Dr. Ken Fennelly:

It occurs to me that in the 1960s when we were moving from one type of paradigm of education to another, namely, from a theocratic to a mercantile paradigm, we had a whole research process and an OECD-led council of education report was published. It seems to me that at this point in time we are at that juncture again. There is so much going on in education. We are talking here about the nitty-gritty details of finances and so on, and there is a crisis in finance, but there are curriculum changes, changes in literacy and numeracy, patronage and third level rationalisation.

I signalled at the outset that this committee - this is one of the benefits of a committee such as this in service to the Oireachtas - can deliberate on where we are going or what are we doing in education, and where is the overall strategic thinking. It has been mentioned a few times that there is a need for joined-up thinking, and I believe serious consideration should be given to the formation of some sort of council of education to bring all these disparate groups together, namely, the Department which is represented here, the management bodies, principals, the INTO, the ASTI, and the university departments of education that are currently doing research. There is no connection among all those bodies on a policy level. I cannot see any national policy body that is bringing those together in a strategic way, certainly at primary level. There must be reflection on that. I put forward the view that we need to talk to the OECD again, take a council of education approach on all these issues and ask where we need to go. That could be chaired by a former President to give it gravitas and to steer it in the right direction. I throw that into the discussion as a reflection having listened to the debate.