Irish Vocational Education Association

Addressing an international conference of teacher trade unions in Dublin this morning (ETUCE- European Trade Union Committee for Education) Michael Moriarty, General Secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association, argued that Ireland is suffering badly from the fallout of two serious recessionary forces, a severe global recession combined with a deep domestic recession of our own making. The fallout from these twin forces means that the Irish education system has been subject to the most serious resourcing cuts amongst European States.

Commenting on the present perilous nature of public finances, Mr Moriarty states that as Ireland has witnessed the death of the Celtic Tiger, it is the taxpayer who is paying for the funeral. "The legacy of the recent financial scandals in Ireland is that future generations of Irish people will long pay for what has happened in recent times. As a consequence of the greed of a few, the level of public services has been substantially cut, and there is a real concern that the educational prospects of the youth of today could be affected by the level of cutbacks in the education sector."

"All across Europe public finances are under pressure, and a significant number of member States have implemented cuts in the level of resources and supports to their educational systems. For this reason I am calling for a charter of rights for students in primary, post-primary and further education."

Mr Moriarty further states, "What I am calling for is an educational rights charter which comprehends a set of minimum standards and a minimum level of entitlements for schools and students, agreed by the education partners and underpinned by governments. These standards would cover such matters as:

Class size
Supports for students with special needs
Student welfare, counselling and mental health supports
Entitlement of each student to a curriculum that meets his or her particular needs, within reason
A level of ICT supports necessary to support teaching and learning
An agreed level of administrative supports considered essential for the effective operation of educational institutions
An agreed level of in-service supports to ensure the knowledge, skills and competences which teachers need to maximise learner outcomes."

"This proposal for a learners' charter is not a request for a blank cheque, but a request that a floor be placed under the education system to ensure that all learners in all educational institutions are provided with the education and training they need to make the most of their lives. This is about ring-fencing, as far as possible, our school-going generation from the worst effects of this serious recession; it is also about supporting and cherishing the most vulnerable of our young, those who will suffer most from cuts in supports to schools.

In the absence of a charter of learners' rights, and agreement about the standards we aspire to, and strategies for achieving those standards, we may well be left arguing over who gets what deck chair, on a ship heading for the bottom."

Commenting further, Mr. Moriarty states, "There is a good argument that this charter proposal should be adopted by both ETUCE, representing teacher unions across Europe, and EFEE, the European Federation of Education Employers [of which IVEA is an active member], so that pressure can be placed on the European Commission to adopt a Europe-wide Educational Rights Charter to underpin the rights of student learners across our education systems. If not, the danger is that the education system in each Member State will suffer, to a greater or lesser degree depending on national finances and the relative strength of the trade union movement or government. There are European standards and guarantees set by the European Commission in such matters as equality and employee contracts. So why not adopt minimum guarantees for the general student population? Today I am requesting both organisations to actively pursue this valid proposal."

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© IVEA 2012