Teaching Matters:  Dear Minister Hanifan, Welcome to the world of education. No doubt during the coming months every sector within the system will try and bend your ear and tell you that you must do this or you should do that. Forgive me if I use this column to press a particular case that stretches right across the education system and beyond.

Your predecessor announced early on that tackling educational disadvantage was his priority. I have no doubt that he meant well, but he left the post with absolutely nothing to show for it. Not one initiative; little extra money spent to combat inequality and disadvantage at primary or second level. All we got was a seemingly endless series of reviews, reports and evaluations. On behalf of thousands of children, their teachers and parents, I urge you to act immediately.

Before you start to think of reasons why it can't be done, I want to acknowledge that many of the barriers to educational equality lie outside the remit of the Minister for Education and Science. For example, low incomes, poor housing and health problems are not your direct responsibility. You cannot change the world.

However, you can make a difference in the world of education, which, without a doubt, has the potential to tackle the cycle of poverty and disadvantage. To do that you will have to change the parts of the system that, instead of being part of the solution, are part of the problem.

A few questions will highlight many of the issues. Why is it that in our cities children's entry to or exclusion from university is almost entirely predictable by postcode? Why is it that junior infant teachers can predict early educational dropout with alarming accuracy? Is it because children living in certain areas, housing estates or families are less bright, skilled or talented? Are they academically weak? Do they not have the commitment? Do they not deserve a place? Do they not have the same dreams and ambitions as other children?

The truth is that many children do not benefit from education because the system fails them from the very start. Take early childhood education for example. While many middle- and upper-income families are able to provide quality childcare and pre-school education for their children, those on low incomes cannot. The result is that in the most formative years the dice are loaded from the start.

When disadvantaged children enter an under-funded primary system the pattern continues. The better off can buy the music, art, swimming and drama lessons for their children. Those without the means do without. Children from homes where poverty is not an issue have their worlds broadened and their horizons expanded during their primary-school years. They visit galleries, participate in summer camps and go on trips abroad.

At this very time, the horizons of the disadvantaged children are being narrowed. Their world is becoming limited to the streets, where many, in reality, are abandoned. The clubs they join and the lessons they learn differ greatly from the child in a more prosperous area.

Yet these children are expected to cope with the same curriculum, make the same progress, pass the same tests as their advantaged peers. The classes in which they learn are not much smaller. Their schools get only slightly more funding - funding which can be matched in many schools by a single golf classic or voluntary contribution from parents.

It is unfair from the start and tinkering with an unfair system rather than bringing in radical change will make little difference. Primary teachers working in disadvantaged schools have seen pilot scheme after pilot scheme. They want major change not minor revisions and they want a minister to lead it.

We need to target resources intensively to tackle disadvantage. There must be a new categorisation of disadvantaged schools in accordance with need. Those in most need must be given the most resources in terms of extra teachers, more money and other assistance. These resources must reflect the scale of the challenges that children and schools face.

There was too much background noise under your predecessor about the rationalisation of existing programmes and the discontinuation of schemes. This caused huge worry in primary schools because it was seen as a euphemism for cutbacks. I ask you to make clear early on that resources will not only be retained but will be enhanced. No disadvantaged school should be deprived of critical resources and facilities.

Your programme for government states that priority will be given to a new national system of funded early education for children in areas of disadvantage. I urge you, Minister, to keep this promise to these children and their families. Extend the Early Start scheme to every disadvantaged primary school and develop it so that every three-year-old gets a good start.

I said earlier that many of the factors that affect disadvantaged children are outside your direct remit. But I urge you to ensure at government level that there are joined-up services for children. It is not good enough for Education to say that speech therapy is a matter for the Department of Health, that school meals are a matter for Social Welfare. The focus must be on children and their families. Where the help comes from doesn't matter - as long as it's provided.

In conclusion, I wish you well in your new job. May you have the satisfaction at the end of your term of office of looking back and being able to say in relation to disadvantage: "Yes, I managed to make a difference."

Valerie Monaghan is principal of Scoil Chiaran primary school, Glasnevin, Dublin