A Lifetime of Learning
Introduction
1.) Our objective is to become one of the most skilled nations in the world with relevant skills and knowledge distributed throughout the community. Expenditure on education is a crucial investment. It must include early educational intervention, and facilitate lifelong learning.
2.) Lifelong learning is a central theme of our message. On the one hand, a rapidly changing economy demands economic flexibility. On the other, people have a right to a reasonable level of income security for themselves and their families. Achieving both will be the key measure of social and economic success.
3.) In the future, the market place will change more rapidly than in the past. There will be a lot of well-remunerated work. However, the notion of the permanent job will greatly diminish in importance.
4.) The aim will be, through continuous opportunities for learning and for appropriate training, and through modifying where necessary social and economic structures, to ensure that all citizens are enabled to be in a position that they are capable of being employed throughout their lifetimes.
5.) Thousands of jobs are disappearing every year in Ireland, while more are being created. Specific steps will be essential to ensure that those whose jobs become redundant are given a real and better chance of moving into more of the newly created jobs.
6.) As we approach the 21st century, the world is in the early stages of a revolution as profound and all-pervasive as the industrial revolution of the last century. Ireland fell on the wrong side of the industrial revolution. The consequences over the subsequent century and a half were devastating.
7.) Because this time we have greater control over our national destiny, it is within our abilities to ensure that this time, the information revolution does not leave us behind.
8.) The new age promises the ability to liberate people from drudgery, to organise our society with collegial and co-operative networks and fewer command-and-control hierarchies. It also offers at least some possible solutions to the overuse of the planet’s natural resources. However, there are also real dangers: every period of rapid change threatens social and economic upheaval, with consequent marginalisation for some.
Strategy for the Information Age
9.) A good start has been made to preparing a co-ordinated national strategy for managing this enormous change with the actions announced following the report of the Government’s Information Society Steering Committee.
10.) Building on the momentum now created, Labour’s objective is to ensure that our national strategy includes the following points.
11.) The education system will play the most critical role of all in equipping the country for the Information Age. Labour in Government has already launched the Schools Information Technology 2000 Programme and related initiatives, which will cost £30m, to help toward achieving a quantum leap in IT provision for schools.
12.) We will follow this by setting a target date, in agreement with the parties concerned, by which all teachers in the country are equipped with both the skills and equipment to use the Internet and other new technologies as a resource in teaching their subjects.
13.) We will also set a goal of achieving universal IT literacy, which is becoming as essential to participating fully in the labour market as literacy itself.
14.) In the Information Age citizens will find it necessary to think even more for themselves. They will not wish to be closely supervised. They will want to use their own initiative to get things done, and be able to make connections between seemingly unrelated issues.
15.) We will take steps to ensure that our education system develops these abilities even more strongly in future.
16.) Labour will investigate ways in which social cohesion can be enhanced by ensuring access to Information Technology for those in the community who would otherwise miss out on the IT revolution. In addition, Labour aims to install Internet connections in public libraries.
17.) Voluntary and community groups should be given particular assistance in acquiring and learning to use information technology and communications.
18.) We will take advantage of the Freedom of Information legislation which Labour has promoted to open up access to all forms of government publications, statistics, and other information to citizens over the network.
19.) We will set targets for all public services to be made available over the electronic network. For example, welfare payments could be distributed through cash machines, tax returns could be sent electronically, planning applications could similarly be processed of the network. This would have two major benefits. On the one hand it would provide citizens with better quality and more convenient services, and on the other it would provide a powerful stimulus for the development of a sophisticated national market for advanced services.
20.) This in turn would provide a richer environment for the development of successful IT-related companies, in what is rapidly becoming the most powerful industrial sector in the world economy for the foreseeable future.
21.) We also aim to establish a national network infrastructure with broadband links to every school and library in the country, with interactive video capability at every location, and with support for local skills training in using the technology. Every community must have access to the new age of information.
22.) We also support the promotion of major flagship development and demonstration projects such s digital industrial parts and Telecom Eireann’s Information Age Town.
23.) And we aim to encourage the growth of volume in network communications by moving towards the lowest possible price levels, with adequate measures for re-training people displaced by these developments, to equip them for new job opportunities.
24.) We will set up a specific programme office to co-ordinate projects and monitor progress against targets.
Equality and Partnership
25.) Labour believes that equality begins at the very earliest stage of education – that’s why we have begun, and will continue to support, the Early Start PreSchool Programme, the Breaking the Cycle Primary School Programme, lower class sizes in primary schools, and renewing the curriculum at primary level.
26.) Real education must involve parents as full partners and we are putting in place the structures to ensure this. The aim is partnership with parents in the schools, in the parent’s associations, in boards of management and Regional Education Boards, and by involving parents in national policy.
27.) But many adults and parents did not get the chance to benefit from education in the past. The vast majority of our young people now go to the Leaving Certificate and beyond. This is not true of many of their parents. We must seize the opportunity to allow adults to return to education, to build their skills, to encourage them to participate fully in our confident society both at work and in leisure.
28.) Labour will ensure that suitable and effective programmes are in place for all who wish to overcome literacy and numeracy problems and who wish to continue learning throughout their lives.
29.) Adult education, provided through various agencies, including the development of open and distance learning opportunities, will promote lifelong learning and continuous re-training.
30.) We aim to help adults gain access to courses in mainstream second level and third level education. There should be increased co-operation between providers and employers, and targeting of adults who have special needs – including the long-term unemployed and those with literacy and numeracy problems.
31.) Existing measures such as the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) and the Adult Literacy Community Education Scheme will be enhanced.
32.) Lifelong learning means that people are actively engaged in their education and this can only happen if all citizens and all partners in education know their rights, their roles and their responsibilities. That’s why we believe that education should be supported by a legal framework for the first time in the history of our state.
33.) This helps us focus on equality – equality for all our citizens in benefiting from education. It brings us into the mainstream of practice in Europe – a Europe with which our successful young people increasingly identify.
34.) The new framework will promote a genuine pluralism – a pluralism where programmes and courses are geared to each learner’s needs, a pluralism where diversity and different school types and traditions are encouraged and welcomed, a pluralism where each citizen in our society knows that they have a right to education and it is a right which they are encouraged to take up.
35.) Forty percent of our population are under 25 years old. We owe these young people the best of education. We owe it especially to those who may be excluded. Education is not just about skills. We build our economic success on education. We build a more equal society on education. We build concern for the environment on education. And through education for citizenship, we encourage each person to become involved in their own community.
36.) Education is central to building a society which works to remove fear; the fear of elderly people about crime, the fear of disadvantaged people about a hopeless future.
37.) Labour proposes to build on the partnership which has been outlined in Niamh Bhreathnach’s White Paper on Education and which has been embodied in the Education Bill and the Universities Act.
38.) In particular, we will establish ways by which parents, teachers, school patrons and others interested in education will have access to the planning of education, will have their voices heard and will be consulted as decisions are made.
In the Regions
39.) The aim is to empower communities to plan for education in each region through the Education Boards. The education boards will be representative of all the partners in education. They will plan education in their region and consult widely on the education plan for the region. The draft plan will be advertised on local media, in the papers, and on local radio.
40.) The education board will set up formal mechanisms for consultation with each community in the region on how the education plan affects them. And when the plan is finalised, it will be available in every school, in every public library and will be on sale at an affordable price.
41.) Every year the plan will be reviewed, every year there will be a report, and every year there will be information freely available to the public on how the investment in education is being used in their region.
42.) This will be a staggering change in the way education is planned at the moment. The education system is often criticised for being secretive, slow and unresponsive. The education boards, with their democratic structure, will transform this to an open accountable process where each person has access to information on how decisions are made.
At National Level
43.) These democratic structures at regional level will bring decisions to the regions and leave national policy making to the Minister and Department of Education. Examples of such policy areas are fairness in funding of all schools, curriculum content, and planning for the information society. But here also, democracy demands that those who are affected by education policy have a hand in shaping it.
44.) Labour will involve the partners in education in the strategic planning work of the Department of Education through consultative committees. And when decisions are made, they will be openly published by laying of regulations before the Oireachtas so that policy is clearly known and publicly debated.
45.) We will focus on quality education for all students and on returning to education throughout their lives for adults, especially adults who did not benefit from the education system in the past.
Investment in Education
46.) Funding of education is an investment – an investment in our country’s prosperity and in our people’s future. Our economic success and buoyancy gives us a unique opportunity to enhance the quality and quantity of our investment in education. Labour pledges a high priority to funding education.
47.) In particular, Labour proposes to steadily raise the investment in targeted programmes such as Early Start, Breaking the Cycle and general interventions in primary and pre-primary education.
At Pre-School
48.) With parents, Labour plans to build on the success of the Early Stan PreSchool Programme established by Niamh Bhreathnach in designated disadvantaged areas. We will use the advice of the Expert Monitoring Committee to plan expansion of this Programme in consultation with the education partners.
At Primary Level
49.) Labour’s aim is to retain teachers in the system who would otherwise be lost due to the falling number of primary pupils. We are committed to targeting investment where it is needed most:
50.) We aim to strengthen and expand the Breaking the Cycle initiative in disadvantaged areas, in the context of the advice of the Combat Poverty Agency. No class size should be greater than 15 students to 1 teacher to ensure that extra support necessary for students in such areas. Working with parents is an essential part of this programme.
51.) Labour will continue to improve funding for school books for students in need.
52.) We will expand the remedial teaching service to ensure that all pupils have access to a remedial service. We will explore new models of remedial teaching to cater for small schools in rural areas.
53.) Labour established a Psychological Service in primary schools. A comprehensive service, ensuring that every vulnerable student is followed up, requires integration between primary and second level.
54.) Using the demographic dividend as the major funding mechanism, we will fund the creation of a comprehensive, integrated service at both levels. We will provide one psychologist for every 5,000 students.
55.) Our aim is to ensure that there are no students with serious literacy and numeracy problems in early primary education within the next five years.
56.) Labour’s aim is to improve the pupil / teacher ratio in special schools and in special classes in primary schools. We will increase the number of child care assistants to meet the needs of these pupils.
57.) We will provide extra resources to assist special schools and classes to develop links and integration with mainstream schools, especially in areas such as visits, shared time-tabling and integration links.
58.) Each pupil in our primary schools should be assessed by their teachers at the end of first and fifth class in order to identify any special learning needs that may arise. This is an addition to the ordinary assessment which takes place in the school. Assessment data for each student will be recorded on standard student profile cards. The increased psychological and remedial services will assist in the assessment and in addressing any needs which then arise.
59.) Labour is firmly committed to general improvements in primary education. Over the past five years funding for the day to day running of primary schools have increased from £28 per pupil to £45 per pupil and to £75 per pupil in schools designated disadvantaged.
60.) We intend to continue to increase this essential funding for our schools in future years.
61.) Labour will promote choice of school type in primary education at a time when numbers are falling; in particular we will activate the provision that Education Boards may own new school buildings and lease them to different groups of patrons and trustees in order to provide for the educational needs of each region.
At Second Level
62.) Retaining young people in education to the end of senior cycle is a major priority. Our aim is to ensure that 100% of our young people complete second level education.
63.) To support this we will continue to develop the transition year and the new three stream Leaving Certificate, with continual substantial funding for teacher in-career development. Students will be encouraged to follow courses of the highest level indicated by their capacity.
64.) Co-operation among schools will be promoted through the education boards so that each region and each town may offer a full range of the second level schools, one school may offer the Leaving Certificate Vocational programme, another the Leaving Certificate Applied, another the Junior Certificate Elementary programme so that there will be a wide range of choices available in each town to young people. The co-ordination role of the education boards will facilitate this co-operation.
65.) Labour will strengthen the Junior Certificate Elementary Programme and general Junior Certificate Programmes to ensure that no young person drops out of school without qualifications.
66.) We will increase and focus Youthreach places for those who have already left school early. We will ensure that there are enough Youthreach places for all young people who need them and will provide outreach programmes to encourage such young people back into education and employment.
67.) Labour will ensure that each student at second level will have access to the study of a modern European language. We will give special incentives to second level schools to introduce a range of European languages. We will provide specific dedicated funding to in-career development for language teachers and for materials and equipment needed for language teaching.
68.) Recognising that an adequate guidance and counselling service is vital to assist young people to stay in education, Labour will strengthen the guidance provision in our schools in co-operation with the National Centre for Guidance in Education.
69.) We will strengthen the provision of remedial education at second level to provide a continuity of assistance for pupils with learning difficulties from primary to second level schools.
70.) We will encourage the mobility of teachers and students, contact between schools and distance education through the Socrates Programme. We will further expand the European Studies project and North Sough co-operation in education.
71.) We will implement the report of the Steering Group on the funding of schools, so that fair and open common criteria and entitlements will apply to funding of schools in the second level sector.
At Third Level
72.) Labour will increase the number of third level places, with special emphasis on the skills needs of the economy.
73.) The Higher Education Authority and third level institutions will develop links with second level schools so that students from lower socio-economic groups will increase their participation numbers over the next five years.
74.) Our target is to achieve an annual increase in participation of at least 500 students from these groups.
75.) The Higher Education maintenance grants will be extended to students attending PLCs.
76.) Labour proposes to increase maintenance grants at a faster rate than inflation and introduce a special maintenance scheme so that students from lower socio- economic groups will be supported in third level education.
77.) We will extend the remit of the Higher Education Authority to all publicly funded third level colleges.
78.) We will prepare legislation to regulate private commercial colleges whose courses are elegible for State certification, and to guarantee the academic integrity and quality of their courses. We will also prescribe standards for staff qualifications, support services and facilities and protection for the financial investment of students and their parents.
General
Buildings
79.) The elimination of sub-standard schools is a major policy objective. The backlog of projects will be eliminated within five years.
Teaching Profession
80.) Labour will continue to invest at current levels in in-career education of teachers to meet the challenges of new curricula.
81.) We will establish a teacher welfare service to support teachers who are experiencing a range of difficulties within and outside the schools. We will establish a teaching council for all teachers.
Vocational Education Committees
82.) We will work with Vocational Education Committees to strengthen the vocational sector based on the report of the Commission on School Accommodation Needs.
The Inspetorate
83.) Inspectors will support schools in their planning and school inspections will be based on these plans. We will increase the numbers of the inspectorate by 50% on a phased basis mainly by secondment of teachers with recognised competence and commitment to the Inspectorate for specific periods.
Conclusion
84.) Labour’s proposals for lifelong learning and for the evolution of the formal education system are closely linked to our other objectives in this manifesto – the drive for more equality, for social cohesion, for sustained economic development, for the building of a just and caring society.
