Speech by Fine Gael Education Spokesman, Brian Hayes TD

There needs to be a new deal between teachers and the Government according to Fine Gael Education Spokesperson, Brian Hayes TD, speaking this evening (Monday ) at the Fine Gael Cork North West Constituency AGM in Millstreet Cork.

“If I had a fiver for everyone who told me that the Department of Education HQ was a downtown office of the Irish teachers’ unions, I would be a very wealthy man. The common perception is that the unions simply click their fingers in Marlborough Street and get everything they want.

“It is true that we have seen some dreadful deals down the years where educational outcomes were not the priority. But can it be said after the effective reduction of between 15% to 19% of teachers take home pay over a twelve month period that the teacher unions still dominate the agenda? Any objective observer would have to say that this is not the case.

“I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to say that there is a genuine air of despondency within the profession.

“Teachers, like other public servants, are hurting. They are hurting because of a radical reduction in their take home pay, particularly difficult for younger teachers with large mortgages. But they are also hurting because they, along with other public servants, have become the whipping boys for all our economic woes. Teaching and teachers cannot be regarded as some dispensable commodity. It is dangerous for education and for society at large to have a Minister for Education who genuinely believes that the more he kicks teachers around the place, the greater his ‘TAM’ ratings go up.

“But, equally, teachers must realize, as I know the great majority do, that despite the drastic reduction in their take home pay over recent months, that they at least have permanent employment when so many others have lost theirs.

“This year is a crucial year for Irish education. Later this year over half a million young people will be in our primary school system, a figure not reached since the 1880s. Real reform within the secondary school system is desperately needed to counter the drop out rate of teenagers from Irish education. Between primary, post primary and higher education, close to a million people will be in the system in 2010. That’s a lot of people to keep motivated and focused for the alleged new ‘smart economy’.

“Everyone talks about the importance of education in getting us out of the economic hole that we are currently in. So why has it become a national pastime, directed from Government spin “doctors right through the print and broadcast media to demonise the very people we charge with the responsibility to reinvigorate the Irish education model?

“I recently spent some time studying what Finland did in the early 1990s when they faced an economic crash similar to our own. The collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland’s main trading partner, saw GDP drop by more than 10% from 1991 to 1993. Unemployment went from 3% to 15% during the same period, Government debt escalated and, for good measure, a Finland banking crisis also emerged. Does any of this sound familiar?

“Over a ten year period Finland went from being a basket case economy into a knowledge economy that is ranked internationally as one of the most competitive and sustainable economies within the OECD. Key to their success was a radical transformation of education policy based upon improving the quality and the status of the teaching profession. As the Finland example shows, successful economies have one thing in common: they get the best people into education and they value the role of the teacher.

“Having read the draft reform proposals that the unions were prepared to consider in their negotiations with Government before Christmas, it’s absolutely clear that major change within the profession was firmly on the table. Change in the area of the teacher contract, the number of contracted hours within the school day and greater school flexibility were all on the table before the Government chose to walk away. In fact the public sector unions did recognise the scale of the adjustment that was required last December in proposing effective pay cuts to their members.

“The Government should now say without hesitation that there will be no further pay cuts next year. That, over a period, the pay grades within the public sector can be restored when the economy recovers and if real progress is made on the reform agenda. The current ‘Mexican Standoff’ between Government and the teaching unions cannot be allowed to continue. Progress can be made. Last week the Minister for Education recognised in the Dáil the real hardship for schools that has followed the moratorium on appointments. He needs to be willing to meet people half way. Equally the unions need to withdraw non-cooperation of their members. The idea that schools may be unable to open next September through non-cooperation cannot be allowed to happen.

“We also need to consider the very rigid nature of the existing partnership negotiations where nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and where the entire agreement is based on all public sector unions signing up to a universal deal. This needs to be looked at again. A new way of doing business, sector by sector, may have a greater chance of success than the current outdated model. And of course some change has occurred within the teaching profession from the benchmarking process, but the truth is that the change has been minimal and should have occurred anyway.

“In whatever way that teachers choose to fight back following the dramatic reductions in their home pay, I would appeal to them not to take it out on students and parents. No good will come from a protracted period of unrest and non cooperation within schools. Whoever is responsible for the mess this country is in, it’s certainly not those students who are in our schools. Now is not the time for industrial in education. It will adversely affect students, many of whom are preparing for exams, and will damage the support that teachers should have in the wider society.

“Teaching unions have a crucial role to play in defending their members pay and conditions. But they do not have a right of veto to change within the education system. Teachers are important partners within the education system, but there are other partners. The voice of parents, students and management must also be heard. And while I recognise the historic problem of under investment in Irish education, not all problems are resolved by simply pouring in more cash.

“The great majority of teachers that I meet in the course of my work are consummate professionals and are passionate about education. They want the best for students and are prepared to go that extra mile. Can some of them give off that terrible air of entitlement? Of course they can. But they are not unique in that! Politicians and dare I say it media commentators are often laid low by such a condition.

“Dan O’Brien in his excellent book, ‘Ireland, Europe and the World, - Writings on a New Century’, speaks authoritatively on the slow pace of change in respect of public policy in Ireland. Too often in Irish education change is painfully slow to deliver. New work practices can take years to implement.

“If we really believe that education is the key to economic renewal, we haven’t a huge amount of time to agree a new way forward in Irish education. There is so much that is good in Irish education but the things that we need to change require the support and the buy-in of the 60,000 men and women who make up the teaching profession in this country.

“That change is based upon greater devolution of power to schools, more flexibility, a rapid upgrading of technology within schools, new support for school leadership, radical improvement in maths and science, tackling under-achieving schools and under-performing teachers, greater evaluation on outcomes for the money we spend and much stronger coordination between educations at all levels to achieve national goals. This agenda cannot be signed off over night. But we cannot wait around for the next five years either.”