Revolting students
It was refreshing to see the enthusiasm with which secondary school students took to the streets this week.
In cities and towns throughout the 26 Counties, they made their voices heard and protested for their right to an education. They made banners, shouted chants, caused mayhem for the Gardaí and yesterday held their first meeting with a view to organising a secondary students' union.
It's just a pity that all this had to emerge from something as depressing as the teachers' strike. It's a pity also that some of the secondary students' representatives, speaking on the radio this week, seemed to pin the blame on teachers rather than the Dublin government, for the disruption to their education.
What will cause difficulties when this dispute ends is the demonisation of teachers that has been whipped up by the Dublin government. They have been depicted as greedy, unreasonable and unperturbed by the disruption of classes for students. This depiction is wrong. It is something that teachers will not forget.
Teachers have been protesting because they are under-resourced and under-appreciated. They, like others, have been subject to the impossible uniformity and deficiencies of the Programme for Prosperity and fairness and are aware that a failure to secure proper terms and conditions for themselves will result in a deteriorating situation for students.
While Bertie Ahern and the mass media have talked as if the teachers have committed the ultimate act of treachery in holding a strike, the reality is that they were remaining loyal to their principles - and their students. The 26 Counties has a huge early drop-out rate of secondary students, a terrible record of educating in disadvantaged areas and persistent literacy problems aomgst people of all ages. If this is to be combated, teachers need to be resourced, they need to be appreciated and, they last thing they need to be is demonised.
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