Education Minister: Richard Bruton TD

Minister Richard Bruton has outlined his ambition that Ireland develops the “best education service in Europe”. eolas explores the priorities of the education portfolio.

The Programme for a Partnership Government outlined the ambitions for education in the lifetime of the 32nd Dáil. By proposing the allocation of an additional €500 million in education by 2021, the Government has aimed to improve the areas of access, innovation, transparency and excellence. The subsequent Action Plan for Education 2016-19 is the product of engagement between Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton and 125 stakeholder organisations.

The Department for Education and Skills Action Plan has five main objectives:
1) improve the learning experience and success of learners;
2) improve the progress of learners with special educational needs and those at risk of educational disadvantage;
3) help education providers to continuously improve;
4) build a stronger link between education and communities; and
5) improve national planning and support services.

Elaborating on the rhetoric of being the ‘best in Europe’, the Action Plan summarises this as the breaking down of barriers to education, delivering an experience in correlation to international best practice, equipping all learners with the tools to succeed in an evolving workforce and ensuring that Ireland becomes a leader across a broad range of employment sectors.

Actions

The Government has pledged to increase mandatory schooling to the age of 17 and is set to publish an Action Plan for Educational Inclusion in an effort to tackle socio-economic disadvantage. This initiative will focus particularly on Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) as well as those outside of DEIS. Headline targets include ensuring DEIS schools meet the national average for school retention within the forthcoming decade and facilitating a 30 per cent increase in students from disadvantaged areas enrolling in higher level education.

In an attempt to widen the education system to reflect the diversity of modern Ireland, the Education Minister has intimated a move towards establishing an increased number of secular schools. A target figure of 400 non-denominational and multi-denominational schools has been set for 2030. However, the programme for government also explicitly references a safeguarding of parental choice in relation to those who wish to send their children to denominational schools.

The Minister has also initiated legislation which will provide for the retrospective vetting of teachers by An Garda Síochána. This process will apply to 32,000 school teachers hired before vetting became compulsory for new applicants in 2006. In the future, registered teachers will also be periodically re-vetted. If information representing a potential breach of child-protection is disclosed by the procedure, then teachers will undergo a fitness to teach inquiry. An estimated 65 per cent of the 92,000 teachers registered with the Teaching Council have already been vetted.

To facilitate the evolving nature of the curriculum, the programme for government has suggested that new subjects such as the arts, entrepreneurial education, mental health awareness and Mandarin Chinese be introduced. Likewise, in an effort to ensure the continued acceleration of the digital agenda, a computer coding course will be introduced into the Junior Cycle alongside the inclusion of computer science as a subject in the Leaving Certificate framework.

Minister Bruton outlines: “The key priority of this Government is to protect our economy and use it to make people’s lives better. So in using the successful template of the Action Plan for Jobs, the Action Plan for Education brings opportunities and potential to every home, every pupil, every educator. It seeks to make Ireland the best education system in Europe. It is the way we ensure equality of opportunity, success, hope and break the cycle of disadvantage.”

Budget

Budget 2017 included a gross allocation of €9.53 billion to the Department of Education and Skills, a 5.1 per cent increase on 2016.
In 2017/18, approximately 12,000 additional students will swell the primary and post-primary sectors. The tertiary level is projected to grow by a third over the next decade. The challenges presented by such a proliferation in population, against the backdrop of a decade of spending cuts are self-evident.

Within this context, while a proposed recruitment of 2,400 teachers into the profession, across primary and post-primary levels by the end of 2017, is a welcome shift in the right direction, it is of scant comfort to those pressing for a reduction in pupil-teacher ratio. At an average of 25 pupils per teacher within the primary sector, these classrooms are the second most crowded in the EU where the average is 20. Approximately a further 100,000 children are taught in class sizes of 30 or more.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) expressed criticism regarding Budget 2017 stating: “The Government’s plan for education was in tatters because the budget had failed to match the ambition with the resources.” The INTO statement continues: “The total failure to increase day-to-day funding for schools will leave primary schools dependent on continued voluntary fundraising and parental contributions.”

The continuing wage disparities between those teachers who entered the profession prior to and those entering since January 2011 has produced a challenging situation for Minister Bruton. Simultaneously, ASTI registered teachers are unhappy with the Government’s decision to impose financial sanctions after the union renounced Lansdowne Road Agreement terms. Prior to suspension for negotiation talks, strike action was initially proposed for seven days between late October and early December. This action alongside a withdrawal from substitution and supervision duties forced the closure of more than 500 post-primary schools on 27 October, 7 and 8 November.

Teachers’ Union Ireland (TUI) President Joanne Irwin states: “Budget 2017 does nothing to tackle the pay inequalities… It is completely unacceptable that colleagues continue to be paid different rates for doing the same work. There is a real risk that graduates who might otherwise have been attracted to teaching will be deflected to industry.” Furthermore, in light of a reduction of some €190 million in funding for Institutes of Technology between 2008 and 2015, rising student numbers and declining lecturing positions, the TUI asserts that working conditions, student experience and international rankings of Irish institutions have been adversely affected.

Meanwhile, Minister Bruton indicated that an additional €36.5 million will be invested into the higher education sector this coming year as part of a three-year increase of €160 million. The Irish Universities Association (IUA) has welcomed this 4 per cent increase in allocation for higher education.
IUA Chief Executive Ned Costello expressed his approval: “We welcome the fact that the sustainability of higher education is now firmly on the agenda. The Cassells report clearly sets out the scale of the challenge and the potential solutions. We look forward to working with Minister Bruton and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills in creating the conditions that will deliver the quality education system which we all aspire to.”