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ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS INITIATIVE EXHIBITION

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS INITIATIVE EXHIBITION ON THURSDAY 26 MARCH 1998

I am delighted to be here today to open this exhibition for the Primary Schools Initiative and to get an appreciation of what has been achieved in the short year since its inception. The focus of the initiative is the children of the inner city – their education and the promotion of a culture of learning within their communities. It is about forming and re-forming young minds, to promote an ethos of inclusion and participation in education and in society in later life. The importance of our early years cannot be over-stressed – the years when first impressions are indelibly etched onto our consciousness – when “what is learned in childhood is engraved on stone” – the years when our direction in later life is largely determined.

It is too easy for children to slip out of mainstream education – when the focus of parents and guardians is on meeting the basic requirements for existence – coping with the daily problems of keeping a family together - when the future can appear to hold little or no promise. Yet it is possible to sow that vital seed of interest – a seed that can blossom and flower in people who build on the hard knocks of childhood and go on to achieve great things. I think of Frank McCourt who recounts in his best seller, ‘Angela’s Ashes’, how as a child in a deprived family, the window of learning was opened for him when by chance he discovered books and libraries. That happy chance opened the gates of appreciation for literature and learning in him – it started a process that was to see him leave his native Limerick partly educated and eventually, carve out a successful career in the United States through adult education.

For many however, who live in disadvantaged circumstances – in poverty or deprivation - the gates of opportunity don’t open – that chance doesn’t always arise - and by the time they realise that their early years have not been put to good use, it is too late to turn back the clock. This initiative is about putting the growing child’s time to maximum good use – opening windows onto the world of learning – stimulating an early interest and appreciation for art, literature and music - seed bedding a full happy future for all children - not just those born into comfortable circumstances and who today dominate third level education.

Access to education is not a privilege exclusive to the middle class or the better off. Access to education is a human right. While much of our current success has come about largely because of our pool of talented and educated young people, there is a wealth of talent still untapped in the communities and areas where the scourge of unemployment and deprivation have acted as barriers to access – there are many more ‘Frank McCourts’ waiting to be discovered.

Thankfully, many communities are now tackling the problems that have impacted on their quality of life and their viability – problems that have seen people marginalised and excluded. Over the last while I have had a number of opportunities to visit communities in Dublin – in Hardwike Street, Darndale and in Clondalkin. In all of those communities I have been most impressed at the way they have taken it on themselves to act – by setting up partnerships with State and voluntary bodies, with local authorities, and with other communities in similar circumstances – to bring about change in their communities – to address their needs as they see them. There is a great spirit of self-help about - not just in Dublin or in the other cities – but in the towns and villages and in rural areas, where partnerships are being set up, alliances are being formed – where people are prepared to tap into education, art or music networks, that can help them bring a new dimension to their lives – there is a new dynamism and confidence that is bringing great hope for the future of community life in Ireland.

The great exodus of people from Dublin’s inner city has taken its toll on the many communities that remain. Dublin is a fine city with an interesting history. As Louis Macniece put it,

“Fort of the Dane,

Garrison of the Saxon,

Augustan capital

Of a Gaelic nation . .”

That character – that personality – is reflected in its people. But the city has seen tremendous changes over the last three decades - with the relocation of its population – employment opportunities dwindling – and with the downstream problems of unemployment – poverty, drug abuse and the fragmentation of community. The exodus to places like Darndale and Clondalkin has brought problems to the people that remain – problems of education, lack of opportunity and of deprivation. They have tended to become traps from which it was getting increasingly difficult to escape.

Earlier this week, I met with representatives of GOAL who told me of their work in developing countries. One thing that they stressed was, again, the lack of education and the consequences on the lives and livelihoods of the many who they serve. Education, or the lack of education, is a problem that crops up again and again as a source of continuing difficulty in places that suffer from deprivation and disadvantage.

Each of the communities I visited has started to address their problems themselves. It’s as though some switch was pulled – a spark ignited - to galvanise people into action – to make them stand up and realise that the key to their salvation lay in their own hands. The ability of communities to see their predicament as something that they can address – to change to meet shifting priorities and circumstances – but to do so quickly and without fuss – a rapid response, if you like - that is the secret of success in dealing with the problems and hurdles that communities face in this fast moving world of economic development and social change.

The whole partnership approach to national development that has been so successful over the last decade is a new departure in dealing with issues at national level. Its success is all around us to see. The local area partnerships that that initiative spawned, have proved equally successful at local level as well – with communities all over the country harnessing their own strengths and linking up with others to provide a focused solution to the problems that they face. The Dublin Inner City Partnership is one such partnership. Its aim is to combat long-term unemployment – a problem, as I said, that has devastated communities. A real achievement of the partnership, was its ability to recognise the problem of disadvantage that exclusion from education was creating – to see that action was required – and to act by setting up the Primary Schools Initiative.

As I said earlier, the recurring problem in disadvantaged communities is limited access to education – producing a downward spiral that ultimately leads to exclusion and alienation. Education is the key to rejuvenation of communities. The scope of this Initiative, embracing the children, the educators, the parents and the communities – the setting up of networks in a partnership approach in converting “patterns of failure” to “patterns of success” – looking at new ways to address the problems that unique to the inner city communities – supporting and facilitating new training programmes for educators – looking at other cities and working on a model of ‘best practice’ – all these elements will make this Initiative a resounding success.

I commend all those who have worked so hard to set up this Initiative – the Inner City Partnership, the teachers, the parents, the children. I would also like to pay a special tribute to the many organisations that are lending their supporting. Without your help and your commitment to the project, it just could not enjoy the success that it deserves.