MacGill Summer School: Education is the most important issue facing Irish people and it can be a driving force for positive change, Sinn Féin MP Mr Martin McGuinness said last night.
Addressing the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, he said the Ireland of today still had some distance to go before it could be defined as a civilised society.
As well as religious hatred and bigotry, there was now also the new phenomenon of racism which, he said, must have no place in Ireland. Speaking on the theme "The role of education in a civilised society", the North's former minister for education spoke of the importance of education reform.
He noted that under the academic selection system in the North - whereby pupils aged 11 previously had to sit an academic test - the working-class Protestant community was most disadvantaged. In the Shankill suburb of Belfast, fewer than 2 per cent of pupils passed the 11-Plus test, effectively denying them a place at a grammar school.
During his time as minister he initiated a major review of the educational system, including changes to the statutory curriculum. "If we get this right, we will have a curriculum that I believe will do more than anything else to help build a tolerant society at ease with itself," he said.
One of the core elements of the new curriculum would be citizenship, which would embrace issues of democracy, human rights, civics and justice issues.
Mr McGuinness said education was "critical to who we are, defines us as citizens and prepares us for society" and had, therefore, an important role in building a civilised society.
The Fine Gael spokeswoman on Education and Science, Ms Olwyn Enright, said education was the fundamental pillar of the structure that helps to make society civilised in the first place.
"Education for all, from the cradle to the grave, should be our motto," she said.
"Education is the bedrock upon which any future civilised society will be based. However, unless we realise this, and act upon the realisation, then our search for this type of society will be in vain."
Meanwhile, Mr Derek West, principal of Newpark Comprehensive School, Blackrock, Co Dublin, claimed education had frequently been hijacked by vested interests - political, industrial, economic, religious and materialistic - which, he said, had not necessarily served civilisation. He said education was more often than not a form of "state-sponsored force-feeding" and led to the points race, to winners and losers, haves and have-nots, élites and outsiders.
While recognising that Ireland had come a long way in terms of the provision of education, he noted how society turned to education to provide the solution to social problems. Often, though, this was met by "a knee-jerk reaction" and a "tinkering" with the system. He questioned whether we could claim to have a civilised society when we had "chaos at second level" in dealing with special needs children, schools for the disadvantaged, decaying buildings and racism.
Commenting on the review of the final three years of secondary education being conducted by the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, he said he looked forward to a national forum in September.
"We have fudged too many opportunities in the past. This review will offer a gateway to a consideration of the whole spectrum of education, from pre-school to university," he said.