THE INTO response to the Whites Paper on Education calls for a massive increase in investment in primary education, the provision of foreign language teaching for all primary pupils, and the availability of non denominational education as a choice for all parents.
At least 5,000 additional teachers would be required to reduce class sizes to a maximum of 30 (20 for infant classes) and to provide remedial and special needs teaching, according to the draft document approved by a special congress in Galway on Saturday.
More than £20 million should be spent on refurbishing older schools and EU structural funds should be secured for the primary sector, it says.
The response opposes formal national assessment of pupils at the end of first and fifth class and says proposals to formally appraise teachers could "rip the intellectual heart" out of the teaching and learning process. Likewise, assessing the performance of schools is described as "totally undesirable, inappropriate and unacceptable".
Such tests would "narrow the focus of the curriculum, distort the purpose of assessment and cause irreparable damage to the pupil teacher relationship".
The option of a foreign language should be available to all children irrespective of their families ability to pay.
Support should be available to fund summer courses in Irish and foreign languages, visits to the Gaeltacht and foreign exchange projects.
However, the document also warns that the primary curriculum is saturated, with 40 per cent of the school day already devoted to language teaching.
Access to school should not be restricted to either pupils or teachers because of their religious beliefs. "The role of the teacher becomes impossible if on the one hand pupils are to be imbued with tolerance and openness to cultural or religious difference while on the other hand they are not to be allowed to learn with or be taught by those of different creeds and beliefs."
It suggests that growing pluralism in society may not necessarily be served by the provision of a different type of school but by allowing for "a greater flexibility in the approach to religious education in the traditional school".