THE DEBATE IS ongoing between the choice of private and non-fee paying schools. As a secondary teacher and – this year – a parent of a student at secondary level, I have watched the minister miss a golden opportunity to create a more inclusive and socially open education system.
The recent announcements made by the Department of Education seem to be nurturing the elitism and class system that is currently used in the UK.
However the huge underlying difference between our private system and that in the UK is that the wages of teachers in private schools in this country is funded by the tax payer and not by the fees. So, those who cannot afford to send their children to a private school must pay for the education of those that can.
Private school should be an option but that is what it must be – a private self-funding system that does not rely on contributions from the taxpayer.
Following recent announcements, all schools will have to admit students with special needs. An excellent proposal, providing the school can accommodate the students properly.
As a teacher in a community school I have seen great benefit, learning and acceptance between those with special needs and the greater student population. Will the private schools be embracing this decision? It may well suit them to do so, as the allocation of extra teaching hours that accompanies a special needs students can be used in the system to keep the overall pupil-teacher ratio numbers lower.
At the same time, the resources can only go so far for the non-fee paying sector that are being stretched by increasing class sizes when facilitating a large number of students with special needs.
The launch of the Literacy and Numeracy scheme astounds many of us teaching in this country – why hasn’t the Department of Education figured out the reason behind our lowered literacy statistics? With the huge influx of foreign nationals and the placement of special need students into the mainstream system, it doesn’t take much detection to figure out that these are the over-riding reasons for a drop in the national average. This is not stating that we have an alternative as this is progress – only that it must come with adjustments.
If the private schools were self-funded, the Department of Education could concentrate on non-fee paying schools and a model that helps fulfil the needs of all children.
The recent ruling by a judge that a 12-year-old boy should attend a fee-paying school rather than a public school, against his father’s wishes, was a case that brought much attention. As a teacher and parent I felt empathy for the couple and child. But what the judge and so many others failed to grasp is that the grades of a bright student will reflect their ability and, more important than any other factor, is the home environment and attitude and aims of the student.
In my experience over the years I have found that when you have supportive parents, keen for their child to do well, there will be a direct correlation to how the student performs. If you have a student with low expectations and aims the same applies.
Increasingly, more parents are realising through economic necessity that the fee-paying system in this country is not hugely different in what it offers to children in the non-fee paying sector. A good school has a good principal and interested teachers, whether the students are paying for their education or not.
The community school is such a model, and has proved effective for learning and preparing young people in a mixed-sex environment which prepares them for life beyond university and the world of work.
Michelle Jackson is a teacher, travel writer and author of six bestselling books including a co-written non- fiction title What Women Know. Her website is www.michellejackson.ie and you can follow her on twitter @mjacksonauthor
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