A demonstration by pupils and staff at Gaelscoil Phadraig, Ballybrack, Co Dublin
A candidate for the Independent Alliance argues that all schools, like their pupils, are not equal.
Carol Hunt writes:
Sick of hearing it yet? The phrase; “cherishing all the children of the nation equally” has been bandied around for decades now, usually when we try to persuade ourselves that we don’t actively target children for abuse or neglect, but that sometimes bad things happen and sure, we’ll say an act of contrition and try to be better in future.
It’s long been argued that the architects of the Irish Proclamation didn’t specifically mean ‘children’ as such, when they included this line – they meant people of all faiths and none should have equal rights before the law in our shiny, new Republic .
Which is probably just as well. Because when it comes to “cherishing all the children of the nation equally”, you’d have to admit that we have failed spectacularly. In fact, you’d be forced to concede that the very opposite would seem to be deliberate government policy for quite some time now.
We’ve long known that Enda and his entourage suffer from a rather pernicious strain of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AWS); an illness which makes one’s perceptual reality distorted, where one doesn’t know what’s real and what’s not.
Currently they’re sending members of the Defence Forces around every primary school in the country, armed with tricolours and copies of the proclamation, telling all the children how lucky they are to be living in a Republic which “guarantees… equal rights and equal responsibilities to all its citizens.”
Except of course that it does nothing of the sort. The number of young children suffering deprivation in Ireland doubled between 2007 and 2014. But it’s one thing to cite statistics, it’s another to see blatant discrimination right in front of your eyes.
A couple of weeks ago I met a young mother, Grace Byrne from Ballybrack [Co Dublin]. She asked would I come to a protest organised by the teachers, parents and young students of nearby primary school, Gaelscoil Phadraig.
“If we can call it a school”, she added. The teachers were brilliant, she said, the curriculum excellent, the pupils loved it it but…they had no building.
Twenty years the pupils of this school had spent in pre-fabs, despite innumerable promises from politicians of getting a new school.
One mother points to former Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, and says; “she had the nerve to stand on my doorstep years ago and promised we’d have a new school. My husband wouldn’t come today [to the protest] because he was afraid of what he’d do if he saw her here again, looking for votes.”
I saw the pre-fabs. Some of them were damp, they had mould growing in them.They were a health hazard. Two floors were collapsing. Seriously. They were a danger area.
There was nowhere for the children to play safely. The children – enthusiastic, excited – stood around a tiny square with crayoned posters in their cold hands, singing “Twenty-years-a-waiting”.
The teachers are passionate and devoted to their students. They had, miraculously, won four green flags from An Taisce, despite having no school garden.
They wanted a library, a school hall, a place to safe and healthy place to learn. Is that too much to ask? Seemingly, it is. And despite the blatant disadvantages the school suffers for some reason it doesn’t qualify for DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) status [Dept of Education system for ‘identifying levels of disadvantage’].
They were assessed for it during the Celtic Tiger and just missed out. There’s been no assessment since although they’ve begged for it and a nearby school with same demographic gets it.
The next day I’m in another school just a few miles down the road. There is a new bright assembly hall, a big extension; gorgeous playing fields; a full library; warm, dry, well furnished rooms; lots of space and light and everything young students need and deserve to be educated in, to grow up in.
The children are the same though; enthusiastic, excited, hungry for knowledge. The teachers are just as passionate and dedicated to their young charges as those I met the day before.
Anyone who has the nerve to assert that we don’t practice blatant discrimination in the treatment of our children in this country obviously needs to get out more. Or at least that’s what I used to think.
But then I was told by the parents and teachers of Gaelscoil Phadraig that local politicians are very much aware of the dire conditions their young pupils have had to suffer over the past two decades. Many promises were made but none kept. There has been excuse after promise after excuse.
And still no school. Why is this? Is it because it’s not just children who are more equal than others, but also that there are voters who are more equal than others. Citizens who can be relied on to use their vote to retain the status quo are far more valuable to established parties than those who may choose to use it differently.
All voters are not equal you see. Consequently neither are their children. Or their schools.
Carol Hunt is standing as an Independent Alliance candidate in the Dun Laoghaire constituency in the forthcoming General Election.
school? sure all you need is a hedge and a teacher.
don’t know ye’re born
etc.
Sure it’s Ireland, what you need a building for? Never rains and is always warm.
Bertie and Enda’s pensions are far more important.
blushirt dedication to education
Dav your commitment to commenting on every broadsheet post with the word blueshirt is impressive
dav demonstrating his fine christian brothers education there.
Well said !
She’s fixing the road!
+1
While it’s a crying shame that a school hasn’t yet been built for these children (and it sounds like the staff are managing to do a wonderful job), would Carol like to suggest a list of schools and kids who should go without in order for her local school to get done?
Maybe Carol will get lucky and be required to prop up a government so she can funnel funds into her own pet projects? We need more stringent, national, merit-based planning to ensure money is spent to get the best possible results for the most needy cases, not more parish-pump.
What are the grounds for the ‘discrimination’ she is alleging, by the way?
By your reckoning, this is, in fact, the school that has to go without in order for other schools to get done. Apparently they just need to accept this?
@Kieran NYC
That’s why the job description is ‘public representative’. I have no problem with TDs fighting for worthy local issues like this, and neither should you. The problem is that if everyone is looking at the big picture, most of us will miss out on the small details.
By your logic funding for a school building will always have to be based on another one losing it. Thus ensuring that there will be no guilt-free school building in the country. Is that your objective?
A “national, merit-based planning” as you mention will always be subjective and subject to lobbying, no matter how much effort you put into it. As such, Carol’s post lobbying for Gaelscoil Phadraig should be perfectly acceptable even under your prefered modus operandi.
In fairness, I think he’s just saying the system as it is is dysfunctional, and she’s participating in it therefore she’s implicated in it, but with nobody willing or able to reform the system, it’s the clientelist system or pot luck for kids who need schools NOW. Also, since all politicians are by definition implicated in being part of the system, none of them are clean or pure. This isn’t corruption, this is the way the system works. We want it changed, but in the meantime it has to function for the people who need it. It’s a dilemma we’re going to have to just get over to get anything done.
I guess we all hate pothole politics, until one is in the side that benefits – look at South Kerry, I never heard a local complaining about the deals that the Healy-Raes got them in the past.
I am not sure there is a fair system that results in people being happy with their politicians, unless the citizens take the responsibility for their decisions – direct democracy anyone? Otherwise, attacking and defending politicians’ positions is just a boring and hugely inconclusive waste of time.
As anyone with sense knows, cutting education funds in a recession just makes total sense for the future of a nation. Don’t rock the boat lads, everything is goin great all together
Genuine question,
Is that Carol Hunt the Sunday Indo contributor?
Yes.
Yep
Thank you Carol Hunt. You summed it up perfectly.
Aveen
And the truth? There is plenty of school places in the area for kids. Another school is advertising for applicants within half a mile of here. Just doesn’t suit a minority who have decided it has to be done as gaeilge. Meanwhile independent candidates jump on the bandwagon, comical really. The righteous indignation of this election campaign has no bounds.
I’m sorry, but ‘plenty of school places in the area’ isn’t an especially good reason for an actual existing school to be left in this state. It’s either a school with a viable number of pupils and deserves to be properly funded, or it isn’t.
Facts people.. There are plenty of places for kids in other local schools, some even advertising. I live in the area. All have proper buildings.
But I guess this doesn’t fit with the ridiculous tone of this election. Facts have been replaced by shrill rhetoric as the masses demand what is “right”
Some of the best years of my life were spent in prefabs, not a thing wrong with them. As long as they’ve got a roof to keep the rain off and a yard to run around in these kids aren’t suffering in the slightest.
With a growing obesity crisis and an overcrowded curriculum,the least the government could do is ensure they have a hall for adequate physical education and recreation not depending on the weather.