Cutbacks will turn our children into racist bigots
- Published: 03 November 2008
The Budget cuts will result in an unjust two-tier system of education, writes Carol Hunt
Afew weeks ago, the five-year-old proudly told me the name of his new friend in school. "He's called 'Barcode'?" The little man nods emphatically. "Are you sure?" I asked, thinking I'd heard a few odd monikers in my time, from 'Coca Cola' to 'Winner', but this was a new one on me. "That's what he told me," says the five-year-old. "And he comes from another country, far away," his eyes light up at the exoticness of it all.
"Where is he from?" I ask. "Ehh, somewhere else. Somewhere that's not here," he answers cryptically.
Soon after, we discover that the child has not been named after a nightclub in north Dublin's Clontarf, but bears the perfectly normal Polish name Bartek.
The five-year-old sounds almost disappointed as he confesses his mistake.
My daughter, a sophisticated second-former, is thrilled to inform me that there's a beautiful new girl in her class called 'Gift'. "She's from somewhere in Africa I think," she enthuses. "It begins with 'N'."
I show her where Nigeria is on the map, and she is fascinated. "Maybe when I'm a bit older we can go visit there."
Both my kids attend a nearby inner-city school. There's a veritable smorgasbord of children there from all types of families. Locals, whose people have lived here for generations, blow-ins like ourselves who moved for the centrality and sense of community, and of course the immigrant families who came here for work and now stay because they -- and their children -- have put down roots, made friends and settled.
It reminds me of Queens, NY, during the Eighties. So many Irish couples I knew moved there, settled and had kids, who were then sent to the local school where they picked up a coveted 'Nuu Yoyek' accent.
Similarly, kids at our school who profess to come from Mittel Europa (in one of the junior classes, more than 50 per cent) speak with accents that Brendan Behan, a local boy, would have approved of.
But in many cases the children are just starting to get their tongues around the language. It's tough on them, because even though their parents are asked to try speaking English at home, inevitably they keep lapsing back into their native tongue.
"There isn't any point in my giving him homework," I overheard the senior infant teacher saying to a 'newcomer' mum. "Not until his English improves. So please speak it with him as much as possible." The mother nods, desperate to help her child integrate into their adopted home.
Luckily, the school employs several language support teachers. The kids learn their English at a much quicker rate, which means that they aren't at such a disadvantage in class. Just as importantly, the teacher can concentrate on teaching the whole class the form curriculum, so the other students -- the locals and blow-ins -- are not handicapped by the others.
Which is why last week's Budget cuts in education have posed a bit of a conundrum. The headmistress said that, in all her years of teaching, she had never heard a Government actually admit that they were going to increase class-sizes. In the past they've always given the nod to a commitment to smaller numbers, regardless of that actually happening or not.
So we are hit with a triple whammy. Class sizes to be increased. No substitute teachers provided in certain circumstances and -- a wallop for our school -- language support teachers reduced to two per school, regardless of how many students actually need them. Not to mention the reduction in book and library grants.
No matter how the minister tries to spin it, many children will suffer, and the most vulnerable children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds will suffer most.
My kids are not disadvantaged, nor are they vulnerable. But many of their classmates are. The school they attend is heavily dependent on public monies because wealthier local families (what few have remained here) prefer to send their offspring to private schools. The teachers are extraordinarily committed, giving up free time, not just to help the children, but also to coach parents on the curriculum so that they can help their children at home.
When we moved into this area we made a conscious decision to send our kids to the local school. We believe that being part of a vibrant, eclectic, mixed community is good for our children's development -- as well as being good for society as a whole. We have always prided ourselves in Ireland on the egalitarian nature of our education system. Getting kids from all types of backgrounds to mix in the playground is the first lesson in avoiding a splintered society.
But society (or, at least, society as represented by our Government) seems to be against us on this one. Whatever about the implications of classes having to close because of no substitute teachers, or quieter children being neglected in larger classes, cutting back on language support teachers means:
A: Newcomer children, and their parents, will be blamed for 'holding back' native Irish students;
B: Parents who can afford to will move their children from integrated local schools to private 'single culture' schools. (In the US, it's known as the Black 'Flu.)
C: Irish parents who do not have the luxury of changing schools will become very resentful of 'foreigners' (they will no longer be accorded the status of 'new Irish') who are taking places in their local schools and holding back their children. Children -- always quick to pick up the prejudices of parents -- will learn how to be bigoted little racists in the playground.
Conclusion: we end up with one of the most blatant two-tier education systems in Europe. Poor kids and immigrants go to the badly funded State schools. All other families beggar themselves paying for private schooling. Follow this on to ghettoes and gated communities.
So, should we hold tight to the Republican principles espoused in the 1916 Proclamation and keep our children in the local school, despite the fact that our Government seems determined to downgrade it, and our kids may suffer?
Have we the right to force our well-meaning ideology on our children?
Or should we pack up and move to a mono-cultural suburb or pay for the kids to be educated privately, in a school where all the other kids are middle-class and Irish, thus ensuring that our children get a good Leaving Certificate but never learn to mix with children in other socio-economic or racial groups?
Yes, I know that there's a recession and we are spending €10m per day that we don't have. Yes, I know that we all have to tighten our belts. The situation is so serious that a few cuts here and there just won't suffice.
And yes, I also know that people who work harder and cleverer and take risks deserve recompense for their efforts, in the form of nicer homes, bigger cars and more foreign holidays. They're worth it, right?
But a good education and health service are the bedrocks of a just society. (Not an equal one, because no egalitarian society can remain completely equal.)
Depriving some people of the right to a healthy life (which a two-tier health service will do) because they are poor is both unjust and unconstitutional.
And depriving many vulnerable children of an adequate educational system is visiting what this Government seems to believe is 'the sins of the fathers' upon them.
That is, the relative poverty of their parents in comparison to the wealth of the Celtic Tiger Arrivistes: the bankers, builders, barristers, politicians et al who made a bundle during the boom -- the people who don't need medical cards and can afford to send their children to the 'best' schools.
These are people who have been lecturing the rest of us on 'patriotism' when they would do well to remember the words of Clarence Darrow: "True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else." (I won't quote Dr Johnson on "patriotism being the last refuge of the scoundrel".)
And justice also has to be seen to be done, which is why so many people protested in front of Leinster House last week.
Have any politicians lost their jobs or been held accountable in any way for the waste of public finances that was decentralisation, the e-voting fiasco, the leaking Dublin port tunnel, the craziness of benchmarking, the HSE mess? The list seems endless, but the answer is a categorical, "No."
Paying for your mistakes, like taxes, would seem to be purely for the little people.
