As the government look to make at least €3 Billion in savings in their December budget, through tax increases and a significant reduction in public spending, they must resist the urge to make any cuts in education and, if possible, look to increase funding in this sector. While potential cuts look like an easy option, they go against publicised government policy and could damage our economic recovery and international reputation.
Smart Economy
The government's economic and job creation plans are based around the development of a knowledge based "smart" economy, centred around the formation of jobs in science, engineering, manufacturing, as well as research and development. To attain the ambitious goals outlined in their policy document, significant investment must be made in education, particularly in secondary education (science and maths), third level (university sector) and in continued education and training (ideally through some other organisation instead of FÁS). The government's own policy document on the formation of the smart economy states that "Ireland is already laying the foundations of the ideas economy by investing significantly in education". However, the recent OECD report contradicts their assertions.
OECD Report
The recently published OECD annual "Education at a Glance" report suggests that in 2007 Ireland was spending just 4.7% of its income on education, placing us 30th out of the 33 OECD countries. The average spend was 5.7%. The report also shows that from 1995 to 2007 the proportion of GDP that went to education in Ireland fell by half a percentage point and, at the height of the boom, Ireland was spending significantly less of a proportion of its income on education compared to other OECD countries. The most significant disparity occured in the third level sector, with Ireland only spending 1.2% of income in this area, 0.3% below the average. The report continued to pluck holes in the governments retoric - Irish class sizes are amongst the highest in the OECD and second highest in the EU and that 39% of Irish teachers receive no evaluation on work performance, the highest of all OECD countries. (For the full report, click here.) Of course, the report does not include the dramatic cuts in education seen in last year's budget, which saw funding for free books for poor children withdrawn in 90% of schools, equipment and resource grants for resource teachers working with special needs children abolished, funding of €4.3m for Traveller children slashed, €2.1m gone from school library grants and pupil teacher ratios increase across all schools. So government policy and action clearly don't match up. These facts highlight that we need to increase funding in education in Ireland, and most certainly not make further cuts.
Recently, the Irish education system has come under (somewhat unjust) criticism for the low standard of maths and science amongst school leavers (click here to read my view on the matter). Whether we think this criticism fair or not, the perception amongst multinational companies is that Irish pupils fall short on the standards set by international best practice. One reason for this poor performance in maths is the assertion that many maths teachers do not have full degrees in mathematics. If this is the case, and it most likely is, then why isn't teaching attracting top mathematics graduates. The simple answer is pay. Now I don't want to get into a discussion on pay, but if you want to attract the top people in any field you must reward them appropriately. Teaching in Ireland is not seen as an attractive proposition for Irish graduates (generally) and many seek to make their money abroad rather than devote themselves to education. The government must realise that if they want to raise the standard of education, they need to raise the standard of teachers and the best way of doing that is to improve their pay and conditions. Last year, teachers received a 15% pay cut. Budget 2010 should avoid any further cuts in the pay and conditions of teachers if they want to improve the quality of teaching, particularly in maths and science, as they move towards developing the "smart economy".
University Rankings
Recently, many Irish universities dropped down the pecking order in the world's university rankings. Trinity College Dublin dropped out of the top 50 while University College Dublin slipped below the 100th mark. These developments are a stark reminder that cuts in third level education funding are affecting teaching and learning standards in the higher education sector. With government not willing to fund the sector appropriately while resisting the university calls for the reintroduction of tuition fees, the higher education sector remains in limbo. The government "seek to position Ireland as a destination of choice in the international education market" but with our universities falling in the rankings that is unlikely to happen. If we are to truly develop a knowledge based economy, we need to fund our universities appropriately or at least allow them fund themselves.
In summary, Irish government education policy and practice seem to conflict. Investment in primary, secondary, tertiary and adult education is already far too low and the effects are already evident. The government aims to develop a smart economy, to create a highly educated and skilled population but seems to think this can happen without proper funding. If the Minister for Finance cuts educational funding in the next budget, standards will continue to fall and, with it, all hopes of economic recovery.
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