Gaffney's big school project

EDUCATION PROFILE:Principal Eamonn Gaffney wanted RTE's fly-on-the-wall series ' The School' to convey a full, rounded picture of Irish schools. The series was hailed as groundbreaking, but critics say the cost to the students of St Peter's in Dunboyne, Co Meath, was too high. LOUISE HOLDENreports

REALITY TV

comes and goes, but

The School

could make a lasting mark on educational debate in Ireland. Irish academics are already considering its implications, and ripples in the media pool are expanding. Has principal Eamonn Gaffney achieved his objective of renewing the discourse on schooling in Ireland? And if so, at what cost to St Peter’s?

“Many a parent with high social ideals loses the stomach for the struggle when it comes to their own children,” says one media commentator. “The same might be said for schools – most principals want to enrich the discourse on education, but would stop short of throwing their own students into the forum. Eamonn Gaffney crossed a line here.”

An education academic agrees. "It's a breakthrough moment in Irish television and education. We have nothing to compare it to. Each half-minute of film in this series has the potential to spark considerable and profitable debate. The lack of informed public discussion about schooling has been a major weakness in Irish public life. The Schoolis something substantial, at last."

Eamonn Gaffney established St Peter’s College 15 years ago, and built it up to almost 1,000 students today. Gaffney was nearing retirement when he was approached by Scratch Films about the possibility of opening up his school to fly-on-the-wall documentary makers. The very idea breaks all the codes of educational research ethics – protecting the identities of the young is at the core of pedagogical inquiry.

However, colleagues say the veteran principal has had enough of secrecy in schooling.

“His main motivation is passion for education. He wants a good education system in Ireland, and he believes that a frank discussion is needed. He feels that there is nothing to be gained by covering up failings,” says one.

However, The Schoolwas more than one man's decision. It is a feature of Gaffney's management style that he worked towards consensus before moving ahead.

He nearly got it. Three out of four teachers voted in favour of the project, and only one in eight were expressly against it. Those against were drawn into the process, and made up 40 per cent of the committee established to oversee the project. The Board of Management and the local VEC also gave their full support behind the scenes.

Gaffney hoped a warts-and-all approach would serve the wider community better than a whitewash. Nonetheless, according to one individual involved in the project, plenty was left out. “We’ll never know about those teachers that were too insecure about themselves and their teaching ability to go on camera, so it’s hard to get a balanced view. Some teachers won’t let a camera near them. It can be a suspicious profession.”

Apart from one remark in the staffroom in episode two, however, there was a notable absence of complaint about teachers’ pay and conditions. “He didn’t do this for the teachers, he did it for education,” says a colleague. “He is close to retirement and wanted to make a big statement about education general, but about the VECs in particular.”

There is plenty of discussion about private schools in the Irish media, but Gaffney hoped to showcase the VEC sector as an innovator in education. “He fears that they are forgotten in the discussion of league tables and cherry-picking. He wanted to say ‘we are a VEC school and we’re proud of who we are,” says a VEC insider.

A former careers guidance counsellor with a love of golf, Gaffney is a committed educator in every sense, say those close to him. “He’s not just concerned with high points and university places, although kids in that category are well catered for,” says another principal. “The fact that St Peter’s managed to bring Leaving Cert Vocational Programme students right through to graduation is an incredible achievement. Schools all over the country struggle to hold on to these students every day.”

Older viewers saw an education system they barely recognised. "My, how things have changed," says one viewer in his 50s. "When I was in school, you lived in fear. That was just the norm. For people of my age, The Schoolwas a revelation. Hugging teachers? That wouldn't have happened in my day."

So far, the programme has done what Gaffney hoped it would. However, there are those who contend that the personal cost to students was too high. Gaffney has broken a cardinal rule of education by putting faces to the children behind the system.

“It was a brave move,” says a parent. “It made for riveting television. Few schools would have taken such a high risk.”

So why did he do it?

“That’s the $64,000 question,” says one educator. “There are mixed views in the education community about this. The idea of challenging a teenager in front of his peers is not considered good business in education. Many believe that it simply shouldn’t be on TV. Faces are blanked out on television for far lesser reasons than this. I’d like to meet the students in a year’s time and see how they feel about the whole business. I’m not sure I’d like to see this exercise rolled out across the country.”

Questions abound about the possible fallout for students such as Donal and Adam, who were unavoidably characterised as “troublemakers” in the series. “TV has that effect,” says one commentator. No matter how balanced the portrayal, the audience compartmentalises what it sees, looks for ‘types’.”

Others disagree. “Eamonn thought long and hard about including those scenes, and consulted carefully with the students and their parents,” says one school insider. “I think audiences will identify with the struggle of those students, rather than stigmatising them.”

“It would be a mistake to believe that Eamonn Gaffney went on a solo run, and pushed St Peter’s into the limelight,” says a consultant. “This project was a community project – it took a lot of ‘yes’s to make it happen. Eamonn is among a minority of school leaders with a background in guidance counselling. This approach comes through in the series – he listened to everyone, brought everyone along.”

Breaking new ground at RTÉ

AUDIENCE figures for The Schoolexceeded all expectations: viewer average was 435,000 with a 27 per cent audience share across the series. This compares well with average audience figures for The Apprenticeon TV3, which aired in the same slot. Notably, a lot of young people tuned in, with an increase of 10 per cent for that time slot (9.30pm, RTÉ1) in the children age group.

Máiréad Ní Nuadháin, Commissioning Editor for RTÉ Irish Language, Multi-culture and Education, believes that the series was “groundbreaking”. “The reaction to this series has been like nothing I have experienced before. From the first transmission, people were texting and e-mailing me, saying how good they thought the production had been. Most people felt it was a unique insight into a second-level school in Ireland, and they felt that it was honest and compelling viewing.

"Another aspect that people would not be aware of is the extent to which the company helped young, would-be film-makers in the school. Some of them helped out with 'student-cam', and others have done work experience with Scratch Films.

I feel it will be an important piece of work for future generations of film-makers, archivists, historians, teachers and, indeed, anyone who wants to see a slice of Irish life at a certain place in time.