IEF Challenges Threat of Privatisation

national | miscellaneous | feature Monday March 29, 2004 19:28 by Cathal Mac Oireachtaigh - Irish Education Forum cmacoireachtaigh at yahoo dot co dot uk

An insiders account of the recent Irish Education Forum, hosted by UCD Students Union on Fri. 19th March 2004...

From the newswire:

In the wake of last year's successful Campaign for a Free Education (CFE) something of a ‘new bloom’ of student activism has sprouted up in Universities and Colleges across the country carrying with it an enormous amount of dissatisfaction with and opposition to the direction in which the Irish Education system is currently being steered.

Exemplary of such activism was the recent inaugural sitting of the Irish Education Forum (IEF) and its subsequent plan of ‘building an alternative’ to the threat of privatisation. The IEF is a vital foundation stone in the formulation of a response to the very imminent reintroduction of College fees and the subsequent privatisation of third level education. Continue to a full report on the Irish Education Forum >>

An insiders account of the recent Irish Education Forum, hosted by UCD Students Union on Fri. 19th March 2004...

Student activists and SU reps from Colleges and universities nationwide, gathered at the boardroom in UCD's Student Centre where they set upon the task of revitalising and re-hauling of the student movement. Interpretations were put forward by a SIPTU Education Branch Officer, a Chilean student union activist and the SU President of St. Patricks Teacher Training College, on the value of a non-privatised Education system which set a backdrop to the open discussion that followed. The timing of the event purposely coincided with the meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) being held at Dublin Castle where 30 EU education ministers discussed the future of education without any form of student representation in attendance.

After the morning’s deliberations a decent hand full of students headed into town and took part in an unplanned sit-down protest and blockaded the gates of Dublin castle where a mock auction of our educational institutes was also staged fetching some very good bids indeed! After a couple of hours the tents and tarpaulin were rolled up and people made their way to the Teachers club in Parnell Sq. where a plenary discussion on a number of matters regarding the privatisation of education was held.

The plenary opened up with a brief discussion on the International connection. Issues directly affecting education such as the Bologna process, GATS and the European Education Forum were all discussed informally outlining the complexity of the factors involved. Central to the discussion that ensued was the creation of an IEF awareness campaign of the issues at hand that could percolate into the general student body and the public at large. It was agreed that it was necessary to channel a large amount of energy into building at the local college level. This would imply the creation of an extensive outreach campaign to students college-wide as part of the wider awareness campaign.

Another key issue that arose was the necessity to include the support of staff and academics, teachers unions and trade unions in order for the movement to encompass more broadly the people who will be ultimately affected by privatisation. It was decided that another Forum would be held at the beginning of the next academic year with a view to kick-starting something of a new Irish Education Movement, following along similar lines as the CFE but with a much broader front and message. As a whole the plenary achieved its intended goal of formulating a coherent plan of action to counteract the advance of privatisation in Irish education.

It is worth noting some of the many side effects associated with the privatisation of education are not often pointed out in much of the media coverage. For example, as part of the information gap, the negative impact on equality of access is often ignored. This is clearly demonstrated by the US model, where annual fees for Universities such as the prestigious Harvard amount to $40,000, and as a consequence access of African Americans, Hispanics and other marginalized minority groups in third level education is dismally low. Shockingly, for every one person of colour in college in the US there are roughly 100 in prison. Alright, part of this exclusion rises from a longer legacy of institutional racism and poverty, nonetheless there is no doubt that the problem of equal access is further compounded by a policy of economics first and competition driven education system.

Similarly, the recommendations of Dr Thornhill of the HEA to the OECD conveniently neglect to highlight the huge disparity in the numbers of those from working class backgrounds accessing 3rd level in comparison to that of the middle class. With such a class divide already so rife in a two-tiered Irish Education system one does not have to be too smart to imagine how these figures would look with the onslaught of privatisation.

Not only will the lower socio-economic groups of society be adversely affected by a privatised education system but also those in the middle-earning bracket will inevitably suffer. On that note it is arguable that the Government should have the moral integrity to sensibly redistribute tax in a progressive rather than regressive manner. In other words, there is a huge untapped resource of public funds within the tax net if the Government was only brave enough to adequately tax the highest earners in Irish society.

Many students are becoming increasingly aware of the negative spin-offs and the resulting social deficit associated with the privatisation of education. However, while the IEF was a positive baptism for a new movement, there still remains a need for the same student activism to percolate into the wider student body for the movement to be an effective force of change. This is the challenge that the IEF is faced with and it seems wholly intent on confronting it face on.

One thing is certain; participants of the IEF are united with a common view regardless of political affiliations. It would be wrong to perceive the IEF as bunch of disgruntled leftie anti-capitalists when in fact many participants may not support anti-capitalism as a whole but hold the view that education should remain a public service and should not be commodified. For all too long movements have come and gone while visionless privatisation rides unbridled destroying public services along its path. It is time for students to challenge their apathy, shake off their left-right divisions and get involved in making the vision of ‘education as right’ a reality and not just an ideal.

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