Principal warns of cutback implications

KILRUSH Community School principal Rock Kirwan, who is starting his 20th year in the role, has warned that if the pupil-teacher ratio rises in Irish schools, school curriculums will suffer, with less of an emphasis likely in science subjects.

“If the minister goes ahead and increases the pupil-teacher ratio, it will affect subjects in schools,” he predicted.
“People think you end up with one extra pupil inside in a class. That’s not the case at all. In secondary schools it’s quite different. What it affects is the number of teachers you have and, by implication, the subjects you can deliver. That has a knock-on effect on the students. Their choices become more limited. Unfortunately, it would affect the minority subjects. It’s a contradiction in terms because you’re talking of maybe even particular science subjects. One would be physics. The country and businesses are demanding that this be provided,” he added.
Mr Kirwan believes the effect of a higher pupil-teacher ratio is already being felt.
“One of the reasons I would suspect why there has been a decrease in the number applying for science is not necessarily to do with points; a lot of schools cannot offer a wide range of these subjects. So what the department and the ministers are saying and what they’re doing is a contradiction,” he maintained.
Mr Kirwan noted Ireland is close to the bottom of the 34-member Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) when it comes to spending money on the country’s education system.
“Maybe I would say this but in education terms this country has traditionally paid lip service to education,” he claimed.
“We talk about the great education system but as the old phrase says ‘put your money where your mouth is’. This country spends far less on education in Europe and in the OECD than virtually every other country. That being the case, there is no fat to cut off the education system. It’s not there. Youngsters right throughout the education system, they only get one chance of an education. It doesn’t come around again so if they don’t get the education they deserve or the country is capable of delivering, it’s very, very hard ever to make up for that again,” he believes.
Mr Kirwan feels cutbacks in education will have a very negative long-term effect on the country.
“It will affect future generations. We’re already saddling them with a large debt around their neck. We’re now going to saddle them with maybe a possibly less than satisfactory education. If their choices are limited as a result of pupil-teacher ratios, that’s unfortunate. And yet they’re [the Government] saying education is one of the reasons why the country developed in the 1990s in the first place,” he noted.
He is convinced society’s most vulnerable are being targeted.
“One of the first areas, as far as I can see, that is being cut back on is those that need education the most, those kids who have special needs. There’s something radically wrong with that. We can’t be a nation saying we cherish the vulnerable of the country when one of the first areas in education that we hit are those that need that help most,” Mr Kirwan pointed out.
In 2008, at the height of the Celtic Tiger, the annual OECD Education at a Glance report showed that Ireland spent less on education than 28 of the countries surveyed.
On another note, Mr Kirwan is critical of the primary school curriculum being taught.
“If we want this country to develop again it will be though education but it’s through joined-up thinking in it,” he said.
“It seems to be that the problem with the Irish education system is the dots aren’t being joined up. What’s happening at primary-school level has huge implications at secondary level and, by implication, into third level. To be quite blunt, the primary school sector has been the centre of Irish education always. Every child goes to primary school and that’s the foundation. On a personal level and this is just my own view, I think the whole curriculum at primary level is not what I’d like to see being delivered. There has been a move away from the basics and I think that’s being recognised now,” he commented.
“I don’t agree with a move away from the basics. Research is beginning to show that when you do move away from the basics it has serious implications for literacy and numeracy. It’s not the teachers at primary level that are at fault, it’s the curriculum. It might be a lovely curriculum but is it delivering what is needed for the youngsters?” he queried.
On Friday, 60 first-year pupils will start their secondary school years at the 400-pupil community school. In five years time, those first-years are likely to be as obsessed with the points system as the 2011 Leaving Certificate students were.
Mr Kirwan maintains that while the system might be imperfect, a viable alternative has yet to be unearthed. “Nobody seems to agree with the points system but it has been there for a very, very long time and nobody has come up with a better alternative. We can give out about it all we like but the one thing about the points system, and why it has lasted so long, is that it is fair,” he said.
“If the points system were to go, what are you going to replace it with? Is there anything as fair? With all due respect, this country has been noted not for what you know but who you know. If you get rid of the points system and the fairness which is an intrinsic part of it, I’d be very concerned that any alternative system would dilute the absolute fairness of it, Now, it’s fair to the point of brutality, which is very hard on youngsters but I think we need to be very careful tampering with it,” he suggested.
With unemployment and knock-on social and economic issues besetting every part of the country, the principal said the pupils at Kilrush Community School are in touch with the economic situation that Ireland is embroiled in.
“Students are absolutely in tune with it. If you think about the number of students in the school, you’re talking about 400 households. What’s happening in the country is impinging on nearly every one of those households. I think it’s an added worry, some more than others. There’s an uncertainty there and an anxiety that maybe wasn’t there heretofore,” he observed.
On a broader note, the Kilrush-based principal acknowledged one positive change in education is that teachers are better equipped to deal with non-academic issues that pupils might have.
“I went to school in the days when a left-hander was forced to write with their right hand. Education has moved on. You have to take into account what issues students are facing in their own particular backgrounds. We are dealing with youngsters after all and in secondary schools you’re dealing with a period of huge transition. You have to take into account the changes they are going through in their own lives. Otherwise how are you meant to respond adequately to the particular needs of a youngster? Don’t get me wrong, there’s a syllabus to get through and examinations to get through but a word of encouragement or a word of understanding could be crucial,” he said.
“We all, I think, if we got a word of encouragement in school, remember the teacher. They’re the days we remember and are the things that got us through school,” the Kilrush Community School principal concluded.