Assembly candidates put through paces on education policy

CANDIDATES vying for a West Tyrone assembly seat set out their stalls on education policy at a hustings held in Omagh last week week.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) hosted the debate at the Silverbirch Hotel, Omagh which was attended by a small group of school leaders and parents.

Six parties were represented at the event, with the DUP’s Tom Buchanan unable to attend due to being unwell.

A number of candidates called for education to be better-funded in the next assembly.

The SDLP’s Daniel McCrossan said, “The core issue with our system is that it is underfunded, and that needs to be addressed. Education costs do not heal.

“That’s a message that needs to be hit very hard at the door of the incoming education minister, and indeed, the finance minister.”

He said that due to a lack of adequate resourcing, school staff are ‘overworked’, and that the expectations of what’s required of school leaders has changed in recent years.

Carol Gallagher, the People Before Profit candidate, and a teacher of 26 years, said school staff had seen ‘very little change in the pay packet’ over the last two decades.

“The mounting costs for oil, electricity, gas, and feeding the family, have risen exponentially, and it’s just like every other working class person, we are not feeling valued for the labour we provide to the community,” she said.

Ian Marshall of the UUP did call for schools, and special needs education in particular, to be better funded but cautioned that there is a ‘finite’ pool of money available.

“I don’t necessarily think throwing chunks of money at things makes it work better, because my experience in business and other parts of government is sometimes just throwing money at things just makes them worse as people can become careless,” he said.

On early intervention for children with special educational needs (SEN), Sinn Fein’s Nicola Brogan said that West Tyrone has longer waiting lists than other areas of the North.

She said, “It’s unfair that, based on where you live, that you have to wait longer months and years in the Western Trust compared to other health trusts, and even they are waiting too long.”

Ms Brogan called for money to be ‘utilised better’ to ensure early intervention can be achieved locally.

criticism

Candidates were united in their criticism of the performance of the education minister, Michelle McIlveen, and the Education Authority (EA), over their handling of the pandemic.

Alliance’s Stephen Donnelly said, “Throughout the pandemic, the communication from the EA and the minister has been atrocious, and school leaders have been in a situation on where they have been waiting on guidance on how to ensure Covid safety in schools, only to get it the night before it was due to be implemented.”

He, along with the other candidates, agreed with a campaigner in the audience that schools need to ensure better ventilation within classrooms, especially as Covid continues to circulate.

Susan Glass of the Green Party urged the school leaders to demand better from the Stormont executive as ‘bread and butter issues have not ben prioritised’.

“You are the people who know what you need.

“You’re a strong unit together, and you can make a change by saying, ‘enough is enough’,” Ms Glass said.

She also urged people not to blame those on strike in education and other sectors trying to ‘get a decent wage’.

The candidates praised the work of Strabane woman, Deirdre Shakespeare, in her campaigning to reform statutory guidance on restraint and seclusion in educational settings.

In a message to the panel, an audience member urged, “I think politicians need to work together a lot more for the next
generation.”