In Ireland, we make a big issue about our education system and rightly so. It’s probably on a par, if not better, than any system in the world. Walking past any school in the country and hearing the sound of exuberant, excited, fun filled and carefree children, it would gladden the heart of any person. If you stand in any small town or village in the country and listen intently, you can tell when it’s small break time, lunch time or heading home time, by the chorus of little voices. Every morning, I take a moment or two, to watch our own child as he heads in to school. He skips in to meet his friends, work on a new project, have fun and enjoy “the best days of his life”. Children are like sponges, as they soak up all the information and they love to learn.
Regrettably, our education system hasn’t always been as welcoming to tiny minds. Most of the failures in the system have been well documented by now and if I’m being honest, it could quite feasibly belong in a Stephen King horror novel. Thankfully, that stuff is in the past and a school classroom now, is a much happier place than it was for some of the previous generations.
A few weeks ago, I attended an event. It was based on training and education opportunities for adults. There was a broad selection of people there and if I can steal a quote from a good friend that writes in another field. “Some are supposed to be at work, others are supposed to be out looking for work. The most shy have wives who think they are at work”. However, one man spoke and seldom in my life have I been so rooted to my seat, listening to his story.
At school, he sat at the back of the classroom. He was considered to be “too stupid” to learn anything. (It was hard to type that, as I would consider it deeply offensive to think of any child being classed as stupid). He slept most of the time and was actually encouraged to do same. Day in, day out, this was his school life, cast aside, and ignored, the butt of the classroom jokes. He left school, totally unable to read or write and did his best to make a life for himself. He explained that it was such a hindrance and doing even the simplest things were a mammoth task. You wouldn’t be a human being if you didn’t feel a few tears welling up, listening to him. As a parent, I couldn’t help but picture our child in a similar situation and thanking god that it will never happen.
I heard a story recently of a child that attended school. He was considered incapable of picking up the nuggets of wisdom that the “teacher” gave them (I can’t type that word again). He was actually sent out to look after farm animals, ironically owned by the same teacher. Disgusting and sickening in my opinion.
I heard the story of a child that got a Valentine card, which he placed inside his desk at school. He was off school for a few days and another child found it. Children being children, he showed it to the teacher, who took great delight in making fun of him in front of the class when he returned a few days later.
It’s actually a bit disgusting and unsettling to think that these people were put in charge of a classroom, filled with small children, who only wanted to learn. As my granddad used to say, “The good old days? There was f*ck all good about them”
I also spoke to a man recently who has reading and writing difficulties. He explained the embarrassment of going out to dinner with friends and being unable to read the menu. Going into a bookmaker and being unable to read the form, or whatever you do in a bookmaker. Your doorbell rings and it’s a local school child asking for a few quid sponsorship. You give them a fiver and they give you their card to sign, but you can’t write.
Thankfully, all the people whose stories I have spoken about were able to find help through the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA).
As a parent, I feel so happy that our child lives in a world far removed from that described above. However, as a human being, I feel so saddened to think of children being ridiculed, poisoned towards education, taken advantage of and the ultimate insult, being told that they were stupid.
With all this on my mind, I started a little research and was stunned with what I found.
In 2013, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) carried out a survey in 24 countries. The CSO (Central Statistics Office), interviewed 6000 people, in Ireland, aged between 16 and 65. They assessed their literacy, numeracy and ability to use technology to solve problems and accomplish tasks. They found that 18%, or 1 in every 6 people are at below level 1, on a five level literacy scale. Of the 24 participating countries, Ireland is ranked at 15. (Source: NALA Oct 8th 2013)
So, here we are, a modern, well developed country and we can’t even make the top 50% in the survey. It was time to start digging a little more.
A Google search brought me to the ETB (Education and Training Board) website. Then, even more importantly, a good friend’s name popped up. He’s at the coalface in adult literacy, having achieved a Post Grad in the area. So, if anybody can answer a few questions, it’s him. We worked together for some time, many moons ago and then lost touch a little. Every now and then we might meet each other, normally on the street or in the supermarket, we exchange a few words and we go our separate ways. A quick FB message and he agrees to meet me for a coffee.
“That’s what happens when you change from a society to an economy”, he explains and instantly gives me a title for this article.
He tells me of a time when all a working person wanted, was enough to keep a roof over their heads, their family fed and their bills paid. In the event of a few pound being left over, a few pints on a Saturday night, was good, a holiday once a year, was brilliant. People worked hard, very hard in fact. Every town and city in the country had the reliable or the “good” employers. We had loads of them in Tipperary, ranging from factories, to builders, to farmers. You’d always pick up a bit of work somewhere and nobody would starve. The grapevine was a great place, as everybody knew somebody looking for someone.
During the so called Celtic Tiger (another ridiculous term – it was lunacy), we had jobs coming out our ears. We even needed to recruit workers from other countries to do the jobs as we hadn’t enough workers of our own. Huge multi-nationals set up their European bases in Ireland, bringing with them, high end, tech jobs. The cynical among us may wonder how committed to Ireland they really are. Are we all that important to them or is it our very low corporation tax levels. No doubt the upcoming Brexit and an American economy that turns more inward by the day will show their commitment to us sooner than later. Some of these companies had the equivalent of a small town or village as their campus. Town infrastructure and planning laws were changed to facilitate their every whim, as we showed the rest of the world how it should be done. I often think of the song “Hard Times”, when I look back at it, as they would “come again no more”.
However, the hard times did come again, with a vengeance. Boom was followed by bust and soon, we had a “young educated, well skilled” workforce, without jobs. The worst part of the bust for me, was the amount of indigenous Irish industry that was decimated. Small local employers, trading for generations were wiped out by a dysfunctional banking system and an uncaring government. State agencies did all they could, to attract new industry, succeeding in some cases. Thousands of young, highly skilled, well educated people saw emigration as their only option and Ireland’s loss was Australia, America and Canada’s gain.
As for the unskilled workers, not a mention, nothing. We were now an economy, our society was well gone. Crippling bank debt placed onto the shoulders of citizens made the transition complete. The staple jobs, the jobs that families relied on for generations were a thing of the past. Health and Safety legislation helped to compound the issue, further alienating workers. Anybody that wanted to push a wheelbarrow on a building site for example, needed a list of papers, the equivalent of the Encyclopaedia Britannica to “get a start”. Once upon a time, a person would get a job with a local farmer during harvest time driving a tractor. A modern tractor needs the IT skills of a young Bill Gates just to start the damn thing. If you were young, in your prime and a bit technological, you had a chance, anything else; your options were limited, extremely limited.
So, in a few short paragraphs, we have a snapshot of Ireland and how our education system, greed, a lack of foresight and pure simple ineptitude, came back to kick us up the backside. How we ended up with an entire section of our country cast adrift and forgotten about.
So, was there and is there a way out? Thankfully, there is and it’s more readily available than people think. The National Adult Literacy Agency was set up and through the ETB, runs a variety of programmes for people. Beginning with literacy from Levels 1 to 3, the programme continues from levels 4 to 6, which is back to education initiative. Then there are further courses with options of community education and VTOS, which is an option for adults to take their leaving cert equivalent. Then, there are options for further training through apprenticeships etc.
So all is good then right? Well, it’s not quite that easy. One of the biggest problems that an adult will face is themselves. There is an acute embarrassment in actually admitting that you cannot read or write. In the preparation of this piece, I have heard of the people heading to school as “a town’s best kept secret”, where people sneak in every morning, afraid they might be seen. There are also people who have more or less accepted their fate and may not wish to change, as they consider themselves “too old”.
There are nice stories too. I heard of a man that cycles 10 miles and back once a week to learn to read.
So, what does the future hold? The classroom is a much different place nowadays. Children, like our child, run in to school every day. School is a great place, full of happiness and joy, the way school should be.
However, some children are facing problems the rest of us don’t see. There are issues with health, issues at home, there are poverty issues. Due to very busy lives, parents may not think about giving that little bit of extra time to them. One of the biggest concerns I would have in the preparation of this piece are children in emergency accommodation, facing homelessness. Children want to learn, but if they face the classroom every morning with an empty belly, worried about things at home or where they will sleep that night, that learning is interrupted.
My teacher friends will love me for this one as I am continually giving out about homework. However, one of the best things a parent can do is to sit down and read with a child. Take a few minutes to go through their spellings with them. Tell them how good their writing is and how proud we are of them. Children love to do well and they love it when their parents tell them how proud they are.
If, as an adult, you feel alienated, forgotten about or left behind, well that’s just wrong. You have a right to feel just as proud and you have every right to improve your life. I have found many avenues of help while researching and writing this article.
Most importantly though, don’t suffer yourself, don’t be embarrassed. Stand-up, be proud, climb that mountain, you will never look back. We cannot change what happened yesterday, no matter how we try, tomorrow is the future, so there’s no point thinking too much about it. Today is all that matters.
Maybe it’s time we became a society again.
The Unknown Bike Rider 