December 20, 2024 • 26 mins
If there's nothing else you can say about the Minister for Education, Norma Foley. When we look back at 2024, it's likely she will feature heavily. Whether it was her crisis opportunity during the general election campaign or her 9 million Euro phone pouches, in this episode, join me as I look back on a year where the Department of Education were more interested in smartphones than teacher shortages and where all of the problems in the education system seemed to be defended by throwing free school books and free school lunches at parents. So without further ado, let's review the year from January to June.
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(00:00):
Hello hello, you're verywelcome to if I Were the Minister
for education from anshah.neta regular podcast where I delve into
the world of primary educationand let you know what I would do
if I were the Minister for Education.
This is Simon Lewis.
If you enjoy this podcast,please feel free to subscribe on
(00:20):
your favorite podcasting platform.
And if you'd like to leave areview, it would be really appreciated
as it helps others to find thepodcast more easily.
If there's nothing else youcan say about the Minister for Education,
Norma Foley, when we look backat 2024, it's likely she will feature
(00:43):
in the Highlights heavily,whether it was her crisis opportunity
during the general electioncampaign or her 9 million euro phone
pouches in this episode.
Join me as I look back on ayear where the Department of Education
were more interested insmartphones than teacher shortages,
and where all of the problemsin the education system seem to be
(01:06):
defended by throwing freeschool books and free school lunches
at parents.
So without further ado, let'sreview the year from January to June
in this part and later on inthe week I'll be moving on to the
rest of the year.
Ready to go?
Let's start with January 2024.
(01:30):
Started in the same dark veinas 2023 ended with anti migrant sentiment
continuing to flow throughoutthe country, unfortunately including
my own town of Cardo from myadopted town of Cardo.
For those of you who hear mySouth Dublin accent, run it raining
(01:52):
through this podcast.
Armed with the big Lie theoryas that is repeats something often
enough and it becomes true, Ihave to drive by protests in my town
and watch school childrenstanding in the cold as their parents
said they felt like strangersin their own classrooms.
(02:13):
Norma Foley's attentionsweren't focused on that, of course,
which was more the pity.
As far as she was concerned,the biggest problem in the education
system was those pesky schoolsforcing parents to buy smartphones
for their children.
One thing that didn't seem tobe a problem were the vast swathes
(02:36):
of money being gifted to theCatholic Church for divesting or
reconfiguring as it's knownnow, their schools to a different
patron body.
And I spent months in 2023trying to find out how much it would
be that they were paying.
And it turns out that perschool the government were going
to pay between €5,000 and€8,000 a year for each school that
(03:00):
was reconfigured.
Essentially, if the governmentreached their target of 400 multi
denominational schools, itwould be over two and a half million
euro per year given and giftedto the Catholic Church.
And not forgetting that thestate also fund all the bills of
those schools, including allof the maintenance and all of the
(03:21):
building remains in theownership of the church after the
lease had run out.
It was a sweet deal.
And I've no idea why thechurch aren't actually chopping,
chomping at the bit toreconfigure as many of their schools
as possible.
And I guess given the givenfree solar panels which were also
given gifted to them, may havemade them think that there's more
(03:45):
money to be made by staying put.
And as I explored this inJanuary, and despite my best efforts,
the media weren't interestedin that.
They were really stillinterested in schools banning mobile
phones.
And as we'll see, that becamea theme throughout the year.
Meanwhile, in January, theteacher shortage crisis rumbled into
(04:05):
its 10th year, with schools inmajor cities completely unable to
fill temporary positions.
And while I still think peopleare missing many of the points as
to why we have this teachercrisis, the minister remained in
denial that there was aproblem at all.
And yes, that's going to beanother theme as we go through the
year.
(04:27):
We start the year on adepressing tone.
I'm sorry, and I don't know ifFebruary is, is going to be any different,
but let's move on to thatmonth and let's look at another angle
of 2024, the other story of 2024.
And I think when we look backat the year 2024, apart from the
world of education, we'll belooking at AI and ChatGPT in, I suppose,
(04:51):
specifically because it'scaused lots and lots of rumbles throughout
the world, including theeducation system.
And for me, I found a lot ofits power was in how it was able
to analyze data.
And I found myself thinking alot about the spreadsheets that the
Department of Educationactually produces, and they produce
(05:13):
quite a few of them.
So I decided that I'd useChatGPT, in the absence of having
a statistics degree, toanalyze those, the data that they
put out behind any, anythingto do with special education, specifically
the special education allocations.
And I spent a lot of Februaryanalyzing that.
And not only did I findunsurprising evidence that the government
(05:37):
press releases weren't exactlytelling the truth, more worryingly,
the entire set allocationsystem is completely based upon junk
data.
There is absolutely no rhymeand no reason for the set allocations
that your school receives.
And looking at the country ona county by county analysis of resources.
(05:59):
Schools in Offaly werereceiving an average over 10% more
resources than they shouldhave, and schools in County Ross
Common, not so far away, werereceiving almost 10% less, and every
county in between.
There was no rhyme and reason.
And if you were in adeveloping school, you were receiving
a whopping discrepancy of 43%fewer hours than you should have
(06:24):
been as well.
And sadly, though, when theset allocations were accidentally
released at 11 o'clock atnight on a Friday of the new Irish
bank holiday, by Saturdaymorning principals were screwing
each other over in the annualevent, which is colloquially known
as the cluster Games.
However, not only was Igetting disillusioned with my principal
(06:47):
colleagues on the fact thatthey were quite happy to spend their
Friday night of bank holidayessentially screwing each other over,
the government decided to turnthe screw further by removing the
criteria of complex needs fromthose set allocations.
And I'll talk more about thatin a couple of months in this review.
In the meantime, after aFreedom of Information request, I
(07:11):
found the state had giftedover 500 million euro, half a billion
euro, to the Catholic Churchand other private bodies on capital
building projects.
From when, do you think, howlong would you think that amount
of gifting took place?
The other five years, 2018 to 2022?
However, again, the mediaweren't interested in that.
(07:32):
They were more interested inthe fact that 25% of 6 year olds
own smartphones.
I get that.
I get that is a fairly, fairlyawful thing.
But of course, that's school's faults.
Irish exemptions were beinggiven out far too easy, which of
course is school's faults.
And schools closing for thepolling day for the referendum, which
(07:53):
didn't pass, was also school's faults.
If you read the media inFebruary, do you know what?
There's some things, you know,even ChatGPT can't process.
Let's move on to March.
In March, I learned a newword, quantum, which according to
(08:14):
the Cambridge Dictionary, isthe smallest amount or unit of something,
especially energy.
That term, quantum, was usedthree times in one of the most bizarre
statements I've everexperienced in my career from the
Irish Primary PrinciplesNetwork, who decided to turn on their
own members when theycriticized the Department of Education's
(08:37):
decision to cut the complexneeds criteria from set allocations.
Rather than actually supporttheir members who thought this was
shocking, they decided todefend the Department of Education's
decision to cut the complexneeds criteria.
And to quote their statement,it is important to be clear that
that children with complexneed have not been excluded from
(09:00):
the allocation of hours thatschools received.
And they went on to explainthat given that the revised allocations
model is now underpinned bymore accurate data provided by schools,
it is hoped that the quantumof hours allocated to schools will
better enable children withadditional and complex needs to achieve
and thrive in their mainstream settings.
I wonder if ChatGPT wrote thatquantum so baffling they used it
(09:25):
three times in their statement.
It's a word that could equallydefine the IPPN's representation
of their own members, in thiscase the smallest unit of energy
March also saw Josepha Madiganstepping down as the Minister for
Special Education.
Unfortunately for her legacywill be best remembered not for anything
(09:45):
to do with it will be to dowith special education, but for her
many misspeakings, as shecalled it herself, including calling
children without additionalneeds as normal children.
I could go on, but I don'tthink it's worth spending much more
than a quantum on her legacyApril despite the hype around Christmas,
(10:08):
Easter is actually the mostimportant holiday in the Christian
calendar which celebrates thebirth of their Lord Jesus Christ.
However, in April, a study ofover 4,000 teachers by a Catholic
organization in the GraceProject revealed that over half of
teachers working in Catholicschools who promised that they would
(10:30):
uphold the ethos in theirinterview under the age of 50 don't
believe in God.
Worse for Jesus was the censusrecords that were released of 25
to 29 year olds in 2022 whoare now older and having kids and
so on only showed that 53% ofthem identify at all as Catholics.
And worse again, Catholicmarriages are at their lowest point
(10:55):
at under 35% of marriages.
If Jesus hadn't escaped hisgrave, he would be rolling in it.
And if saying that soundsdisrespectful, of course it is.
But no more disrespectful thanthe way teachers are expected to
be missionaries for theCatholic Church in 90% of primary
schools.
And which segues me nicely towhat used to be a big deal for teachers
(11:19):
in the calendar, which was theinto Congress where the media covered
the motions raised on the roleof faith formation this year in 2024
it was actually probably oneof the biggest stories of the 2024
IMTO Congress.
As much as its importance inthe school year has diminished over
(11:40):
the last decade or so, it'sstill one of the highlights of a
number of teachers school years.
And I know it seems that it'sthe same people every year going
up and complaining, why isthere nobody else showing up to this
thing?
It's a question I often tellthem to ask themselves rather than
giving out, about why peoplelike me and like many others don't
(12:02):
get involved in the into theanswer is we don't feel welcome in
the club and there's there'ssome work to be done.
But let's move away from myrant and get back to my ponderings
on April about why the IncoCongress, with all the motions and
many of them the same everyyear, why was it that religion in
(12:24):
education was the one thatgrabbed the headlines?
And why was it that the motionthat went through certainly wasn't
the motion that was the overoverall biggest demand for more people
in the country, despite hugework around the country for a very
strong motion on religion, theINTO standing Motions committee decided
(12:45):
they'd pick the very weakmotion from Ross Common of all places,
rather than the other countiesin Ireland who had much stronger
motions.
But they said that theywanted, for whatever reason, Ross
Common decided that they wouldput that a survey and that would
be what we need.
This is the big deal aboutreligion in education.
We need a survey and we needto demand the end of the religious
(13:06):
certificate in Catholic education.
The questions that Ross Commonand therefore the Standing Orders
committee decided, rather thanthe much stronger motion that people
had put forward was we wouldask teachers two questions.
Should faith formationeducation take place in primary schools?
And should primary schooleducation in Ireland have secular
or religious patrons?
(13:27):
Now, I have less of a problemwith the first question than I do
with the second question.
And to be honest, at the timeI didn't really comment on it because
I was just a bit.
I was really miffed, to behonest with you, with those two questions.
And number one, they lackabsolute nuance.
This is a highly complex area.
People talk to me about howsimplistic my view is of separating
(13:48):
church and state.
But to add to have a surveyasking just those two questions is
shocking and the secondquestion is ridiculous.
Like who said it's a choicebetween secular or religious patrons?
What about patrons in general?
And so on.
Sorry, I'm going back into a round.
But at this time of writing,which is the end of the school year,
the survey is due to be sentout to a selection of members in
(14:11):
early 2025.
They're not even going tobother asking all of their members.
And thinking about the futurefor teachers who might want to be
treated with the slightestlevel of respect for their private
religious beliefs, it's goingto need a miracle bigger than any
messiah even Jesus could give.
And it also shows the contemptMaybe I think that the INTO have
(14:34):
for their members that don'tgo with the flow and accept, I think,
and I suppose I'm going againto a third round in April.
I think the INTO are probablyquite happy with the patronage system.
They seem to be.
Their question even wouldsuggest that, that they would like
to see the continuation ofpatron bodies.
You know, would.
Would we rather have secularreligious patrons?
(14:55):
We.
They don't ask the question ofshould we have patrons at all.
I think privately, I don'tthink they think this is all a big
deal and this is just a stormin a teacup.
And I do remember actuallywhen I got a call from the INTO after
I was.
After I was racially abusedonline when people cared about that
kind of thing, I had a callfrom a member, from a person who
(15:15):
was very high level in theinto and I congratulated them at
the time because at the timethey had decided to do so.
An act of rebellion, I wouldsay, which was to raise the pride
flag in schools, even oneswith religious ethos.
And I congratulated them atthe time because the person involved
was heavily involved in that.
And when I congratulated them,I thought it was interesting.
(15:35):
They said, look, you know, itwas an easy, it was an easy victory.
We measured the temperaturereally of the time and it was like
nobody really minded.
I noticed this year there wasvery little publication of raising
the pride flag in schools.
I don't know if they raisedthe pride flag at all in any of the
(15:55):
primary schools because now itisn't as easy as it was.
And it was very notable that Ididn't see the pride flag being proudly
waived this year in June bythe into.
Anyhow, as I said, easyvictories is where they're at.
And I think the INTO are justgoing to wait until other people
do all the work and they'llsweep in and say, look what we've
(16:17):
been doing anyway.
However, one chink of brightlight was that 13 years after the
forum of patronage andpluralism, the first ever Catholic
school divested to educate together.
Now, you may not have heardthat correctly.
13 years later.
(16:38):
Yes, years after the forum ofpatronage and pluralism, I think
I might have found a betterdefinition for the word quantum.
Let's move to May.
May was all about the moneyand it's all about the dum dum decisions
(16:59):
made by the Department ofEducation, who decided in the midst
of rumors of a generalelection that they would cut funding
to the school book grant,reducing it by 17%.
The ancillary grant and to thesummer program, which is now half
of what it was two years before.
And as the Minister forEducation continued her two chief
(17:20):
crusades.
Firstly, to blame schools forparents having to buy their children
mobile phones, and secondly,to reduce the entire primary education
system to a cheap childminding service for working parents
in inverted commas, which Ihave no doubt are both the brainchild
of her appointed advisor, aschool in Dublin that ran out of
classrooms and had totherefore close an after school child
(17:41):
minding service that was inone of their classrooms was met with
mass protests and a petitionof over 1000 signatures.
And I found that reallyinteresting that I was looking at
the same time when I waslooking at this.
I also looked for petitionsfrom the same parents or any parents
protesting the cuts to theschool book grants, the ancillary
(18:03):
grants and the summer program.
But funny enough, I couldn'tfind a single petition from those
working parents for those cutsto basic services to education.
Let's move to the end of theschool year.
It's June, and as the worldseemed to be falling apart with war,
you probably may have wonderedif I was going to mention any of
(18:27):
the terrible conflictshappening around the world.
Whether that was Iran, Yemen,Syria, South Sudan, the Russia war
in Ukraine or Israel in Gaza.
And given my own background,and given that President Michael
D.
Higgins claimed there was noanti Semitism in Ireland, and given
(18:49):
that the day before I had justreceived a torrent of images featuring
stereotypical beasts withlarge hooked noses and people telling
me to get out of Ireland andgo and kill some Palestinian children,
I felt that despite notfeeling very safe doing, but also
realizing how stupid thatsounds when there are so many Palestinians
(19:10):
out there and who are feelingmuch, much less safe than my stupid
feelings.
As someone who was brought upin the Jewish faith, I was always
taught the bad things happenwhen good people do nothing.
And it was the only way.
I remember being told toexplain why the Holocaust happened
(19:30):
in all the way from the 1930s,all the way before the Holocaust
itself, during the Holocaust,and why it came to a point where
6 million Jewish people werekilled and several other million
minorities were murdered, andhow that was justified.
And I have spent the lastnumber of years trying to understand
(19:53):
how the Israelites that I grewup with, one under Yitzhak Rabin,
could move from a place wherethere was relative peace and a plan
for a solution, possibly a twostate solution, to one where the
Israeli government hasessentially lost any form of humanity.
I tried my best to articulatemy thoughts on the situation in Gaza
(20:16):
and try to explain why.
Ultimately, I believe that thereason for the rise in antisemitism
that I have faced in Irelandin the last number of months is a
direct result of the Israeligovernment justifying their murder
of innocent people in my name.
And while the majority ofIrish people are able to differentiate
between Judaism and Zionism oreven being Israeli at all, I'm not
(20:41):
foolish enough like Michael D.
Higgins to believe thatantisemitism doesn't exist.
It's why I was very uneasyabout Michael D.
Higgins saying that.
And while I absolutely agreewith him that criticisms of Israel
are not anti Semitic, to saythat Irish people are not anti Semitic
is highly problematic,especially working in the education
(21:04):
system, which I have arguedfor so many years, is covertly racist.
In the same way, I don'tbelieve Irish people are generally
xenophobic, despite thewidespread protests outside those
accommodation centers formigrants that I spoke about in January.
Or in the same way I don'tbelieve that Irish people are generally
homophobic.
Despite the protests in thelibraries, I acknowledge there is
(21:26):
a growth in xenophobia,homophobia, racism, and anti Semitism
and Islamophobia.
They are all happening beforeour very eyes.
And to say that none of it ishappening is deeply dangerous.
Because as days and days go onin 2024, the rise in discrimination
(21:47):
in terms of, and I supposewhat we can call prejudice, is growing
all the time.
And this in an educationsetting where discrimination, blatant
discrimination happens andlegally discrimination happens every
single day, whether it'ssingle sex schools who discriminate
by design on gender, whereas96% of schools discriminate on a
(22:09):
daily basis on the foundationof religion.
It's just to say things likethat is dangerous.
And I suppose in the end of myarticle that I wrote about, and it
was the first article I wroteabout Israel and maybe I should have
(22:29):
written it earlier.
I, I guess I was probably alittle bit reluctant to write anything
given my background and giventhat I'm one of the only people in
the system from minority background.
And I suppose there are much,much more thoughtful and intelligent
people out there.
In fact, I'm not a thoughtful,intelligent person on the, and I
don't know very much about,about the intricacies and the complexities
(22:53):
of the situations.
No more so than anybody elsemight be, but I am, I guess I also,
at a human level, am disgustedby the atrocities that are happening
in Gaza and it needs to stop.
So at the end of the article Ilisted much more thoughtful and intelligent
articles and lessons thatteachers could possibly use if the
(23:13):
subject of Israel and Gaza orwar in general came up.
Which kind of leads me to anunrelated issue that I explored near
the end of the school year in June.
We have a wonderful array ofthoughtful and intelligent teachers
in Ireland who do talk aboutthe education system in Ireland.
And I have to say, as the astime went on, I find it a little
(23:37):
irksome that when that in themedia, one of the only teachers that's
features in the media has toexpress herself in a column called
the Secret Teacher.
I think it's a very strangeand weird thing that if the most
(23:59):
prominent teacher in the mediais not able to express herself without
being in secret, that we havea massive problem in the education
system that you cannot expressyourself outside of the shadows.
And furthermore, when themedia believe that the most influential
(24:20):
figure in Irish education, asthe Irish Times put it, is not even
Irish.
And I'm not saying that in anationalist sense, but isn't even
an educationalist, it'sactually a German statistician.
And we look at Singapore andEstonia to find out how to do education
properly.
It can be easy to see howdisillusionment can creep in when
(24:42):
you work in the educationsystem and you care about the education
system and you see the smalllittle nuances of the education system
and you understand why theeducation system is the way it is.
And that as much as we canlearn from Singapore and Estonia
and we should learn fromSingapore and Estonia and Finland
(25:02):
and all and even our Germans,that our education system needs to
be analyzed by people withinit and the media need to stop looking.
They can look beyond, but theyalso look have to look within to
find what's going on.
And we shouldn't have to dothat in secret.
I guess things could be worsethough in Ireland as we come to the
(25:26):
end of our first six months.
As you probably can see, not alot of educational things have happened
yet in 2024.
And as I'm talking it through,I'm wondering, gosh, will something
educational happen?
But I guess we might thinkabout that in our next episode.
(25:49):
And I guess this might sound abit depressing as an episode, but
I guess it could be worsebecause I was reading in June that
Louisiana teachers in Americamay be forced to teach the Ten Commandments
as fact.
And I also saw there was aBritish head teacher, a principal
who was in the media becausehe had to double job as a caretaker
(26:10):
because there was not enoughmoney to pay the bills.
And I just thought at leastnothing like that could happen here.
Oh wait, I hope you enjoyedlistening to the first six months
of my review of the the year 2024.
I'll be back in a few dayswith the rest of the year and we'll
(26:32):
see if anything educationalhappens, or if we're still going
to be talking about thingsthat aren't really educational at
all.
I wouldn't hold my breath ifyou've enjoyed this episode, please
come back to me in a few daysand we'll find out what happens from
July to December, and we'llsee what my conclusions are from
the year 2024.
Thanks so much for listening.
All the very best.
(26:53):
Bye.
Hello hello, you're verywelcome to if I Were the Minister
for education from anshah.neta regular podcast where I delve into
the world of primary educationand let you know what I would do
if I were the Minister for Education.
This is Simon Lewis.
If you enjoy this podcast,please feel free to subscribe on
(00:20):
your favorite podcasting platform.
And if you'd like to leave areview, it would be really appreciated
as it helps others to find thepodcast more easily.
If there's nothing else youcan say about the Minister for Education,
Norma Foley, when we look backat 2024, it's likely she will feature
(00:43):
in the Highlights heavily,whether it was her crisis opportunity
during the general electioncampaign or her 9 million euro phone
pouches in this episode.
Join me as I look back on ayear where the Department of Education
were more interested insmartphones than teacher shortages,
and where all of the problemsin the education system seem to be
(01:06):
defended by throwing freeschool books and free school lunches
at parents.
So without further ado, let'sreview the year from January to June
in this part and later on inthe week I'll be moving on to the
rest of the year.
Ready to go?
Let's start with January 2024.
(01:30):
Started in the same dark veinas 2023 ended with anti migrant sentiment
continuing to flow throughoutthe country, unfortunately including
my own town of Cardo from myadopted town of Cardo.
For those of you who hear mySouth Dublin accent, run it raining
(01:52):
through this podcast.
Armed with the big Lie theoryas that is repeats something often
enough and it becomes true, Ihave to drive by protests in my town
and watch school childrenstanding in the cold as their parents
said they felt like strangersin their own classrooms.
(02:13):
Norma Foley's attentionsweren't focused on that, of course,
which was more the pity.
As far as she was concerned,the biggest problem in the education
system was those pesky schoolsforcing parents to buy smartphones
for their children.
One thing that didn't seem tobe a problem were the vast swathes
(02:36):
of money being gifted to theCatholic Church for divesting or
reconfiguring as it's knownnow, their schools to a different
patron body.
And I spent months in 2023trying to find out how much it would
be that they were paying.
And it turns out that perschool the government were going
to pay between €5,000 and€8,000 a year for each school that
(03:00):
was reconfigured.
Essentially, if the governmentreached their target of 400 multi
denominational schools, itwould be over two and a half million
euro per year given and giftedto the Catholic Church.
And not forgetting that thestate also fund all the bills of
those schools, including allof the maintenance and all of the
(03:21):
building remains in theownership of the church after the
lease had run out.
It was a sweet deal.
And I've no idea why thechurch aren't actually chopping,
chomping at the bit toreconfigure as many of their schools
as possible.
And I guess given the givenfree solar panels which were also
given gifted to them, may havemade them think that there's more
(03:45):
money to be made by staying put.
And as I explored this inJanuary, and despite my best efforts,
the media weren't interestedin that.
They were really stillinterested in schools banning mobile
phones.
And as we'll see, that becamea theme throughout the year.
Meanwhile, in January, theteacher shortage crisis rumbled into
(04:05):
its 10th year, with schools inmajor cities completely unable to
fill temporary positions.
And while I still think peopleare missing many of the points as
to why we have this teachercrisis, the minister remained in
denial that there was aproblem at all.
And yes, that's going to beanother theme as we go through the
year.
(04:27):
We start the year on adepressing tone.
I'm sorry, and I don't know ifFebruary is, is going to be any different,
but let's move on to thatmonth and let's look at another angle
of 2024, the other story of 2024.
And I think when we look backat the year 2024, apart from the
world of education, we'll belooking at AI and ChatGPT in, I suppose,
(04:51):
specifically because it'scaused lots and lots of rumbles throughout
the world, including theeducation system.
And for me, I found a lot ofits power was in how it was able
to analyze data.
And I found myself thinking alot about the spreadsheets that the
Department of Educationactually produces, and they produce
(05:13):
quite a few of them.
So I decided that I'd useChatGPT, in the absence of having
a statistics degree, toanalyze those, the data that they
put out behind any, anythingto do with special education, specifically
the special education allocations.
And I spent a lot of Februaryanalyzing that.
And not only did I findunsurprising evidence that the government
(05:37):
press releases weren't exactlytelling the truth, more worryingly,
the entire set allocationsystem is completely based upon junk
data.
There is absolutely no rhymeand no reason for the set allocations
that your school receives.
And looking at the country ona county by county analysis of resources.
(05:59):
Schools in Offaly werereceiving an average over 10% more
resources than they shouldhave, and schools in County Ross
Common, not so far away, werereceiving almost 10% less, and every
county in between.
There was no rhyme and reason.
And if you were in adeveloping school, you were receiving
a whopping discrepancy of 43%fewer hours than you should have
(06:24):
been as well.
And sadly, though, when theset allocations were accidentally
released at 11 o'clock atnight on a Friday of the new Irish
bank holiday, by Saturdaymorning principals were screwing
each other over in the annualevent, which is colloquially known
as the cluster Games.
However, not only was Igetting disillusioned with my principal
(06:47):
colleagues on the fact thatthey were quite happy to spend their
Friday night of bank holidayessentially screwing each other over,
the government decided to turnthe screw further by removing the
criteria of complex needs fromthose set allocations.
And I'll talk more about thatin a couple of months in this review.
In the meantime, after aFreedom of Information request, I
(07:11):
found the state had giftedover 500 million euro, half a billion
euro, to the Catholic Churchand other private bodies on capital
building projects.
From when, do you think, howlong would you think that amount
of gifting took place?
The other five years, 2018 to 2022?
However, again, the mediaweren't interested in that.
(07:32):
They were more interested inthe fact that 25% of 6 year olds
own smartphones.
I get that.
I get that is a fairly, fairlyawful thing.
But of course, that's school's faults.
Irish exemptions were beinggiven out far too easy, which of
course is school's faults.
And schools closing for thepolling day for the referendum, which
(07:53):
didn't pass, was also school's faults.
If you read the media inFebruary, do you know what?
There's some things, you know,even ChatGPT can't process.
Let's move on to March.
In March, I learned a newword, quantum, which according to
(08:14):
the Cambridge Dictionary, isthe smallest amount or unit of something,
especially energy.
That term, quantum, was usedthree times in one of the most bizarre
statements I've everexperienced in my career from the
Irish Primary PrinciplesNetwork, who decided to turn on their
own members when theycriticized the Department of Education's
(08:37):
decision to cut the complexneeds criteria from set allocations.
Rather than actually supporttheir members who thought this was
shocking, they decided todefend the Department of Education's
decision to cut the complexneeds criteria.
And to quote their statement,it is important to be clear that
that children with complexneed have not been excluded from
(09:00):
the allocation of hours thatschools received.
And they went on to explainthat given that the revised allocations
model is now underpinned bymore accurate data provided by schools,
it is hoped that the quantumof hours allocated to schools will
better enable children withadditional and complex needs to achieve
and thrive in their mainstream settings.
I wonder if ChatGPT wrote thatquantum so baffling they used it
(09:25):
three times in their statement.
It's a word that could equallydefine the IPPN's representation
of their own members, in thiscase the smallest unit of energy
March also saw Josepha Madiganstepping down as the Minister for
Special Education.
Unfortunately for her legacywill be best remembered not for anything
(09:45):
to do with it will be to dowith special education, but for her
many misspeakings, as shecalled it herself, including calling
children without additionalneeds as normal children.
I could go on, but I don'tthink it's worth spending much more
than a quantum on her legacyApril despite the hype around Christmas,
(10:08):
Easter is actually the mostimportant holiday in the Christian
calendar which celebrates thebirth of their Lord Jesus Christ.
However, in April, a study ofover 4,000 teachers by a Catholic
organization in the GraceProject revealed that over half of
teachers working in Catholicschools who promised that they would
(10:30):
uphold the ethos in theirinterview under the age of 50 don't
believe in God.
Worse for Jesus was the censusrecords that were released of 25
to 29 year olds in 2022 whoare now older and having kids and
so on only showed that 53% ofthem identify at all as Catholics.
And worse again, Catholicmarriages are at their lowest point
(10:55):
at under 35% of marriages.
If Jesus hadn't escaped hisgrave, he would be rolling in it.
And if saying that soundsdisrespectful, of course it is.
But no more disrespectful thanthe way teachers are expected to
be missionaries for theCatholic Church in 90% of primary
schools.
And which segues me nicely towhat used to be a big deal for teachers
(11:19):
in the calendar, which was theinto Congress where the media covered
the motions raised on the roleof faith formation this year in 2024
it was actually probably oneof the biggest stories of the 2024
IMTO Congress.
As much as its importance inthe school year has diminished over
(11:40):
the last decade or so, it'sstill one of the highlights of a
number of teachers school years.
And I know it seems that it'sthe same people every year going
up and complaining, why isthere nobody else showing up to this
thing?
It's a question I often tellthem to ask themselves rather than
giving out, about why peoplelike me and like many others don't
(12:02):
get involved in the into theanswer is we don't feel welcome in
the club and there's there'ssome work to be done.
But let's move away from myrant and get back to my ponderings
on April about why the IncoCongress, with all the motions and
many of them the same everyyear, why was it that religion in
(12:24):
education was the one thatgrabbed the headlines?
And why was it that the motionthat went through certainly wasn't
the motion that was the overoverall biggest demand for more people
in the country, despite hugework around the country for a very
strong motion on religion, theINTO standing Motions committee decided
(12:45):
they'd pick the very weakmotion from Ross Common of all places,
rather than the other countiesin Ireland who had much stronger
motions.
But they said that theywanted, for whatever reason, Ross
Common decided that they wouldput that a survey and that would
be what we need.
This is the big deal aboutreligion in education.
We need a survey and we needto demand the end of the religious
(13:06):
certificate in Catholic education.
The questions that Ross Commonand therefore the Standing Orders
committee decided, rather thanthe much stronger motion that people
had put forward was we wouldask teachers two questions.
Should faith formationeducation take place in primary schools?
And should primary schooleducation in Ireland have secular
or religious patrons?
(13:27):
Now, I have less of a problemwith the first question than I do
with the second question.
And to be honest, at the timeI didn't really comment on it because
I was just a bit.
I was really miffed, to behonest with you, with those two questions.
And number one, they lackabsolute nuance.
This is a highly complex area.
People talk to me about howsimplistic my view is of separating
(13:48):
church and state.
But to add to have a surveyasking just those two questions is
shocking and the secondquestion is ridiculous.
Like who said it's a choicebetween secular or religious patrons?
What about patrons in general?
And so on.
Sorry, I'm going back into a round.
But at this time of writing,which is the end of the school year,
the survey is due to be sentout to a selection of members in
(14:11):
early 2025.
They're not even going tobother asking all of their members.
And thinking about the futurefor teachers who might want to be
treated with the slightestlevel of respect for their private
religious beliefs, it's goingto need a miracle bigger than any
messiah even Jesus could give.
And it also shows the contemptMaybe I think that the INTO have
(14:34):
for their members that don'tgo with the flow and accept, I think,
and I suppose I'm going againto a third round in April.
I think the INTO are probablyquite happy with the patronage system.
They seem to be.
Their question even wouldsuggest that, that they would like
to see the continuation ofpatron bodies.
You know, would.
Would we rather have secularreligious patrons?
(14:55):
We.
They don't ask the question ofshould we have patrons at all.
I think privately, I don'tthink they think this is all a big
deal and this is just a stormin a teacup.
And I do remember actuallywhen I got a call from the INTO after
I was.
After I was racially abusedonline when people cared about that
kind of thing, I had a callfrom a member, from a person who
(15:15):
was very high level in theinto and I congratulated them at
the time because at the timethey had decided to do so.
An act of rebellion, I wouldsay, which was to raise the pride
flag in schools, even oneswith religious ethos.
And I congratulated them atthe time because the person involved
was heavily involved in that.
And when I congratulated them,I thought it was interesting.
(15:35):
They said, look, you know, itwas an easy, it was an easy victory.
We measured the temperaturereally of the time and it was like
nobody really minded.
I noticed this year there wasvery little publication of raising
the pride flag in schools.
I don't know if they raisedthe pride flag at all in any of the
(15:55):
primary schools because now itisn't as easy as it was.
And it was very notable that Ididn't see the pride flag being proudly
waived this year in June bythe into.
Anyhow, as I said, easyvictories is where they're at.
And I think the INTO are justgoing to wait until other people
do all the work and they'llsweep in and say, look what we've
(16:17):
been doing anyway.
However, one chink of brightlight was that 13 years after the
forum of patronage andpluralism, the first ever Catholic
school divested to educate together.
Now, you may not have heardthat correctly.
13 years later.
(16:38):
Yes, years after the forum ofpatronage and pluralism, I think
I might have found a betterdefinition for the word quantum.
Let's move to May.
May was all about the moneyand it's all about the dum dum decisions
(16:59):
made by the Department ofEducation, who decided in the midst
of rumors of a generalelection that they would cut funding
to the school book grant,reducing it by 17%.
The ancillary grant and to thesummer program, which is now half
of what it was two years before.
And as the Minister forEducation continued her two chief
(17:20):
crusades.
Firstly, to blame schools forparents having to buy their children
mobile phones, and secondly,to reduce the entire primary education
system to a cheap childminding service for working parents
in inverted commas, which Ihave no doubt are both the brainchild
of her appointed advisor, aschool in Dublin that ran out of
classrooms and had totherefore close an after school child
(17:41):
minding service that was inone of their classrooms was met with
mass protests and a petitionof over 1000 signatures.
And I found that reallyinteresting that I was looking at
the same time when I waslooking at this.
I also looked for petitionsfrom the same parents or any parents
protesting the cuts to theschool book grants, the ancillary
(18:03):
grants and the summer program.
But funny enough, I couldn'tfind a single petition from those
working parents for those cutsto basic services to education.
Let's move to the end of theschool year.
It's June, and as the worldseemed to be falling apart with war,
you probably may have wonderedif I was going to mention any of
(18:27):
the terrible conflictshappening around the world.
Whether that was Iran, Yemen,Syria, South Sudan, the Russia war
in Ukraine or Israel in Gaza.
And given my own background,and given that President Michael
D.
Higgins claimed there was noanti Semitism in Ireland, and given
(18:49):
that the day before I had justreceived a torrent of images featuring
stereotypical beasts withlarge hooked noses and people telling
me to get out of Ireland andgo and kill some Palestinian children,
I felt that despite notfeeling very safe doing, but also
realizing how stupid thatsounds when there are so many Palestinians
(19:10):
out there and who are feelingmuch, much less safe than my stupid
feelings.
As someone who was brought upin the Jewish faith, I was always
taught the bad things happenwhen good people do nothing.
And it was the only way.
I remember being told toexplain why the Holocaust happened
(19:30):
in all the way from the 1930s,all the way before the Holocaust
itself, during the Holocaust,and why it came to a point where
6 million Jewish people werekilled and several other million
minorities were murdered, andhow that was justified.
And I have spent the lastnumber of years trying to understand
(19:53):
how the Israelites that I grewup with, one under Yitzhak Rabin,
could move from a place wherethere was relative peace and a plan
for a solution, possibly a twostate solution, to one where the
Israeli government hasessentially lost any form of humanity.
I tried my best to articulatemy thoughts on the situation in Gaza
(20:16):
and try to explain why.
Ultimately, I believe that thereason for the rise in antisemitism
that I have faced in Irelandin the last number of months is a
direct result of the Israeligovernment justifying their murder
of innocent people in my name.
And while the majority ofIrish people are able to differentiate
between Judaism and Zionism oreven being Israeli at all, I'm not
(20:41):
foolish enough like Michael D.
Higgins to believe thatantisemitism doesn't exist.
It's why I was very uneasyabout Michael D.
Higgins saying that.
And while I absolutely agreewith him that criticisms of Israel
are not anti Semitic, to saythat Irish people are not anti Semitic
is highly problematic,especially working in the education
(21:04):
system, which I have arguedfor so many years, is covertly racist.
In the same way, I don'tbelieve Irish people are generally
xenophobic, despite thewidespread protests outside those
accommodation centers formigrants that I spoke about in January.
Or in the same way I don'tbelieve that Irish people are generally
homophobic.
Despite the protests in thelibraries, I acknowledge there is
(21:26):
a growth in xenophobia,homophobia, racism, and anti Semitism
and Islamophobia.
They are all happening beforeour very eyes.
And to say that none of it ishappening is deeply dangerous.
Because as days and days go onin 2024, the rise in discrimination
(21:47):
in terms of, and I supposewhat we can call prejudice, is growing
all the time.
And this in an educationsetting where discrimination, blatant
discrimination happens andlegally discrimination happens every
single day, whether it'ssingle sex schools who discriminate
by design on gender, whereas96% of schools discriminate on a
(22:09):
daily basis on the foundationof religion.
It's just to say things likethat is dangerous.
And I suppose in the end of myarticle that I wrote about, and it
was the first article I wroteabout Israel and maybe I should have
(22:29):
written it earlier.
I, I guess I was probably alittle bit reluctant to write anything
given my background and giventhat I'm one of the only people in
the system from minority background.
And I suppose there are much,much more thoughtful and intelligent
people out there.
In fact, I'm not a thoughtful,intelligent person on the, and I
don't know very much about,about the intricacies and the complexities
(22:53):
of the situations.
No more so than anybody elsemight be, but I am, I guess I also,
at a human level, am disgustedby the atrocities that are happening
in Gaza and it needs to stop.
So at the end of the article Ilisted much more thoughtful and intelligent
articles and lessons thatteachers could possibly use if the
(23:13):
subject of Israel and Gaza orwar in general came up.
Which kind of leads me to anunrelated issue that I explored near
the end of the school year in June.
We have a wonderful array ofthoughtful and intelligent teachers
in Ireland who do talk aboutthe education system in Ireland.
And I have to say, as the astime went on, I find it a little
(23:37):
irksome that when that in themedia, one of the only teachers that's
features in the media has toexpress herself in a column called
the Secret Teacher.
I think it's a very strangeand weird thing that if the most
(23:59):
prominent teacher in the mediais not able to express herself without
being in secret, that we havea massive problem in the education
system that you cannot expressyourself outside of the shadows.
And furthermore, when themedia believe that the most influential
(24:20):
figure in Irish education, asthe Irish Times put it, is not even
Irish.
And I'm not saying that in anationalist sense, but isn't even
an educationalist, it'sactually a German statistician.
And we look at Singapore andEstonia to find out how to do education
properly.
It can be easy to see howdisillusionment can creep in when
(24:42):
you work in the educationsystem and you care about the education
system and you see the smalllittle nuances of the education system
and you understand why theeducation system is the way it is.
And that as much as we canlearn from Singapore and Estonia
and we should learn fromSingapore and Estonia and Finland
(25:02):
and all and even our Germans,that our education system needs to
be analyzed by people withinit and the media need to stop looking.
They can look beyond, but theyalso look have to look within to
find what's going on.
And we shouldn't have to dothat in secret.
I guess things could be worsethough in Ireland as we come to the
(25:26):
end of our first six months.
As you probably can see, not alot of educational things have happened
yet in 2024.
And as I'm talking it through,I'm wondering, gosh, will something
educational happen?
But I guess we might thinkabout that in our next episode.
(25:49):
And I guess this might sound abit depressing as an episode, but
I guess it could be worsebecause I was reading in June that
Louisiana teachers in Americamay be forced to teach the Ten Commandments
as fact.
And I also saw there was aBritish head teacher, a principal
who was in the media becausehe had to double job as a caretaker
(26:10):
because there was not enoughmoney to pay the bills.
And I just thought at leastnothing like that could happen here.
Oh wait, I hope you enjoyedlistening to the first six months
of my review of the the year 2024.
I'll be back in a few dayswith the rest of the year and we'll
(26:32):
see if anything educationalhappens, or if we're still going
to be talking about thingsthat aren't really educational at
all.
I wouldn't hold my breath ifyou've enjoyed this episode, please
come back to me in a few daysand we'll find out what happens from
July to December, and we'llsee what my conclusions are from
the year 2024.
Thanks so much for listening.
All the very best.
(26:53):
Bye.
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