Nothing is ever simple and straightforward

This column appears today in the regional papers in Ireland owned by Independent News and Media

By Michael Commane
The Leaving Cert results are out, so too the first round CAO offers.

It has all been something of a media circus. But like all circuses, after a few days it picks up its tent and moves on to the next story. That’s the way of the media and nothing wrong with that. But like everything else, there is always another story behind the headlines. Nothing is simple and as straightforward as we think.

As a school teacher about to go back to school at the end of this week I think I have some sort of understanding about what is happening in education in Ireland. In some ways it is clear and simple, in other ways it is extraordinarily complex.

There are also many modern day myths about Irish education. The idea that we have the best educated young people in Europe is a nonsense. A German student who does English in his or her Abitur (final school examination) is far more proficient in English than an Irish person is in German who does German in his or her Leaving Cert. Another myth might be how we give schools reputations; so often we can be so wrong and allow snobbery to fool us.

The Leaving Cert is something analogous to a horse race. It certainly has its competitive nuances. There’s a competition out there to get that coveted third level offer.

Is it a fair competition? Is the individual young person allowed reach his or her academic potential and does the State get value for money?

On the RTE1 main television news on the Thursday evening after the LC results were published there was a piece on the results and the journalist finished the report by commenting that Leaving Cert results in Dublin depend mainly on the student’s postal address. How right she is.

The church has a long history in education in Ireland. The brothers and sisters spent generations in schools. Was it education and opening the mind to new ideas or was it some sort of appalling factory that stopped us from thinking? It’s easy to be clever in hindsight.

There are few sisters or brothers teaching in classrooms today. There is a big debate taking place on the ownership of primary schools but there is less discussion on the ownership and management of second level schools.

The Catholic Church runs, manages and controls most of the best all-round schools. Names such as Loreto on the Green, Glenstal, Clongowes are renowned centres of education. Take a trip up the driveway of Clongowes or Glenstal and you are immediately catapulted into a world of privilege and splendour. It costs money and lots of it to send your child to these schools. It’s another world from schools that have to eke out an existence on a daily basis. It is most unlikely that there will be any problems with subject choice or teacher pupil ratios in the top fee paying schools in the State.

If someone has spare cash and knows how to go about it then they can send their children to a religious-run elite school. Is that the way it should be?

What if the religious orders pulled out of elite-style schooling, packed their bags and moved to deprived urban areas where they would offer their skills in the educational area? How prophetic it would be.

People who talk about religious-run schools talk about a special Christian ethos that pervades the school. I have always been sceptical about that.

The students of the elite schools go on to become the captains of Irish
industry. Where has the so-called Christian ethos led them and indeed the rest of us?

Alas if the church closed the doors of these schools it is most likely that they would be taken over by private companies and run for profit. That would be a retrograde step.

Of course there will be exceptions but the child who grows up in a socially deprived background has far less a chance of getting those 600 points than the sons and daughters of professional people. Okay that’s the way of the world. But should it be the way of the world and the way of things in Ireland that church-run elite schools actually get tax breaks while at the same time cash strapped schools in deprived inner city areas are gulping for survival.

It’s worth noting that there is less class division lines in rural Ireland than there is in urban areas.

We all know that family background, what goes on inside the home, plays a vital role in the life and times of a young school-going person.

If we spent more resources on education we would have to spend far less money in security, police and prisons.

And just to prove the point that nothing is as simple as the media might like to portray, Kerry, which has a long tradition of educating bright young people, does not have one such elite-style school within its borders. See, nothing is simple and straightforward.