Secondary Education Committee

Speech by the Chairman of the Committee

The Right Reverend Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork

Introduction

As new Chairman of the Secondary Education Committee I introduce and commend our report to the General Synod which you will find on pages 259 — 262 of the Book of Reports. In doing so, I pay tribute to my predecessor, Bishop Edward Darling for his creative stewardship of this work during his years in the Chair. As I come to this work as the new person, I have been immediately conscious of the immense contribution to the work of the committee by the Education Officer Canon John McCullagh and by our Administrator Mr Richard Kilroy and his associates, and thereby of the benefits passed on to the students of our schools.

ASTI Dispute

Reflection on this school year’s dispute between the ASTI and the Department of Education and Science is unavoidable, as it has been at our meetings during the year. We too had opportunity to raise our voices and to make our concerns known. It was of great concern to us, as reported on page 262, that “...industrial action should have been maintained for so long and should have caused such upset to pupils.” Moreover, we believe it is inappropriate that pupils should ever be unwitting hostages in industrial disputes...

To many people, looking on albeit naively, that strikes seem often, in the main, to be about pay increases. However, be it right or not, the perception among many people is, that while everyone seems to be agreed that there should deservedly be more money for secondary school teachers, there is incredulity about the tact that industrial action appears set to continue on the basis of disputing the mechanism by which that money is paid.

ASTI Dispute - Support for Teachers

From my involvement in the education sector as Patron, Chairman and member of Boards, I am profoundly aware that it will now take years to rebuild those partnerships —not totally squandered, but certainly damaged - that were already being established through great effort and at immense human cost. Having said that it is essential also that hope be restored to disillusioned teachers. I spoke to a young honours graduate recently who told me that he wanted to teach but wouldn’t unless conditions make it a more viable option. People can decry teachers all they want, but if the job is no longer attractive we will not be able to resource our schools with the teachers we need. We see the shortages already, for example, in the difficulty in getting teachers for certain subjects. This syndrome pervades other professions and disciplines too.

ASTI Strike - Boards of Management the Forgotten Sufferers

Often during this school year, I have heard one speaker after another refer to the plight of students, parents and teachers. I believe, however, that School Management - members of Boards of Management - have been forgotten in this dispute. Up and down the country they are volunteers, giving generously of their time and abilities, heading out to meetings, training sessions, interviews, school events and doing voluntary work, when others stay at home or carry on as normal. Such is their voluntary role and commitment that without them too the Education Act and the whole system would not work.

Second level School Boards during this dispute have been under huge pressure from all directions and stress too. As well as being in the midst of trying to implement many of the

provisions of the Education Act, they are landed now with additional responsibilities. In this strike they have been caught between dissatisfied teachers, a dogged Department of Education and Science, restless students and vociferous parents.

ASTI Strike - The Danger of Losing Volunteers

Not only inn this United Nations Year of the Volunteer, but at all times, I know that the Church would wish me to express our deepest gratitude to so many such volunteers who give themselves to school management in this way. It would be catastrophic, however, at the very time when Boards of Management are being established in compliance with new and groundbreaking legislation, were we not to pay attention to, and urge awareness of this concern.

Any system which relies on volunteers and which takes them for granted has to recognise the risk it runs of alienating people of goodwill.

In an age, when already we ourselves know, and other agencies corroborate the fact, that people are no longer volunteering in droves to work in many sectors of life in our society, there is a risk that people will throw their hat at what is frustrating, makes them vulnerable or takes them for granted. If volunteers walk away, the whole management basis envisaged in the Education Act, 1 998 will crumble.

Grants Scheme

In our on-going work as the SEC, we need to put on record too our indebtedness to the Department of Education and Science which in the past year, through us, awarded £3.3m to support our students at those schools listed on page 260. 2883 grants were awarded. The assessment criteria are being simplified and supporting documentation based on the applicant’s tax assessment as agreed by the Revenue. As agreed here last year, and subsequently by the other Churches’, work now progresses towards the formation of the company.

The Education Acts:

The Education Act 1998 was the first piece of substantive legislation relating to primary and secondary education enacted in the 20th Century in this State. It is a landmark in the restructuring of education and asserting the role the law has to play in that regard. Legislation in any social area such as this is invariably complex and those involved in the day to day running of schools, in school patronage and management are already discovering it at work. Together with other changes in Irish legislation it is becoming a demanding and complex world of administration. The Education (Welfare) Act, 2000 will also have immense effect.

It is quite clear that this additional burden will be untenable for the operation of schools without additional resources, and in the midst of it all we have got to keep our eye firmly fixed on the well being and nurture of children and young people, and the fostering of our society.

Conclusion

The Secondary Education Committee is glad to be entrusted with this stewardship on behalf of the Church, and we put ourselves at your disposal. I have pleasure, therefore in introducing our report to you and proposing its adoption.