Sir, - Much has been written in your pages of late regarding the "unashamed vocationalism" of educational institutions. I bring you news from the primary sector.
Recently, my colleagues and I attended an in-service course on the "Walk Tall" programme. This programme addresses issues related to substance abuse but also deals with the general area of self-esteem. It was while dealing with the latter that our co-ordinator introduced an overhead projection outlining those communication skills deemed relevant by an interested group. Did that group comprise educational psychologists, or sociologists, or experts in infant or pre-teen education? Or was it related to the perspectives or aspirations of children, themselves? No. It had been cobbled together by an employers' group in the States.
In truth, it didn't matter if this group came from the States or the Sticks. It was its relevance to a self-esteem programme, geared solely for four to 12-yearolds that truly galled. Hardly a neutral party, the labour market would have a definite agenda when it comes to education and an even more pronounced agenda when it comes to communication skills and self-esteem. Staring at that overhead that Friday afternoon, one could almost envisage Department of Education officials nodding serenely as business leaders whispered quietly that, really, they wouldn't like this self-esteem thing to be emphasised too much, because junior infants filled to the brim with it could turn into awkward, demanding workers down the line.
Of course, it wasn't actually all that shocking. As it is, we have a primary system that expects four-year-olds to sit quietly for the day; that ferries those with special needs away from local communities to where they can be "properly accommodated" in isolation; that has made only the most cursory efforts to incorporate the much-lauded and widely-accepted concept of multiple intelligences into its structure. In fact, when that overhead was slipped onto the glass plate, a little over a week ago, the bag was opened for an instant and the cat stuck its head out for a quick peep.
Primary education is, indeed, geared predominantly for the labour market. - Yours, etc.,
Fionnuala Ward, Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.