The Irish Times view on the election education debate: manifestos barely scrape a pass

Besides Michael O’Leary’s swipe at teachers, education has barely featured as an issue in the election campaign. The relative silence is puzzling given the transformative power of teaching and learning in addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing society.
It is tempting to think it is so marginalised because Ireland’s education system performs well internationally. Irish 15-year-olds are close to the top of the class for reading literacy and above average in maths and science, according to the latest OECD rankings. Teaching is still an attractive profession and the Leaving Cert, despite trenchant criticism, retains high levels of public trust.
Peel behind the statistics, however, and there is no shortage of issues which require urgent solutions. A chronic shortage of qualified teachers is threatening the quality of teaching; under-investment in schools means too many principals are forced to fundraise and fire-fight instead of leading teaching and learning; too many students with additional needs struggle to find school places which meet their assessed needs, while the scandal of long waiting list for vital therapies continues.
There are well-meaning pledges in the pre-election manifestoes of the main political parties. Most promise to boost teacher supply, increase school funding and introduce smaller class sizes. For the most part, however, these promises lack the ambition needed to address the scale of the challenges. Tackling a shortage of teachers in the greater Dublin area, for example, will require affordable rents or housing for critical public sector workers, rather than simply increasing graduates or tweaking education costs.
Other aspects of our education system also need to be addressed. The OECD, for example, has highlighted the fact that only 10 per cent of teenagers in Ireland can reliably distinguish between fact and opinion in a world where disinformation is rife. Ireland also has far fewer top-performing students compared with world-leading countries. Meanwhile, our model of schooling is “highly industrial”, acting as a filter for higher education while neglecting vocational options.
These types of issues could be examined in a citizen’s assembly or convention on the future of education, which was promised in the outgoing coalition’s programme for government but never delivered. Fine Gael, the Greens, Labour and the Social Democrats have at least pledged to establish such a forum if in government in their election manifestos.
Education should not be a secondary issues. It empowers people with skills and knowledge, reduces inequality, fosters innovation and strengthens democracy. These are just some of the reasons to demand more ambitious and transformative solutions from those seeking to lead.