Madam, - Now that The Irish Timesand other papers bring out league tables on results, and what are considered the "best" second-level schools in the country maybe they should accompany them with league tables of the physical condition of the schools that staff and students are expected to work in.
I recently visited a good friend of mine who teaches in what would be considered a good school in Co Meath, and I was quite appalled by the conditions. There were just two toilets, with no windows, for a large female staff, and one had no light in it.
The staff room was primitive, to say the least, with nowhere for the staff to put their belongings, nor individual work desks for the staff to correct schoolwork. There were bags, boxes, books and copybooks stuffed into every corner and every bit of space that could be found in the room. Staff were working, correcting copies while wolfing down their lunch. It was very stuffy.
I have seen better toilet and staff facilities in old factories in the 1970s.
Classrooms were equally basic, with no shelves on the walls to store things, and equally stuffy. When I commented on this, my friend said that opening the windows was discouraged by management to keep heating bills down. Corridors were packed, with students sitting on their jackets on the floor or standing while eating. Not a chair in sight, nor a canteen for them to sit down in.
The teachers' unions must be incredibly weak, or just not have staffroom conditions on their agenda, for them to allow their members to work in the conditions I observed. - Yours, etc,
ANN STAFFORD, New Ireland Road, Dublin 8.