Mr. Seamus Mulconry:

Many of the points I wished to make have already been made more eloquently than I could by my colleagues so I will refrain from doing so again. However, I wish to make three points.

The CPSMA has more than 20,000 members and we support 2,800 schools. If one takes our boards of management and all the other voluntary boards of management represented here, it is the single greatest example of social capital in the country next to the GAA. It is quite an extraordinary contribution by ordinary citizens which deserves to be recognised and applauded.

As well as being the general secretary of the CPSMA, I sit on the Teaching Council's investigations committee and evidence of character panel. As I am in the CPSMA, we receive approximately 7,500 queries from schools on a broad range of issues, from parental complaints to bullying etc. I therefore have a pretty good handle on the problems in the primary school education sector. However, what always strikes me is not the problems, which are minor in comparison with the contribution, but rather that the primary school system in Ireland is working very well and is delivering a high-quality education. It has very high levels of parental and student satisfaction.

I recently had the pleasure of attending a school prize-giving ceremony presided over by Mr. Marty Morrissey, who gave one the best definitions of a school I have ever come across. He said a school was a unique community where dedicated professionals helped pupils to discover and develop their talents. It is a great definition but it also has partnership at its core. We cannot outsource the teaching of our children or their education to schools; it is a partnership between parents, schools and students. We certainly welcome the students' charter as a codifying of existing best practice. Most schools are already doing this and it is good to have it set out on paper in clear black and white. However, we are concerned about some of the language. For example, it talks about the school being a service provider. Schools are not the educational equivalent of Tesco; they are partnerships. They only work when parents and teachers work together.

We are also concerned that schools in the primary school sector are suffering from initiative overload and the amount of administration in schools is increasing all the time. Much of this is necessary and valuable but it means that teachers and principals can sometimes be a little defensive, as they see more work arriving on top of them. I know it is not the intent of the student charter but we are concerned that the subtext of the student charter is that some schools are doing something wrong. We therefore urge that the Department in redrafting this would be cognisant of the language and celebrate schools rather than suggesting they are doing something wrong, which I do not believe is the intent.

With rights there are responsibilities. There is a very tiny minority of parents who are not always as grateful or respectful of the efforts of schools as they might be. It would be very useful to have the responsibilities of parents and students set out in the charter so all stakeholders have a clear idea of their rights and responsibilities.