The agreement by the Archdiocese of Dublin to rent emergency accommodation to the Castleknock Educate Together National School shows just how well grounded the co-operation is between educational providers in Ireland today.
It is a very welcome example of the non-competitive, partnership approach that is gradually taking root at all levels in education and which offers great potential for the future. That this arrangement is also sponsored and financed by the Department of Education and Science shows some of the profound changes that are at last emerging in the administration of Irish education and which will have a wide impact over the next few years.
Over the summer months, there has been a quietly dramatic change in the situation being faced by the promoters of parent-led educational initiatives. For Educate Together, this change has seen a formal agreement securing the long-term future for its Castleknock school and the decision to grant immediate full recognition to a new school in the Dublin 7 area.
The Castleknock agreement included the commitment of the Department to source temporary accommodation which resulted in the renting of diocesan lands on the Navan Road. It opens the way for the establishment of a number of Educate Together schools in the Dublin 15 area and clearly provides a model that can be applied to other areas of rapid housing development.
The Dublin 7 school will open next week in temporary accommodation in Henrietta Street. It will not need to go through the normal probationary period of reduced support reserved for parent-led schools and is already planning its permanent location. Although such decisions and agreements have been commonplace in other sectors of education, this is the first time that such structured support has been provided for the multi-denominational sector. This reduces the difficulty of opening such schools and will greatly encourage parents who are interested in this form of education.
This transformation is due to the gradual implementation of the Education Act 1998, which will be fully brought into law by the end of the year; to the impact of the Freedom of Information Act upon the administration of education and to the working out of the ground-breaking decision that, in future, the State will own the sites of new schools.
The Education Act provides a legislative foundation for all State decisions concerning schools. It obliges the State to provide for diversity in educational provision and establishes legal criteria for the recognition of schools. The Freedom of Information Act has created an environment where all decisions on these matters are available to public scrutiny.
The combination of these two factors has produced a situation where local promoters of a school can see the basis for decisions on school recognition and have a firm recourse in law if there is any inequity or discrimination revealed.
THE fact that new schools will be wholly owned by the State means that the Department of Education can invest large sums in educational facilities with the complete confidence that they can be flexibly deployed to meet future changes in demand. There will no longer be the risk that this investment will ultimately pass into private hands.
This, in conjunction with the current health of our public finances, is promoting a powerful dynamic for the creation of new and innovative schools.
The long-term effects of this change will radically transform the structure of education in Ireland, first in the primary field, but quite inevitably, they will percolate up into the secondary, tertiary and adult education levels. For the first time, the rights of parents and children expressed in democratic structures at local level are being given the same weight as those of traditional hierarchical providers of education.
In effect, this new situation has answered the repeated charges of discrimination made by Educate Together over the past 25 years and has removed the administrative barriers to the development of this sector.
Taking a wider view, it means that parents can confidently place themselves in the role of initiators of educational provision rather than merely the recipients of existing services. It also means that parents, children, teachers and the general public can participate in the ongoing and urgently necessary discussion on the philosophy and purpose of education as genuine stakeholders whose rights are sustainable in law.
This brings added impetus to the debates on the role of democracy in our schools; the rights of parents and children; the appropriate treatment of religion, culture, race and social background; the approach to disability and multiple intelligences; the role of the Irish language and our continued failure to overhaul our outdated and inadequate forms of secondary assessment. With persistence, this should result in our schools becoming dynamic, accountable communities in which parents participate as full partners and young people are empowered with the full range of skills they seek and require in our rapidly evolving and diverse society.
Paul Rowe is chairman of Educate Together, the national representative organisation of multi-denominational schools in Ireland.
Brendan Glacken is on leave.
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