Teaching Matters: Bertie Ahern used to be known as the Teflon Taoiseach. No matter how much mud anyone tried to throw at him, none of it seemed to stick - at least until the current payments controversy.
While Bertie's Teflon coating is wearing thin, Mary Hanafin may well merit the title of Teflon Taoiseach-in-waiting. The Department of Education and Science (DES) is full of unexploded mines for the unwary. Thus far, none of them have blown up in the Minister's face. While she coyly side-steps any questions about her ultimate ambitions, there can be few serious politicians who do not aspire to be taoiseach. Unfortunately, given that it is good manners to wait to be asked, no politician can be seen to be too enthusiastic about the prospect in public.
Yet some of the signs are in her favour. Brian Cowen, devastatingly funny in private and well-liked within the party, turns into some kind of polit-speak robot when interviewed. Micheal Martin's star has become a little dusty. Brian Lenihan, smart, competent and articulate, has a lot of ground to make up from his wilderness years. Then there is the gender factor. Ireland may have seemed to have taken a quantum leap in electing women to the presidency, but it is about time that we gave a woman the top job, not out of any kind of tokenism, but because there are women who have served their time and are well capable of carrying the responsibility with dignity and gravitas.
Hanafin has evaded some potential disasters. Towards the end of the summer, a peremptory directive from her department seemed to say that people who were not qualified as primary teachers could not work as tutors for pupils with autism. Given that the vast majority of such tutors are not primary teachers, the directive caused widespread angst, but the situation was remedied overnight. All that needed to be shown, the DES hastily declared, was that no such primary teacher was available for the post. There could be more trouble brewing among those caring for people with autism, but that is in the future.
Then there was the lack of facilities for new primary pupils in Laytown, Co Meath. Miraculously, parents seemed more angry at Meath Co Council than the DES. Furthermore, in a country where half the population seems to be commuting to where the other half is leaving, nightmare school situations in places such as Co Meath are well understood by the general public. While not exactly happy about them, they are willing to cut the Minister some slack unless directly involved.
Hanafin, along with all the senior members of the Government, barely seemed to take a holiday last summer. The launch of the publication of Whole School Evaluation (WSE) reports was well-handled, despite some cranky commentary to the effect that no teacher was satisfactorily filleted. The department's website may have crashed under the pressure, but most schools seem to have accepted publication without demur. Again, trouble may be brewing ahead, but so far, so good.
Resignation seems to be a quality found in almost every sector of Irish society. For example, teachers may be cynical about the increase in paperwork, and certain that it adds little to the quality of teaching, but they are, at least for the moment, willing to put up with it.
The unions muttered ominously about the Minister's proposals to have the so-called "unseen papers" for Irish and English in May, but while some would like to see more far-reaching reform, many others are glad that she is at the helm. She may be nine years out of the classroom, but she understands that teachers have seen too many initially attractive but ultimately unworkable ideas imposed from outside to ever leap happily into radical reforms.
Her decision to alter the balance in favour of the well-being of the whole school community when it comes to discipline was another excellent move. Section 29 of the Education Act allowed parents to appeal any decision to expel a pupil. That was fair enough, except that in practice, many schools hesitated to expel a pupil because of the extremely high chance that he or she would boomerang back into the school after an appeal, smirking and delighted. There were outrageous situations such as where a pupil who had threatened a teacher with a hammer was allowed to return to the same school.
The announcement of a long-awaited employee assistance scheme was also met with satisfaction. The level of pastoral care for teachers was minimal to non-existent. Now teachers can avail of free, confidential short-term counselling.
Stress is a massive problem in teaching, not least because young people have changed. While it is a positive development that they are more confident and assertive, there is also much more rudeness and disruptive behaviour than there would have been years ago.
Of course, Hanafin has to live with the reality that any area in her remit can generate a crisis at any time. Also, no matter what she does, there is always a vast amount more to be done. Fifty behaviour support teams may be going into schools to tackle persistent disruptive behaviour, but there are hundreds of schools that need them. She may have built 19 new post-primary schools, but there are sub-standard school premises all over the country. Yet for the moment, the Minister for Education seems to be, well, non-stick.
Breda O'Brien is a teacher at Dominican College, Muckross Park, Dublin
