Education must be well funded
IRELAND does not fare well in an OECD report on how member countries spend taxpayers' money on educating their young. We have been ranked 30th out of 33 nations based on the amount of the country's wealth invested in education.
The fact that comparisons are based on Gross Domestic Product and that we fare rather better when the more realistic National Domestic Product is used as a base is not particularly reassuring. Nor is the fact that the findings are three years old.
Both national and secondary teachers' organisations have stated that the OECD's report 'Education at a Glance', is evidence of a failure of government policy, with the TUI going so far as to call for the national training authority FAS to be scrapped and its resources diverted to the education sector.
"An outmoded, irrelevant and hugely expensive quango", is how the TUI described it.
At a time when the Government is seeking savings in the economy's biggest spending sectors, health, social welfare and education, there is a risk that sheer lack of thought could aggravate already poor performances in any, or all, of those frontline areas.
The way in which scarce resources are allocated increases in importance as the resources diminish. Especially in a country struggling to maintain its economic integrity, a battle that grows more grim and desperate by the day.
Spending on education in Ireland increased by more than 50pc in the 10 years to 2005. Back then, we came top of the OECD league table, even if the increase came from a very low base. Now we have sunk close to the bottom of that table. Only the Czech Republic, Italy and Slovakia rank lower.
As the secondary school teachers have often said, the level of investment in education is deeply depressing.
The Government has its problems. The country has its problems. But if Ireland is to recover its competitive edge in Europe, and the world, the recession must not be allowed to smother the knowledge economy.
It is just another test of the Government's resolve and its true confidence in the nation's future. Often, even in a classroom, an individual's best work is done under adverse circumstances.
So it may be in the life of a country.
Irish Independent
