The Role of Education in a Civilised Society

Speech by Olwyn Enright TD, Fine Gael Spokesperson on Education and Science, MacGill Summer School, Wednesday, July 23, 2003 I was delighted to accept the kind invitation to address the twenty-third acGill Su!!er School" I have greatly ad!ired the work o# the school #or so!e ti!e, and I$! honoured to take part in the discussion this su!!er" I think it is #air to say that we could spend !ost o# the day trying to de#ine what a civilised society is" %nthropologists and sociologists can concentrate on that debate, and I$! sure that so!e taking part in this Su!!er School will be atte!pting to #inalise a de#initive de#inition over the co!ing days" For !y part, I wish to set #orth !y vision o# what a civilised society is, or should be" % civilised society is a society where all are e&ual" In a civilised society individual rights are balanced by individual responsibilities, responsibilities to onesel#, to ones neighbours, to society as a whole" % civilised society respects individual endeavour and enterprise, but does not play the success#ul o## against those weaker and less #ortunate" % civilised society will always try to o##er people hope #or the #uture and #or #uture generations" De#initions o# 'civilisation$ re#er not only, as you !ight e(pect, to cultural and educational achieve!ent, but also to technological advance!ent and to rationally ordered society" The citi)en in a civilised society !ust be con#ident in the integrity o# Govern!ent and civil service, should #eel neither harassed nor harangued by the State, but be generally o# the !ind that its governance is #air, even handed and without pre*udice" Finally, the civilised society is one #ounded upon the rule o# law" +owever, the citi)ens o# the civilised society can see beyond the rules and regulations to the reasons behind the!" In a !ature !anner, they deal with each other in the way that they would hope to be dealt with, with co!passion, understanding, and an innate sense o# social *ustice"

Concept of Education
Trying to !arry this concept o# a civilised society, with our concept o# education is not an easy task" +ow can education be de#ined, Is it not the case that education is beyond easy or si!ple de#inition, or perhaps beyond de#inition at all, %tte!pting to de#ine education is akin to atte!pting to de#ine the sun, the seas, or hu!anity" -ecause to !e, education is part o# our li#e #orce, part o# what co!bines to !ake us hu!an beings" The i!pact that education has upon us un#atho!able" Its breadth, its width and its depth are uni!aginable" .ithout wanting to appear argu!entative, I brie#ly wish to take issue with the topic set #or discussion/ 'The 0ole o# Education in a 1ivilised Society"$ This topic, in the way that it is worded, gives rise to the i!plication that education is si!ply another link in the chain that holds civilised society in place" -ut this i!plicit !eaning is !isleading" Education is not *ust an e&ual partner, it is the underlying #ir!a!ent that !akes good governance, a #air and open *udicial syste!, and technological develop!ent possible"

The true nature o# education in the civilised society runs deeply through all that we are and have achieved" In #act, I contend that without education the civilised society would not be possible" Education de#ines what a civilised society is" Education does not 2polish o##3 a society and !ake it that little bit !ore civilised, it is not the icing on the cake when everything else has been dealt with, but rather is the #unda!ental pillar o# the structure that helps to !akes society civilised in the #irst place"

Real Commitment to Education

This, o# course, leads !e to the !ost i!portant point that I wish to !ake" .ithout a real co!!it!ent to education, without the o##icial realisation that education is critical not only #or econo!ic concerns but also #or society as a whole, then the civilised nature o# Irish society will continue to be under threat" On 4uly 5, 6789, the -ritish Govern!ent introduced its :ational +ealth Service, #ollowing several years o# discussion and argu!ent on the topic o# healthcare" It was their aspiration that the :+S would provide #irst class healthcare #or all people #ro! the cradle to the grave" E&uality o# access, #or everyone, was the guiding principle" It was success#ul in this ai! when there was the political will to guarantee that the i!portance o# this guiding principle was honoured" In Ireland, we need to adopt a si!ilar and all enco!passing approach to the provision o# education" Education #or all, #ro! the cradle to the grave, should be our !otto" %nd there are !any reasons why this should be so" 1ertainly, education is vital #or our #uture econo!ic successes" .e can see that the cornerstone o# our recent econo!ic develop!ent was laid in the educational achieve!ents o# earlier decades" %lso, the developers o# Ireland$s #uture industries are currently in schools, institutes and universities around the country" -ut education goes to the core o# our society also, and should !ean !ore to us than the !eans to earn the 'bread and butter$ o# our daily lives" Education o##ers people the ability to step outside what is usual, what has been their personal e(perience, and to i!agine di##erent e(periences, #eel a##inity #or di##erent peoples, and e(pand their personal hori)ons beyond the nor!" It gives !any people the capacity to appreciate that 'there is !ore in heaven and earth$ than is drea!t o# our conventional day-to-day e(istences" It can incentivise people to push the!selves towards greater achieve!ents, build sel#-con#idence, sel#- awareness and a #eeling o# sel#-worth" %ll o# these e##ects have a pro#oundly i!portant social bene#it that is all too o#ten overlooked in our narrower concept o# what it !eans to receive an education"

Foulest cutbacks
I don$t wish to stray into what !ight be considered a cheap political sideswipe at this venue, but I !ust put on the record that I believe the recent cutbacks in educational services, particularly to those sche!es supporting people #ro! disadvantaged backgrounds, and people who are atte!pting to broaden their hori)ons and get back to education, are a!ongst the #oulest cutbacks in recent history" Irish society o# the #uture will not thank us #or taking socially regressive, dangerous, and shortsighted #unding decisions o# this type"

Frankly, it is an a##ront to our supposedly civilised society to e(pect children to #lourish in their education at unhealthy, da!p and o#ten dangerous schools" E(pecting that young people will !ake the !ost o# the!selves through our education syste!, whilst allowing the! to sit below ceilings that could cave in at a !o!ents notice, as happened recently in ;i!erick, is nothing less than delusional" %nd as the i!portant debate on school buildings continues there is little ti!e or energy to discuss the broader educational issues that so badly need to be addressed" .hat about the artistic, visual and !usical capabilities o# our children, .e should open as !any doors to the young as possible, in all educational areas" There are huge losses associated with our approach to education, that views it as a co!!odity where skills to serve the !arket are passed on" These skills are certainly o# great i!portance, but there is !ore to be gained, to be i!agined, and to be e(perienced" Interests ac&uired at schooling age are seldo! lost in later li#e" On the other hand, by persistently #ailing to o##er a broader e(perience and knowledge through the education syste!, are we conde!ning our adult population to a li#e less rich than it could otherwise be, .hat about the 67<7 report that detailed that the Irish schoolchild was 2visually and artistically a!ong the !ost uneducated in Europe3" This is a da!ning state!ent, a conde!nation o# past #ailings, but also a pre!onition o# #uture cultural non-engage!ent and stagnation" The generation o# school children #ro! 67<7 are now adults" .ould a si!ilar report in =>>? have si!ilar #indings, Ireland has always been aware, consciously or subconsciously, that education was not a trivial !atter" .hen the draconian @enal ;aw syste! was introduced, dictating that 2no person o# the @opish religion shall publicly or in private houses teach school, or instruct youth in learning within this real!A our #irst reaction was to establish +edge Schools around the country"

Will to educate
Storytellers, !usicians, and local historians not only taught Irish history, tradition, !usic and culture at these covert schools, so!e o# those attending also received a 1lassical education" +as our country ever since de!onstrated the will to educate and to learn that was de!onstrated then, This co!!it!ent is noted in verse, when the poet 4ohn O$+agan wroteB Still crouching neath the sheltering hedge, Or stretched on mountain fern, The teacher and his pupils met feloniously to learn %t this ti!e when Ireland had little, and li#e was harsh, the i!portance o# education was not #orgotten" Strangely, now that Ireland has plenty, has the i!portance o# education been peculiarly sidelined, Cn#ortunately, as the de#inition o# education beco!es narrower, and a holistic approach to education is not the priority, then the danger is that education will be sidelined and will beco!e a co!!odity" To challenge this, Ireland needs an overarching a!bition #or education in this country, an a!bition that will enco!pass education not only in our pri!ary, post-pri!ary and tertiary syste!s, but also in a !ore #ar-reaching and inclusive way"

%s education is not si!ply the act o# gathering #acts or theories, but is a process through which the individual progresses, li#elong learning needs to cha!pioned" .e know all too well that li#e necessitates change" :ew technologies, new ways o# proble! solving, news ways o# !anaging our a##airs, all re&uire change on our part" .e should not assu!e that education can be pigeonholed to service certain sectors or can have a speci#ic ending point" It should continue, throughout a person$s li#eti!e" Education is not con#ined to the classroo!" 1onversely, once you have le#t the classroo! you should be assisted to return to it should you wish" Education o##ers di##erent things to di##erent people at di##erent ti!es" .hy should we restrict so!ething that can have a power#ul e##ect upon the individual and a positive e##ect upon society, The #oundations #or so !uch o# our lives are laid in early youth" @arents and guardians have a speci#ic and i!portant role to play" otivation and encourage!ent can be derived #ro! our #a!ilies, through whose opinion we are so o#ten guided" I do not !ean that parents should rush to send their children to e(pensive grind schools, or stand over the! #or hours as they do their ho!ework" 0ather, I !ean that parents should try to #oster a ho!e environ!ent where educational endeavour is respected, where debate and discussion are #re&uent visitors, and where in&uisitive !inds are encouraged to #ind out 2.hy,3 O# course, no social structure is static" In atte!pting to react to changes in the way that we do things, changes in the educational syste! will be necessary" -ut these changes should not be knee-*erk reactions to the latest trends or !arket re&uire!ents" .e so o#ten hear re#erences to our highly educated work#orce, no doubt an i!portant #actor in our success" -ut our a!bition #or education in Ireland should be to encourage a highly educated population, and not be restrictive in this de#inition" Education is not a co!!odity" It is not si!ply about gathering and learning #acts" %nd, notwithstanding the i!portance o# the IT industry in this country, it does not begin and end with binary code" It is a #unda!ental pillar o# the civilised society" It o##ers a depth and breath o# vision that we are not auto!atically born with" It challenges, and it rewards" Inherent in the concept o# the civilised society is the deter!ination to always strive to i!prove society, and the individual within society" In that respect, a truly civilised society will probably always be one step away #ro! us" -ut it is a goal that !ust be #ollowed" +owever, without education this goal will re!ain outside our grasp" These days, without education, we cannot breath clean air, we cannot drink clean water, we cannot co!!unicate with our neighbours, and we cannot hope to #ind our own space within the larger world" .ithout education these si!ple li#e-a##ir!ing needs can be out o# our reach" @ut si!ply, education is the bedrock upon which any #uture civilised society will be based" +owever, unless we realise this, and act upon the realisation, then our search #or this type o# society will be in vain"