REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ASSOCIATION OF MANAGEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS CONFERENCE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ASSOCIATION OF MANAGEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS CONFERENCE ON MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
A cháirde
Is breá liom bheith anseo libh ar on ócáid speisialta seo.
Ladies and Gentlemen
I am delighted to join you for what is an important and timely conference on Intercultural Education. My thanks to Ferdia Kelly for his kind invitation, and to you all for your warm welcome.
I visit a lot of schools as President and am regularly greeted by children waving the flags of the nations they come from and saying welcome in two dozen or more languages. They sit in together in classrooms all over our country, children from Eastern Europe, from Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Many are newcomers, recently arrived as their parents seek to use the opportunities of European Union membership. English is not their mother tongue. Irish culture is not yet their heritage. They have the stories of other cultures dancing in their heads. They have been shaped by other histories, other faiths, other places, other politics. For many Ireland is a barely-known foreign country, a place whose strangeness they are slowly getting to know. Like many an Irish emigrant they are proud of their nations and their identities. They did not come to Ireland to have those things that go to the very heart of who they are obliterated, but rather to contribute them as active and willing citizens to this their new home. We hope that over time they will grow to love Ireland and her people and that they will quickly adapt to the rhythm of Irish life; that they will grow curious and knowledgeable about Irish culture; that they will become good neighbours, colleagues and friends in communities of spontaneous welcome. We know that the welcome they meet here is as crucial to their active citizenship as is the positive attitudes they bring with them and the efforts they make to settle.
While small groups of non‑Irish nationals have made their lives here over the generations, in truth the issue of interculturalism has zoomed to the top of the agenda as a result of significant inward migration in very recent years. It is a sign of the health of our economy that they come, that for the first time in a century and a half the tide of emigration has been reversed. But with the remarkable landscape of opportunity that Ireland now presents, both to her own people and to others, comes this fresh challenge to manage the process of living together in and with diversity, and to manage that process well.
The education sector is right in the frontline of outreaching to non-Irish nationals, of helping them to deal with the problems of adaptation and of helping the rest of us to grow in sensitivity and understanding of these our new neighbours. In fact our schools have an invaluable, scene-setting role to play in the development of an intercultural society since they are generally the first formal point of contact for newcomer families with children.
We are a nation of free men and women, a nation which believes in the innate dignity of each human person and the right of each to respect. We are not a confessional state. There is no state religion. We have complete freedom to worship as we please, or not, if that is our choice. We have a plethora of political parties representing a huge spectrum of belief and ideology. We are free to vote as we please. We believe in equality, in human rights and respect for difference. We abhor discrimination based on gender, race, faith, disability, ethnicity or colour. We know that our country is benefiting hugely from its increasing diversity and anyone with a titter of wit knows that where mutual respect flourishes civic society is strong, peaceful and safe.
Our response to the stranger tests our fidelity to our stated values, and in our schools and colleges that response is lived out daily, and tested daily, in an increasingly multicultural environment. The social responsibility which the education system carries is part of a wider social and moral responsibility we all share to get this new and complex Ireland right.
Already the Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) programmes at primary and second level are designed to prepare students for participatory citizenship, and to develop the skills of critical appraisal and decision-making based on human rights and social responsibilities. They promote a respect for human dignity, tolerance for the values and beliefs of others, and a celebration of diversity. Their format allows scope for teachers to deal with issues such as gender equity, racism, interculturalism and development education.
In Ireland today there are more than 22,000 newcomer children at primary level and over 12,000 at second level. We also expect that over 8,000 newcomer children will enter the first and second-level education system annually over the next ten years; of whom over 5,000 will require language support if their talents and gifts are to be allowed to flourish and contribute richly to school and community life. The courage and commitment of these children and their families should not be forgotten or overlooked. They did not come here to fail or to sink. They came in search of a better life, a life made by their own efforts and their sacrifices. So often I am humbled by their proficiency not just in English, but in Irish, and by their sheer determination to succeed.
Yes, the provision of effective Intercultural education is a real challenge that impacts heavily on teachers, school management, staff, parents, pupils and local communities in promoting an inclusive school environment as part of an inclusive society. The rewards however are immense. Few nations have as much experience of outward migration and the life of the emigrant as the Irish. We know how they flourished across the world when they were given a chance and where they took the chance. We know of the isolation they endured and the hardship caused when they were met with cruel stereotyping and discrimination. We know of the stupid waste those racist things created and how they diminished both the oppressor and the oppressed. Ireland has a unique opportunity to bring all that experience and our national value system to bear, to make ours one of the worlds intercultural success stories and a leader in intercultural education.
I would like to congratulate the NCCA ((National Council for Curriculum and Assessment) as the first ever recipients of the Multicultural Award for their work in the development of the intercultural guidelines for primary schools. I know similar guidelines have been developed for second level schools and it is terrific to see that, today, information for parents on the education system in Ireland is now available in Polish, Latvian, German, Spanish, Russian and Lithuanian.
Access to good, free education changed the story of Ireland from poverty and chronic underachievement to convincing and confident success. Access to good, intercultural education will be just as seminally important to our future and I wish each of you every success as you explore how best to develop that education and to make it truly effective. The test will be in ten and twenty years time when we reflect back on these heady days of change and how we reacted to them. Lets hope we will have an island of peace, prosperity and comfortable diversity.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.