TEACHING MATTERS:THE PAST fortnight has seen an unprecedented assault on the public service, with, it seems, every right-wing commentator in the land declaring war on everyone and anyone who is paid from the public purse, writes Aidan Gaughran.
So concentrated has been this attack that it seems all that remains to be decided is the extent of the cut in public service pay and the number of public servants to be let go. The blitzkrieg against the public service is framed in the usual mantras of public service numbers, salaries and pensions and claims there has been no reform and little productivity.
You know the soundbites – “a bloated public service”, “benchmarking delivered nothing”, “jobs for life”, “unlimited sick leave” and “gilt-edged salaries and pensions”. Indeed, so frequently are these lines now trotted out that one could be forgiven for accepting them as fact without bothering to hold them up to scrutiny.
But doing exactly that shows clearly how these wild claims do not add up. To do this you have to look beyond the generalities and examine public service provision on the ground.
Teaching provides a very good example, which gives the lie to these claims. If we have a bloated public service, how come Ireland has the second-highest class sizes in primary schools in the EU?
In addition, Irish educational administration and bureauracy is among the slimmest in the EU, with 75 per cent of principals teaching full-time and all schools run by voluntary boards. One thing is certain: there are no surplus workers in primary schools.
Every year, Irish primary teaching attracts the brightest and the best of the Leaving Certificate cohort into its ranks. Strong competition for places means that primary teachers come from the top quartile of students.
Teachers’ wages here may be higher than their counterparts in the UK but all it takes is a cursory glance at the traffic queues trying to get to Newry for household shopping to show that spending power is roughly the same.
On the pensions issue, the current clamour to slash the income of those who retire after 40 years of service in schools is in marked contrast to the silence that abounded when private pension funds were powering ahead of the State scheme.
Nor are teachers in a position to negotiate the obscene severance packages and bonuses that some in the private sector clearly still can’t do without.
The attempt before Christmas by the Minister for Education to fly a kite about teachers’ sick leave backfired when it was clearly shown that primary teachers take on average just over one day of uncertified sick leave per year.
Teaching is one job where the work won’t wait for a day or two if a teacher is ill. Children still have to be taught and so many teachers regularly turn up for work when perhaps they shouldn’t.
As for claims that there has been no reform in the public service and no productivity, look no further than a complete revision of the curriculum and the introduction of computers in schools, where fundraising has been organised to compensate for the lack of Government funding.
Add to that the teaching of special-needs and newcomer children, new forms of pupil assessment and industrial relations measures to deal with the small number of teachers with professional difficulties and the reform argument is dead in the water.
Those visiting schools today regularly remark on the changes that have taken place in recent years. Maybe those who attack the public service, including teachers, should be asked when they last set foot in a primary school.
If they had to defend their attacks on the public service by reference to everyday realities, rather than in unchallenged sound bites, they would come to a different conclusion.
Aidan Gaughran is a primary school teacher in Clonmel, Co Tipperary
