The Minister for Education, Mr Martin, has moved, with characteristic political skill, to defuse some contentious issues in education ahead of the teachers' unions annual conferences which begin today. A plethora of new initiatives has been signalled in recent days including a radical review of teacher training, the increased provision of remedial education in primary schools and the establishment of a professional Teaching Council. In general terms, this year's conference season reflects a return to the more routine issues in education. After last year's discussion of Ms Niamh Bhreatheach's Education Bill, this week's emphasis is on more practical difficulties: staffing levels; the reduction of pupil/teacher ratios; discipline in schools at all levels; bullying of both teachers and pupils and the provision of ancillary staff in schools.
The importance of some of the practical issues under discussion should not be minimised. Bullying and intimidation of teachers in this State may be less serious than in the US or Britain but it is a growing problem requiring attention. Individual teachers, particularly younger women, can be reluctant to speak out about the problem for fear that it might reflect on their professional competence or their ability to maintain discipline. The teachers' conferences offer a safe opportunity to bring the issue out of the shadows, and to tease out possible strategies. The Department of Education's proposals for dealing with violence towards staff in schools - as reported by our Education Correspondent in today's editions - appear well-judged. Proposals to restrict access by visitors to schools and their environs are sensible in the light of experience elsewhere while the introduction of formal procedures in the event of an assault on any person in the school is overdue.
For its part, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation is rightly exercised about the delayed introduction of the new primary school curriculum. This was scheduled to be introduced last September but it is still awaited. The INTO general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, points to the hard work of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in drawing up the curriculum. He will be telling the Minister when he visits Ennis that "all the freshness will go out of it" unless it is introduced soon. The INTO is also concerned about the £127 gap between the capitation grant paid to primary and second-level schools. But not all the teachers' concerns are about their own welfare - INTO delegates are calling for the establishment of a permanent and properly resourced Refugee Education Support Service to cater for the growing number of primary-age children from refugee families now coming into the education system here.
Whole School Evaluation, the proposed new inspection system for primary and second-level schools is a major concern for the TUI. Ten branches have already rejected the introduction of the new scheme, until schools are properly resourced to implement the evaluation; neither will members take part in the pilot scheme - now under way in 12 primary and second-level schools - until there is a direction from the conference. The irony is that Whole School Evaluation, as proposed by the Minister, al Martin, is not a draconian system and does not involve league tables. It is a worthwhile development which will be welcomed by many people in education.