The education system is in danger of falling well behind other OECD states, the Labour Party warned yesterday.
Ms R≤is∅n Shortall said while the strength of the Irish education system was widely acknowledged, the Government had failed to invest adequate resources.
"The momentum has not been maintained and we have allowed standards to slip. Unless we provide the commitment and the resources, the Irish education system will fall well behind other OECD states," she said.
Ms Shortall, the party's education spokeswoman, was speaking at the launch of the Labour Party policy document Investing in a Future for All.
The document deals with all aspects of education and ranges across issues like funding, school buildings, disadvantage and literacy. It will form a key part of the Labour Party manifesto for the general election and for the Programme of Government of any administration in which Labour may participate.
Ms Shortall said the sorry state of many primary schools highlighted continuing under-investment. Earlier this week, the INTO published a list of 73 primary schools where buildings are sub-standard.
"The fact that over 66 per cent of these schools have inadequate toilet facilities, that 43 per cent have either no drinking water or water unfit to drink and that 71 per cent have an inadequate or unsafe school yard, is a damning indictment of the failure of this Government to use the unprecedented resources at its disposal to provide even basic facilities," according to Ms Shortall.
Labour in its document also maintains that capitation grants for schools are grossly inadequate. Many schools, it says, are struggling to survive with insufficient funds to meet basic running costs such as insurance, heating and cleaning.
Many schools are reduced to begging for voluntary contributions from parents just to keep going, according to the document.
Labour points to a range of other problems:
No progress in providing pre-school education, with less than 3 per cent of children in State-funded pre-schools;
A shocking level of functional illiteracy among adults, with as many as one-in-five school children believed to have literacy problems;
The high drop-out rate among third-level students due, in part Labour says, to the total inadequacy of the grant system.