A DUBLIN primary school for Muslim children which has been sharply criticised in an official report has given a “full assurance” that shortcomings will be rectified, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said yesterday.
But the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation said the Department of Education had failed to address the serious problems at the North Dublin Muslim School, despite demands for intervention over a five-year period.
The school, which is temporarily housed on the campus of St Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys, in Cabra, was heavily criticised in a “whole school evaluation” by the inspectorate of the department.
Mr O’Keeffe said yesterday that the board of management at the school had “accepted in full the totality of the recommendations and gave an absolutely full assurance that they are going to rectify many of the shortcomings that were in evidence”.
“We will be monitoring closely but we will be very supportive as well,” he added.
John Carr, general secretary of the INTO, the primary teachers’ union, said that Mr O’Keeffe should be held to account “because the department knew for at least five years about problems in the school yet nothing was done”.
Mr Carr said that the report by department inspectors on the school was fundamentally flawed because it did not say what if anything the department intended to do.
“This is one of the worst examples of the department’s one-step-back approach to school management.
“Despite full knowledge of continuing difficulties, no significant intervention has been made to support the board or the teachers,” said Mr Carr.
In 2004 the INTO had written to the department about irregularities in the employment of teachers, and in 2005 it raised the same concerns with the department.
The union also informed the department at the time that the then board of management was failing to comply with employment and equality legislation and with the rules and constitution of boards of management.
One letter called on the department to conduct an investigation into the matter.
Responding to the INTO’s criticisms, Mr O’Keeffe said the whole school evaluation report had raised wider concerns than originally intended.
“The INTO have indicated that it was in 2004 they raised issues, but as I understand it, these were teacher issues, regarding the turnover of teachers and such.”
“But we have been aware for some time that there were difficulties.
“The issues were brought to the attention of my staff in the department and some of what was dealt with in the whole school evaluation (WSE) was a result of the issues that were raised.
“The issue of funding and the issue of accountability arose. However, when the WSE was carried out it brought to the fore other issues that hadn’t manifested themselves up to that particular point, so the WSE was very revealing from that point of view,” he said.
Speaking separately, a spokesman for the Minister said representatives of the school had reported to the department that a number of positive immediate steps had been taken to address the shortcomings highlighted in the report.
These included providing the department with an account of expenditure since it took office in January 2008; and confirming that it is pursuing the accounts for the period prior to that date.
The patron appointed a new board and chairperson that took office during the 2007/2008 school year.
Fine Gael’s Brian Hayes said the inspection report underlined how the inspection system was not working.