We must take giant steps into the future

While the Government kicks its heels, a quantum leap is required in education funding, argues Green party spokesman Paul Gogarty

If, some 30 years from now, historians and political analysts were to look back at the Ireland of 2007, what would they say about our education system? How would they judge the performance of politicians in this area?

Would they single out Minister for Education Mary Hanafin for her vision? Would they praise the current Government for its responsible management of once-buoyant revenues? Would they spare a thought for the innovation and resolve of the opposition parties?

Would they judge us kindly in 2037?

Like hell they would.

In fact, they would damn us. For here were politicians bathing in a revenue stream never seen before and never seen again. Politicians who squandered it all. Here was a Government that had the opportunity and the means to transform our education system, but which crumpled under the weight of its own feeble ambitions. A Government that felt it had to make a choice between special educational needs funding and tackling class sizes. A Government that increased investment over its lifetime, but patently failed to make the quantum leap required. A Government still playing catch-up on education. A Government that ran to stand still.

Here was a Minister for Education who was considered a safe pair of hands. The archetypal prim schoolmistress, brimming with competence and confidence. A Minister who had it so lucky that she only had to tap a ball into an open goal. But, fearful of missing, she held on tightly and fluffed it.

Here also was an opposition that couldn't fail to see the mess being made. Full of self-righteousness, it criticised and complained. But all that whining and bleating amounted to nothing more than empty rhetoric.

The opposition ranted and raved but the record shows that Fine Gael and Labour made few firm tangible commitments on education. They let the Government off the hook and always took the easy option of offering tax cuts rather than targeted investment.

It could all have been so different.

Imagine a Government that took adult literacy seriously and, instead of aiming to cut the number of people with literacy problems by half over a 15-year period, tried to do it over five?

Imagine a cabinet sitting together in 2007 that was deeply ashamed of the fact that 1,000 children did not make the grade from primary to secondary. That was equally embarrassed that at least 1,000 classrooms' worth of children missed more than 40 days' schooling a year.

Imagine that shame and embarrassment turned to anger and resolve, so that they actually did something about it, rolling out all of the education welfare officers required, tracking children's progress through school, providing early assessments and ensuring targeted intervention from the social services. Imagine.

Picture an administration that actively cut average class sizes to 20 and introduced a statutory maximum class size of 25. One that allocated special education and English language resources on the basis of need rather than numbers.

Picture an administration that valued people first and foremost but which instinctively also saw investment in education as a means of saving the taxpayer money through lower healthcare costs, lower social welfare demands and lower incarceration levels.

And what if we had had a Minister who was prepared to argue for additional funding for education and force the research down the necks of Cabinet colleagues until they saw sense? A Minister who would have been prepared to resign if the necessary investment was not forthcoming?

What if we had had a Minister who pushed the Cabinet for a sharp increase in funding to build new schools, above and beyond the modest National Development Plan proposals? Who argued for a change in the law so that developers had to provide new multi-purpose school buildings alongside new housing?

Imagine we had a Government that realised the importance of science in our future development and provided a lab technician in every second-level school. That made a meaningful investment in integrated computer technology and doubled the investment per child.

Imagine our Government was committed to halting the creeping commercialism in our schools by giving them the capitation grant increases they needed to operate efficiently. Imagine if fund-raising was an optional extra rather than a necessity and that the VAT on the spending of such income was refundable.

Think what could have been achieved if our TDs and Senators valued education to the extent that there was a consensus on additional investment, and the debates were purely about where best to target the funding. Think what could have been achieved if there was cross-party agreement on implementing the Green Party's modest proposals for an additional €1 billion targeted funding in our education system.

And what if the consensus was to have gone even further? What if our politicians showed unprecedented leadership and vision and sold that vision to the public?

Imagine the transformation that would have taken place in our education system, not to mention the political landscape.

This is the latest in a series of articles from opposition parties in the run-up to the general election