The Co Wicklow case in which two boys were asked to leave their local primary school after they refused to learn Irish raises awkward questions. What are the relative rights of parents and children in such cases? Should the curriculum be tailored to meet the needs of any one group? Should Irish retain its priority in primary schools? Whatever the rights and wrongs of these issues many people will be disturbed by the sight two young boys in the front-line of the protest. Mr Tom Higgins, the father of the two boys, has been a persuasive advocate of his own case. But the daily ritual - whereby the children present themselves at the school only to be turned away - must be unsettling the daily life of the school. Mr Higgins has made his protest; it may now be time to end it.
For all that, the issues raised by his protest are important ones. It is not, he says, about Irish per se. Rather, it is about the right of parents to decide what their children should learn or not learn. The fact is, parents enjoy little power or influence in education. The Constitution may recognise the parent as the primary educator of his/her children but parents continue to punch well below their collective weight. They have little input on the daily life of schools, or wider policy questions about the curriculum. The Government, and the other education partners, continue to play lip-service to the role of parents.
That said, the kind of situation favoured by Mr Higgins - where parents can dictate the curriculum on the advice of their children - is hardly sustainable. It is unrealistic to have an extensive a la carte curriculum. Some broad national curriculum must be maintained to ensure coherence in the educational system.
In practical terms, it is difficult to see how children at primary level could opt out of particular subjects as one teacher generally teaches one class. The more pertinent question is whether Irish should retain its priority in the primary school. Most fair-minded people would like to see the language develop and prosper within the primary school curriculum; it is an integral part of our cultural heritage. But the priority given to the subject is failing to achieve the desired result. Like it or not, Mr Higgins' harsh views on the usefulness of the language are by no means unique. Many would fault him for his tactics but is it time to reassess the priority given to Irish? Is there a better way of improving fluency levels in the language?