Analysis:
All sweetness and light for the Minister, despite the broken promise on class size, writes
Seán Flynn
, Education Editor
John Carr, the INTO general secretary is a self-effacing and modest figure, not given to wild rhetorical flourishes.
But as he bade goodbye to Mary Hanafin yesterday (everyone presumes this is her last round of teacher conferences) he was effusive and slightly breathless.
"Minister," he declared, "I wish you good luck. I hope you won't be going back to school in September! You have made your mark in education, been good for education. If you take on board the ideas that I gave you today you could, to paraphrase Eamon Dunphy, go from being a good Minister to a great Minister. You told The Irish Times that you would be happy to serve another term as Minister for Education and Science. The INTO would be happy to see you come back and finish the job that needs to be done in primary education. It's time to put primary first." Phew!
The Minister smiled appreciatively. On the cusp of a general election, this is what you like to hear from the leader of the largest and most powerful teachers' union in the State. Not surprisingly, Olwyn Enright, Fine Gael's education minister - in waiting - shuffled uncomfortably in her seat.
Afterwards, some observers suggested that Carr's hagiography might have been over the top. But delegates were having none of it. No one appears to have a bad word today about Hanafin; she is truly the teacher's pet.
Why has she made such an impression on teachers? Much of it has to do with timing. Hanafin took the education portfolio two and a half years ago, at a time when the teaching profession was suffering from a collective post traumatic stress disorder. At the time, the memory of the bitter and divisive ASTI dispute still lingered. For teachers, the appointment of a confrontational minister like Noel Dempsey added to their sense of unease.
Dempsey was actually a reforming and radical minister with a determination to tackle many of the inequalities which scar the education system. He was the first to embark on a sustained programme to modernise school buildings, address educational disadvantage and upgrade special needs provision.
But, for many teachers, he will be remembered as the minister who sent inspectors into schools to check if they were working two days before Christmas. He was also the only education minister in recent memory who appeared reluctant to even attend the annual ASTI conference. Eventually, he relented, but the whole Dempsey era did little to make teachers feel better about themselves.
The Hanafin era could scarcely have been more different. From her first day in office, she talked up the profession. It helped that she was a former Irish and history teacher - and a former ASTI school representative.
Hanafin appears to have a natural empathy with teachers. More than any other minister in recent times, she appreciates how teaching can be a solitary profession, making the need for affirmation all the more pressing.
Hanafin has certainly done that; telling teachers they are doing a great job and telling the wider society they should be more grateful.
You could sense how the morale of teachers has been lifted by all of this in the conference hall yesterday.
Several teachers pointed out how demand to enter their profession was now at record levels; there is a sense that teachers feel more valued and more appreciated.
In other circumstances, she might actually have got a rough time from delegates about the broken promise on class size which has been the one embarrassing blot on her record.
No amount of obfuscation can conceal the stark fact; the Government reneged on its commitment to reduce class size to less than 20 pupils for all those aged nine and under by this year.
The Minister says the Government is now working it way towards meeting that commitment. She explained how new commitments to special needs and newcomer children made it impossible to meet the original target on class size.
It all begged one simple question - why could this Government not address class size and special needs and provision for newcomer children at a time when the Exchequer funds are bulging? But no one was in the mood for such awkward questions yesterday. This was a long goodbye to a Minister who stood up for teachers and made them stand tall.
The whole issue of overall education spending is one for another day and another minister. Yesterday, was all about grateful INTO delegates sending Mary Hanafin on her way with their very best wishes.