Living in London in the late Eighties and early Nineties, one regularly read newspaper reports about the numbers of teachers in certain areas who declined to return to their schools after the summer holidays. The reasons ranged from low morale, poor job prospects, lack of job satisfaction and a poor salary structure to serious discipline problems with impossible and unruly pupils, to run-down schools, loony local councils with unreasonable education policies and a general lack of interest, percolating from the government down, in the sorry state of much of the education system.
At the end of 18 years of Tory government, many schools had had to sell of their playing fields in order to fund themselves. Stories of the schools-from- hell became a regular feature in the national newspapers. Head teachers were forced to resign when they could not turn around difficult schools.
The Office of Standards in Education (Ofsted) school inspection system has been opposed by teachers not only because of its clumsy and time-consuming nature but because of its disgraceful policy of "naming and shaming" schools which did not deliver the goods. The result for teachers was that they felt under pressure and under-valued.
Of course, Britain really has two education systems: the large Exchequer-funded system for the ordinary masses and the elite, fee-paying and public-school sector for people with the money to pay - which included those who, in government for almost a generation, felt that education was a public service which was not delivering the goods.
New Labour has made education one of its priorities and not a moment too soon. David Blunkett, the education secretary, is genuinely committed to raising standards. But last weekend, as he attended the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers in Blackpool, he heard continuing complaints about the huge amount of paperwork teachers were expected to do and the bureaucracy with which they had to cope. Without doubt, his progress will be a slow business.
AS education correspondent Andy Pollak details this week, there is a marked contrast between the image and standing of education and of teachers in Britain and Ireland. Not that we can be complacent. But education in this State has always been valued by parents and placed high on all governments' priority lists. This is despite perennial problems such as lack of funding, poor teacher/pupil ratios and, latterly, discipline problems which will come up for discussion again and again this week as teachers gather in Galway, Ennis and Tralee for their annual conferences.
Teachers' union leaders here also can take credit for their work over the years. They have kept governments on their toes, they have provided good and responsible leadership and have maintained the standards of which we can be justifiably proud - as have rank-and-file teachers themselves, with their commitment to their pupils and their strong sense of identity with their schools.
Education & Living
Editor: Ella Shanahan
Production: Hugh Lambert and Harry Browne
Main cover illustration: Luke Warm
Small cover illustrations: Cathy Dineen
Email: education@irish-times.ie
