Check Against Delivery
I’m delighted to be with you this morning. Thank you for inviting me.
At this centenary year AGM you are considering 100 years of leadership.
And indeed some of the most powerful and compelling leadership in that time has been provided by you, and earlier generations of educators.
You do so in keeping with your genesis, the Latin educere,to lead.
In the last eight years you have had to lead, not alone your pupils, but at times families, communities, through what have been awful personal experiences in awful national times.
You saw it every day.
Small children arriving from families where jobs, even homes were lost, parents forced to move, often abroad, to pay the bills and keep the family going.
Yes, every parent tries to keep family stress and worry from the lives of their children.
But as you know better than most, where attachment to a parent is deep, a child knows instinctively when something is changed or wrong, in the home.
Today, I thank you, all of you, for leading and educating our children over the last very difficult years for our country.
Now, that hard work is working.
Just last week at my party’s Ard Fheis, I stood here and spoke to the people of Ireland about our recovery.
Yes, for some the residual effects of the collapse have still not been fully eradicated.
But at long last more people have jobs again and a bit more confidence in the future.
Yes, the recovery is real. And yes, too, the recovery is fragile.
But I repeat now what I said then.
That for the government, the economic recovery, though fought for and essential, was never the end in itself.
For us, the recovery is about making life better for the people of this country. It’s about providing them with strong foundations on which to build a successful, fulfilling future.
Because this is the people’s recovery. And it is because of them and you and your families and your pupils, that we can’t stop now. We have to keep that recovery going.
Because it is the only way to give our children the jobs they will need and enjoy.
Because it is the only way to give them opportunity and equity in their education and in their life.
To reinforce Ireland’s recovery and keep it going we must have a long-term economic plan so it is felt in every community, every family and in every part of our country.
It is a plan based on a strong economy.
Because it is only in a strong economy – stable, secure, growing – that we can continue to create jobs and make work pay.
As you well know education is critical not alone to the strength of the economy and the scope and speed of the recovery. It is equally critical to our psychological wellbeing, to our sense of who we are and wish to become now as a nation.
It is a very particular and valuable form of self awareness and self knowledge.
And I believe every teacher, every parent is very aware that it is the knowledge economy where so many of our children will have opportunity and careers.
If we are to keep our appeal as a top destination for foreign direct investment.
If we are to continue to build on our export led recovery.
If we are to make all efforts to encourage and nurture our entrepreneurial talent.
Then we need a dynamic education system that is able to first find and then release the particular gift, the particular potential of every student.
And as you know every student has their gift, be it academic, artistic, sporting, or as someone who is a mediator, a negotiator, a peace maker, a listener.
And all of this starts at primary school level. And with the leadership of our principals.
I know with you our children are in safe hands, they are held within good hearts.
There are relatively few jobs where people can say ‘every day I can change a life’
But you can, because every day you do.
It’s been a long while since I've been in the classroom, but as a teacher in a small school, I can understand the pressure you face.
When you talk about 'initiative fatigue' I hear you and I accept your views.
But I also believe that no initiative has been implemented without being in the best interests or welfare of pupils’ education, or of better outcomes, or of earlier intervention.
Initiative should not be enervating it should be innovating.
It should not be mandatory; it should be encouraged and demanded by schools themselves.
There are so many young new teachers whose energy and commitment astound parents and raises up the whole community.
And that happens thanks to you and the other experienced teachers on your staff, because you support these young teachers, you enable them, encourage them, mentor them.
It happens because of your leadership.
Leadership that changes schools, learning experience, teaching experience, life experience.
That's why schools should be doing more by themselves.
I want our schools to have more decision making powers, more flexibility in staffing, more say in the needs of their pupils.
Because for me leadership must grow from the bottom up, Not be ‘managed’ or ‘administered’ from the top down.
The way the system works now means to do the best, but doesn’t always manage to do the best for our children or our teachers.
One size does not fit all.
You know what works. You know what fits. You know your children and your classes best.
Which is why schools should have more authority in decision making.
It’s a key way to guarantee confidence in the profession, better methods and higher standards.
With more autonomy, so too comes more accountability.
And here your relationship with parents is critical.
As a parent and a teacher, I’ve been behind the desk and in front of it. I know that parents and teachers are ad idem in their ambitions for the child, that they be successful according to their skills academically, that they reach their potential, that they believe themselves to be valued and valuable members of society.
Therefore parents have a critical role to play in our schools and the educational experience of their children in the classroom.
As school self-evaluation develops our schools and our parents should set the standards they want to reach together.
School Excellence Fund
I know teachers need more time to develop school improvement plans, particularly those of you who are teaching principals, more CPD (and some modules should be mandatory), more flexibility in budgeting.
But what goals are we aiming for? What do we want for our children?
Firstly, in a competitive and ever changing world, I want Ireland to achieve better outcomes in PISA.
Ireland can be a leader on the PISA rankings table. Pupils need to be challenged and motivated by maths and science and be given every opportunity to achieve to their full potential.
To do this, the foundations must be set in primary school.
It is at this crucial point in their young lives that the OECD says countries should invest more resources when outcomes are more malleable and foundations for future success are laid. If we keep the recovery going, this is exactly where we must invest.
Secondly, I want to equip our young pupils with life skills that will guide them as they transition from primary to secondary level and into adulthood. In today’s world, our children need to understand and utilise their resilience, develop decision making and communication skills. As they enter adolescence, it is our responsibility as politicians, school leaders, and parents, to offer them key life skills that will improve school outcomes and that will improve the direction they take in their lives.
If the people choose to re-elect this government, we will establish a new €50m Schools Excellence Fund.
This Fund will reward collaborative approaches by schools and parents to raise school outcomes through the teaching of maths, science and technology, key life skills programmes, and pupil retention initiatives.
Applications that seek to tackle educational disadvantage will be prioritised.
Outside bodies, such as business and higher education institutions, may team up with second level schools.
Conclusion
Our economic recovery cannot leave any child behind.
I want every child to have the best start. The highest quality education.
This is a key aspect of our long-term economic plan.
For now I thank you for all you have done over the last five years.
In this the centenary we are at the exquisite point of looking back at the events that lead to our becoming a republic, and of looking forward to who we want to become as a nation.
Our schools, particularly our primary schools, are central to our deliberations.
In just a few weeks, we will go to the polls and elect a new government. I am asking the Irish people to choose the current government so we can build on our economic gains and keep the recovery going.
The outcome as always is in your hands.