Jennifer Horgan: There is a valid hierarchy of needs in education that is being ignored

The class of 2024 inspired us so much over the last two years and long before. They made us laugh every day, and they floored us with their patience, their wisdom, and their kindness. They will go on to do great things, every one of them, whatever their results.

Once we’ve congratulated them, every other teacher will head off to prepare for their first week back. Not me — for the first time in nearly 20 years (excluding maternity leaves) there will be no ‘back to school’ for me this September.

I’ve decided to take a career break for a year. A ‘gap yah,’ if you will, aged 44, one that will be less about finding myself in Bali (in the arms of a dangerously handsome man perhaps) and a little more about taking a professional break from teaching. I need a break so I can return to my classroom in 2025, with a clearer vision and a clearer conscience too.

Since returning to Ireland in 2018, I’ve been vocal about my sadness over elements of our system and sadly, little has changed. In 2021, I released the book, ‘O Captain, My Captain’: One Teacher’s Hope for Change in the Irish Education System. I’ve spoken extensively about education since, across newspapers, on air and television, about the wrongs we need to right to provide all children with an equal start in life.

But more and more, over the last few years — and this is where my conscience clouds over — I have found myself discussing issues that matter little when placed in the bigger context of the system. I’ve found myself in conversations about school uniforms and homework — worthwhile topics, but not crucial ones.

We are all guilty of it. We have all, myself included, allowed ourselves to get caught up in this game of distraction. We often debate things such as mobile phone policies, homework, and single-sex schooling, but all of these can be changed at local level. In fact, they can only be changed at local level, signed off by school boards of management.

In every other sector, be it health or finance, our national conversations address national issues, but we treat education differently. Health experts discuss health. Parents (with opinions) discuss education. Imagine debating the significance of hospital uniforms during a trolley crisis on air — it would be obscene. Yet that’s where we’re at in education.

Many children, far too many children, lack basic support in schools. Whether it’s a lack of learning support and assistance, poor facilities, the recruitment crisis, or an absence of appropriate therapy beyond school, children are regularly denied access to the curriculum — while we busy ourselves discussing minor issues which have no impact on education outcomes at all.

People may cry ‘whataboutery’ at me but there is a valid hierarchy of needs in education. The free school meal scheme, for example, being expanded to include all primary schools by 2030, is a lovely and worthwhile development, but shouldn’t we first ensure that all children have access to education? Or that all schools can afford to heat the ovens they need to run the scheme? Should we not let principals of schools tell us what they most urgently need, before offering middle-class children a meal they might not want or need? Of course, we should.

Autism campaigner Cara Darmody wrote in the Irish Examiner last week that “there are over 20,000 children on HSE waiting lists for various types of assessments and services and that the waiting lists are only getting worse”.

There are only three times that number, on estimate, receiving their Leaving Cert results today. The media attention on that will be considerable. The Department of Education has already released details of a Leaving Certificate Freephone Helpline. Where is the helpline and the national focus on the 20,000 children mentioned by Cara Darmody, the most vulnerable children, still waiting? Cara Darmody referenced the “larger national picture” in her piece because, at the age of 13, she understands what matters most in health and education — equality and inclusion.

Sadly, there is a vital link missing. We ignore what teachers and principals on the ground are telling us and so, what they are telling us fails to affect voters, election campaigns, and budgets.

In June, a group of impassioned and frustrated primary school principals, one from every county, made their way to Leinster House, pleading for extra supports to run their schools and to cater for children with additional needs. They asked for a change to the current allocation model. These professionals are the experts who see the reality of poor policy and even poorer funding, every single day.

Angela Dunne is a member of the group, which was formed to bring about timely positive change and tackle what Dunne refers to as “chronic underfunding” in the sector. She says three successive ministers of education have refused to meet with them.

Our political leaders don’t respect teachers as experts, so they don’t respond appropriately to their pleas for help. Respecting and listening to teachers is vital for our children to thrive because they are the single biggest influence in education.

In his research, John Hattie, a globally renowned education expert, synthesised the results of over 1,000 meta-studies on more than a quarter of a billion students to determine the effect that different factors have on learning outcomes.

The teacher matters most, how teachers feel and think about teaching and learning. So, how we make teachers feel directly impacts our children. A child can have a uniform or not, be in a single-sex environment or not, work on an iPad or not; they could be sitting wearing a tutu or a toga, sitting on a beanbag or a wooden stool, but they can get an excellent education if they have a teacher who is trained, supported, respected and treated like the professional they are.

Teachers and principals are telling us that children need more support. They are saying that they, in turn, need more support. Too many of them are choosing to leave the country or the profession.

Sadly, if the average voter is happy enough with their own child’s school, education gets pushed to the bottom of the national priority list. The budget will come out in six weeks, possibly with random once-off payments to taxpayers, even when vulnerable children are left without adequate care in our system.

And we will all go back to debating school uniforms and homework.

If we want to get out of this loop, perpetuated by us all, ensnaring people in the media like me, radio producers, policymakers, and politicians, we need to do one very important thing — we need to respect teachers and listen to what they care about most when they discuss their students. We need to make equality in education a serious priority, alongside health and housing.

How often have I heard that Tim Waltz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, was once a high school teacher? How many articles are out there from his former students lauding his passionate teaching style? Apparently, this means something to American voters. Teachers are poorly treated and abysmally paid in the States, and yet the fact of being a teacher is somehow a badge of honour in their political campaigns? It’s fascinating — that dissonance.

It’s enough to make any teacher feel disheartened. It’s enough to make this teacher, at least for a short time, walk away.