Overview: agenda for the Education system: Do we need another bout of consultations to address education issues? Sean Flynn, Education Editor, argues it's time for decision-making
With the possible exception of the health service, there cannot be any area of the Irish public sector more analysed and assessed than education.
At any given time, there is a plethora of task forces, reviews and reports under way. In the recent past, we have had extensive reports on special-needs education, on adult education, on dyslexia and on teacher training at both primary and second level. There are scores of others. There is also a standing committee on educational disadvantage, not to mention groups charged with tasks like the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment which advise the Minister on such matters.
All of this activity dollows on from a wave of education analysis during the 1990s when Niamh Bhreathnach launched first the Green Paper and then the White Paper on Education after an elaborate consultative process with the education partners and interested groups.
The weaknesses, such as they are, of the Irish education system has been very well diagnosed.
Broadly, we have an education system which is good for a fair percentage of our people. But it is a "one size fits all" system, which can offer very little to those suffering from disadvantage or those with special education needs.
The system is getting better in these areas, but it is still a long distance behind Scandinavian and other models.
There are other problems. The manner in which third-level remains the preserve of the middle and upper classes is something that Mr Dempsey is addressing. There are resource problems like rotten, rat-infested primary schools, and a very poor back-up and support for teachers when compared with other countries.
Mr Dempsey has hinted at other problems in recent weeks, including the lack of overall policy direction, the lack of a middle-management structure in schools, the need to update assessment of students, the need to give a real role to parents and the need to bring greater public accountability to the system.
But do we need another bout of consultation to address these issues?
Mr Dempsey spoke of a Utopian world in his new consultation process where people like the teacher unions and others would leave aside their own agenda and focus on the big picture. It is a very idealistic vision, but hardly a realistic one.
On past evidence, there is every reason to believe that the new consultative process will just be another talking shop - precisely what Mr Dempsey wanted to avoid by shelving the original plan for a full-scale teaching commission.
And will anything emerge from the process that we do not already know?
The reality is that education now needs firm decision-making and not another bout of consultation. If the Minister wants a more open and accountable system, if he wants to address educational disadvantage, if he wants to upgrade the curriculum, if he wants to give a new focus to IT learning he has it within his power to make decisions which would achieve real change.
As it is, Mr Dempsey will need to flesh out more details of his consultative process if he is to convince many in education and beyond that it truly represents a new departure.
Charlie Lennon, of ASTI, reflected a widespread view yesterday when he said the new process was an excuse to delay. "There are a dozen reports - all of them the product of an elaborate consultative process, including parents and others - sitting on the Minister's desk".
Another ASTI figure was even more scathing. "This is an attempt to give the impression of movement and reform in education when there is no money in the kitty. It will produce streams of paper but little else that is tangible."
This view may be too cynical. But, after enjoying a long honeymoon period in office, there are early signs that teachers want more action from the Minister and less talk.
Mr Dempsey deserves credit for the vision he has brought to education. But vision on its own is not enough; not when many teachers are struggling to cope with increasing indiscipline in the classroom, appalling classroom accommodation, staffing problems and the lack of proper back-up and support from the department.
That is the reality on the ground and Mr Dempsey must address it.