ASTI president calls for education investment

THE president of the largest second-level teachers’ union in the country, Clare teacher Jack Keane, has called on the incoming Government to invest in education, saying this is the key to the country’s recovery.

The ASTI president spoke at the 22nd Colmcille Winter School recently in Donegal and insisted, “We will not achieve the high added-value education service needed for our recovery with unrelenting round after round of cutbacks, increased class size and demoralised teachers. We must have the necessary investment to realise sustainable recovery.”
He spoke about the Finnish experience of recession in the 1990s where their government responded by increasing investment in education. “When a markedly similar recession hit Ireland, the government’s response included severe cutbacks to an already underfunded education system. Recently, those defending the low level of investment in education in Ireland have stated ‘It’s the quality of the teacher [and not the amount invested in education] that counts’. All of us who work in classrooms and schools know only too well that high quality teaching is inextricably linked to adequate numbers of teachers, adequate resources for teaching and learning and access to specialist teachers and services so that students experiencing difficulties can get the help they need,” he commented.
He added that one of the key characteristics of the Finnish education system is the high social status of teachers, while teachers in Ireland report feeling undervalued.
“An independent survey carried out by the Teaching Council last year revealed that the Irish public values teachers and that there is a high level of satisfaction with the way teachers carry out their work. Yet teachers often report feeling under-valued and unappreciated by government and by the biased commentary on the working conditions, pay and pensions of teachers by certain commentators and sections of the media. While teaching has become an increasingly complex and demanding profession, these groups and individuals are increasingly focused on ‘newsworthy’ or ‘sensational’ aspects of education, while ignoring the daily work and learning that takes place in schools,” he stated.
“We must trust our teachers and stop scapegoating them and other public servants for the collapse in public finances. We must never lose sight of the reality that a school is, at its heart, a community that works together for the common good,” he concluded.