Education fiasco sees parents left battling anxiety, fear and stress
IT was 2.37 p. m. yesterday ( Monday) when the peace deal was finally brokered: a Bueno Hippo bar and a biscuit each for a moment’s peace! Day One of Homeschooling had not been going to plan. A whiteboard had been sourced, along with special rattly whiteboard markers and a schedule was set to be drawn up. It was supposed to go something along the lines of Home/schoolwork, Break, Home School Hub. Lunch, Badminton, Home/Schoolwork/ Break, Homeschool Hub.
The marker didn’t work so chalk that one down to experience! Having went through a range of emotions over the preceding days, from apoplectic rage to conciliatory diplomacy, I was edging towards the former when the thought occurred to me, this is impossible. It is an impossible situation for parents, many of whom I’ve been speaking to over recent days. Parents who feel they have nowhere to turn to apart from people like yours truly, to have their concerns heard. But who do I turn to?
Well you! It is simply not normal to work and live in these conditions. Children belong in school, but I’ll get to that. A mother of a child with an alphabet of illnesses put it best when she said: ‘I am at a point now where I won’t have the mental health to enjoy the physical health the government is so worried about.’
The performance of said government over the past week has been nothing short of an omnishambles. On Wednesday Education Minister Norma Foley and Taoiseach Micheal Martin informed anxious parents across the country that Leaving Cert students would be taught in school three days a week. They reassured parents of children with special needs that their children would have their educational and care needs
met from Monday. These were exceptions outside of the norm; the norm being that children should not return to school, rather they should be homeschooled.
Parents, in turn, told their children these facts, which, as it happened, turned out to be mutable.
This amounted to a breach of trust in many cases, as parents then had to go back and let their child know they would not be returning to school. Worse still they couldn’t say when this would happen. Some couldn’t bring themselves to break the news. Making a liar out of a parent of a child who relies on routine and loves school is unforgivable.
The government say schools are safe. Primary schools are safe. Why can’t primary school children be taught in schools then? The government has flip flopped under Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Education Minister Norma Foley, whose ascension
to one of the top government jobs must, at times, like she’s fallen through a trapdoor into hell. I can barely hear myself think as I try to write a column, while coming up with ideas for the front page and fielding calls as the children whoop and holler, pounding the stairs like elephants. The tentative approaches to the kitchen where I am holed away are increasing. The raps on the door becoming gentler, but these sponges, these eager beaver pupils have wants and needs. I’ve learned a few things already today: 1). They eat far more than I imagined any human can eat.
2). They have an endless appetite for cartoons.
3). There is no point cleaning a hallway in January.
4). The government has screwed up royally.
5). It’s treat time!