This week's teacher conferences proved more eventful than anticipated. Although morale within the profession appears high, teachers are clearly nervous about the impact of inflation on their earnings. In this context, their unions will be watching how the nurses' dispute plays out with keen interest.
ASTI's decision to seek a renegotiation of the Towards 2016 national agreement may not amount to much in practical terms since the union is now back in the fold of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. But it sends an important signal. Teachers, like other public service workers, will not remain silent if inflation continues to undermine the pay benefits of the deal.
With an eye to the election, Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, who was warmly received by delegates, used the conference season to remind teacher representatives of the hugely increased investment in education over the lifetime of this Government. She also promised to double basic funding for primary schools and clarified how 4,000 new primary teachers would reduce class size. The Minister found herself accused of "auction politics" by the Opposition who are no slouches themselves when it comes to making promises to the education sector.
That said, there is something unsettling about the spectacle of a Minister making such key commitments on the eve of a general election. If money is available to commit resources to these critical areas, why must our children wait until an election? The whole process begs wider questions about education expenditure. Great progress has been made in the past decade with vastly increased investment in areas such as school buildings and special needs education. But this does not obviate the fact that spending on education continues to lag behind the level pertaining in most other OECD countries.
In a stirring address to the INTO conference, professor of education at NUI Maynooth, Tom Collins, called for a quantum leap in the level of provision to the sector. Moving this State closer to the spending levels taken for granted in Nordic and other countries would, he said, transform our schools and yield important societal benefits. It is to be hoped that his comments will add further momentum to a debate that is deservedly gathering pace. Given the robust state of our exchequer finances, teachers, pupils and parents should not be asked to muddle through without the kind of support taken for granted elsewhere in Europe.
That quantum leap in education funding is necessary with or without an election.