COMMENT: Frustration over lack of resources and a lack of commitment to the role of parents in our schools almost made me quit. But the struggle must go on, writes Barbara Johnston, PRO, National Congress ofCatholic Secondary Schools Parent Associations (CSPA).
Last week I was prepared to step down as PRO for the National Congress of Catholic Secondary Schools Parent Associations (CSPA), but have been persuaded not to.
Like many of the other officers on the executive of CSPA, I have willingly given what has become a full-time commitment. This type of commitment impacts not only on personal time but at a financial level too. Unlike the other partners in education, we do not get paid. What we get is an extraordinary level of frustration at our constant exclusion from the education system.
Successive Ministers for Education and Science, national management bodies and teachers' unions have said that parental participation is essential, but it would appear they mean participation on their terms.
The ASTI occasionally meets with parents but seldom agrees to joint initiatives. Suggestions or requests to work together on specific areas of common interest are acknowledged and then ignored.
The Joint Managerial Board (JMB) has also said it welcomes and encourages parental involvement. They, too, listen to us and then ignore us. JMB is grant-aided by the Department of Education and Science and receives a payment from each affiliated school of approximately €2.60 per student. This is reasonable because school management needs strong, professional representation.
So do parents.
When the CSPA sought comparable funding, the JMB said they were not in a position to consider funding parental involvement in any similar fashion.
The Minister for Education and Science has put in place a review of the representation and funding of parents at second level. I believe this review is merely a charade. When you consider the personnel and funding put into other reviews, the money allocated, €250 a day without any other resources, supports that view.
Our organisation has already debated the representational role of parents and has made the decision that we have a right to be funded and to represent parents as we feel appropriate. Our position has been communicated to the Minister and we fully expect Mr Dempsey to accept what we say as being the necessary approach.
Minister Dempsey has said: "From the outset, I have publicly put the test of equity as a key principle that I regard as central to how I will operate as Minister for Education and Science". If you apply a test of equity to parental involvement, you will clearly see failure.
Individual teacher unions, management bodies and the Department of Education are involved in the development of curriculum and policies for students. Parents have one representative for the parents of Ireland at second level - and that parent is voluntary.
To have the State supporting management, teachers, programmes and initiatives in a stronger fashion than they support parents is an anomaly that needs to be reversed. Countless reports and studies have clearly shown that the greatest positive influence on a child's education is the involvement of parents. Despite this knowledge, parents remain the one single element in the education system without support and funding. That is neither right nor reasonable.
The CSPA want to build a strong parental presence in the education system, one that will be informed and capable of representing the wishes of parents. This must begin at local level in the schools. It is the only way that parents will have the opportunity to be what they are entitled to be, the primary educators of their children. We need to communicate with parents regularly. We need to facilitate their involvement in the education system.
Expectations that a strong parental voice can be built on a voluntary basis are unrealistic. Parents need a significant committed response from the Department of Education. Anything less would be a perpetuation of the current unconstitutional aspects of the education system.
The CSPA has battled against all of the above inequities and exclusions for many years and, sometimes, the futility of that battle is overwhelming.
The continuous lack of resources is discouraging. Despite this, the CSPA goes on and will continue to go on until we achieve the two major roles we believe we must fulfil - the promotion of parental involvement at local level and the representation at national level that parents are constitutionally entitled to.
