational Welfare Board, the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the State Examinations Commission.  The production of the booklet has been part-funded by the Citizens Information Board and the Christian Brothers. It is available from JRS Ireland at 13 Lower Gardner St, Dublin 1 and will shortly be posted on the INTO website.