Don't worry, I'm not running in the General Election! You already have enough of me.

However, theoretically, if I got to write a Manifesto, there are 4 main areas I would focus on:

1. Patronage
2. Special Education
3. Funding
4. Teacher Shortage

You might be surprised by the first one... listen on your favourite podcast platform

Hello?

2

Hello.

3

You're welcome to if I were the

minister for education from anseo.net.

4

A regular podcast where I look at the

world of primary education in Ireland

5

and let you know, what I would do if

I were the minister for education.

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On this week's show my election manifesto

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Hello, this is Simon Lewis from

anseo.net with an other episode of if

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I were the minister for education, and

this is a general election special.

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Now, before you start

worrying, please do not worry.

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I have not put my name forward for

the general election on November 29th.

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I'm sure you'll all agree.

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You already put up with enough of me.

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I absolutely have to say I admire

anyone that puts themselves forward

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to the people of this country.

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On whether or not, I

agree with their policies.

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It's definitely a brave

and vulnerable thing to do.

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I'm absolutely not brave

enough to do that right now.

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I'm even struggling on social

media, nevermind politics, where I

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I'm thinking about leaving X, like

everybody else seems to have a,

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the reason I haven't left already.

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I'm not thinking of leaving acts

because of any political reasons.

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You know, the Elon Musk, Donald Trump, a

lot of people are leaving because of that.

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For me, it's simply because I just don't

think you can have a discussion anymore.

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On.

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Twitter or ax.

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Without it descending very

quickly into mud slinging.

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I don't use that platform

for that or any platform.

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For that I like to have.

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Engagement with people.

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I'd like to have robust discussions when

people don't agree with me or do agree

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with me and we can solve problems and

get different points of view across.

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And I had this.

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Funny experience.

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I was playing around with

different social medias, like

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LinkedIn and Instagram and threads

and blue sky and things like that.

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I'm not quite sure where, what I'm

going to do, but I basically have to

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feel, I have to start all over again.

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I think when my biggest problems

is my ego, maybe, you know, there's

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18,000 people that I've built up

as let's say followers, but it

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just it's, that's just my ego.

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I need to, if I have to start again.

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I have to start again, but anyway, back

to this story I was on and the difference

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between let's say what Twitter became has

become, and on my experience on LinkedIn,

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I put up one of my posts on Twitter and

needless to say, I received you know, this

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particular users who just think it's okay

to tell me To go back to my own country

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or comment on my Jewish background and

tell me that I'm not properly Irish,

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all that kind of nonsense is not.

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I don't know.

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A few years ago when that happened

for the first time, like the.

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The president of the INTO rang

me to wish me solidarity along

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with loads of other people.

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Whereas now it's just a weekly

occurrence and you know, no one

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says a word about, I was just, but

I posted the same thing on LinkedIn.

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It was around religion in schools.

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And this guy.

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Replied to us and she was, you

know, he put in an argument ad

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against me and I responded to that.

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And he then responded thing.

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That's thanks Simon.

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That clarifies things really well.

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Thank you.

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I don't think we agree on everything,

but that's look forward to chatting

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to you about this at some other time.

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And I was like, wait, are you not going

to call me worse than Hitler or something?

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It's just, I don't know.

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Maybe I've just got used to the way.

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Twitter has become a,

maybe it's probably time.

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Like most people that I know.

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To say goodbye.

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Anyway, that's why I'm not going

to get into the world of political.

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So I can't even handle a few pot shots

from anonymous people on Twitter.

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I don't think I'd survive a single

day in the world of politics and

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probably for a whole host of reasons.

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And I may be the world of

politics and the world's Twitter.

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Aren't too different from what I'm seeing.

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I think some of the personal

attacks and some of the personal

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commentary on politicians.

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I just think it's.

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There's just, it's just.

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Terrible really.

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And, maybe that's maybe.

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That's why I'm not going to do it.

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I don't know.

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Maybe in the future.

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We'll see.

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So unfortunately now that I'm not

going to be going for the Dáil,

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it means I'm not going to be the

minister for education for sometime.

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Probably.

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And probably never.

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So I'm going to do a podcast.

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Of theoretical policies.

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I would propose if I was able

to lead the education portfolio.

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If there is somehow some weird parallel

universe that I didn't have to be elected

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to being the minister for education.

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But anyhow.

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Let's just do it.

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And we'll see what you think as always,

I'm only going to focus on primary level.

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So if you're actually interested in

second level for education, there's some

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really good people still around on ax.

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I'm sure they've moved to blue sky by now.

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Just the way things are going, but I

can just name three secondary school

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teachers who talk about education at

this sort of level in terms of analysis

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and what the issues are at second level.

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Humphrey Jones and Judy and

girdle, and also Connor Murphy.

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Who I believe are talking a

lot of sense at the moment.

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And there are others at Kara.

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Quill as well as another dash.

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I just would recommend to the ITO.

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I'm also going to mention,

because they have gone with 30.

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Election manifesto items, 30 items.

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But I'm going to go to focus on

three areas for my manifesto.

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Because 30 is a lot.

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Three is possibly manageable and

they are, and you won't be surprised

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to hear any of these because I

talk about them all the time.

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Patronage special education and funding.

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I was going to go with fourth.

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Which seems to be a principal's number one

concern at the moment ads, teacher supply.

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But the area I believe is quite complex.

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I believe it's going to be, it's

rooted in lots of different areas.

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Including the three areas,

I'll be talking about it.

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And I may even mentioned teacher

shortages in all of those areas.

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And if you are interested, I

have written about the teacher

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shortage crisis on my medium blog.

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And in fact, the show notes

for this podcast are on medium

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and you can read this alarm.

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It might be shorter than this podcast

episode, but the article you'd

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be looking for is where are all

the primary school teachers where

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I give and maybe an alternative

theory to why we have a teacher.

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Teacher shortage.

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Onto my manifesto.

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I am worse than a politician.

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I haven't said a word Yashin.

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How many minutes have gone by.

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Anyway, we'll start off with number one.

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Our, my manifesto and that is patronage.

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I don't think anyone would

be surprised to hear that.

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If I could make one change

to the education system, it

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would be to scrap patronage.

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I talk about it.

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So incessantly to the point that I'm

sure people avoid me in the street.

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However, I genuinely believe that if there

is a single root of every single problem

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in the education system, despite it being

a very complex system, removing patrons

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completely from the education system.

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I believe would unravel a large

percentage of the issues we have.

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I've often compared to the

education system at primary level

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to Christmas decorations and the

edge closer to Christmas seasons.

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I can use this analogy.

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And it's where I believe you

get your Christmas decorations.

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You put them up the first time you have

an education system, and then you throw

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the the decorations up in the attic.

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And when you bring them down,

they're all covered in nuts.

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And then you try it on tangle or not.

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And that creates another notch

and that creates another notch.

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And after a while you just

go ask, do you know what?

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I'll just.

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Throw it over the tree

and hope for the best.

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I think that's what our education

system of primary never looks like Bush.

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If you were to have removed the biggest

nut I would say patronage position.

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And I think when people hear

me speak about it, They tend to

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think I'm focusing on religion.

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Only.

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And I think.

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This is, and I think I don't

blame people because most of my

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ire is with religious bodies.

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What they do and how they

control the education system.

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And it's not surprising

because 96% of patron bodies

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are religious in their nature.

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But.

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For the purposes of this, I'm not

entirely focusing on religion because

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I do think it's absolutely crazy in

a modern 21st century Republic that

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religion plays so much of a parcel in the

education system when it plays no part

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in the daily lives of the vast majority

of people's jobs or lives anywhere.

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The fact that a primary school teacher,

most degree to effectively become

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a missionary in most denominational

schools by leading prayer, preparing

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children for right to passages like

sacraments and providing own objective.

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Faith forming lessons.

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To meet is nothing short of bizarre.

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And I think it is unique

in most parts of the world.

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And it may even be unique in the world.

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It's certainly unique in

Europe, as far as I know.

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And I was listening to a really

good podcast, a friend of mine

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Eva Cassidy was on Louise.

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McSherry his podcasts, Louise McSherry

see, I think, I don't know her very well,

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but I think she was raised in America.

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Or she went to school in America.

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And she was as speaking to

And it was just interesting.

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To me anyway, listening to her as a

pseudo sort of almost outsider to Ireland,

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although she's in Ireland for a long time

by the air, by the signs of things, how.

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She, how bizarre she finds

the education system.

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So much, so she avoided sending her own.

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Child or children to a denominational

schools because she just finds

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it bizarre that we would you

know, the word is indoctrinated.

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I know that word indoctrination is being

used for other political purposes, but

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certainly faith forming a faith that

she does not have to her children.

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It just seems very odd to

her and to me and to Eva.

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However, I want to look beyond

religion here because when I say

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would like to remove patronage from

the education system, all patrons.

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Not just the religious ones and

not just the ones I don't like

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.

There are a handful of non-religious patrons in Ireland are most of

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you will know of educate together.

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And many of you will know about the ETBs

under community national school model.

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However, there are others one of the

biggest, bigger ones is on first Patrina.

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Which is not actually a religious

patron body, although many of their

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schools are religious in nature.

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There is saplings, which is this

type of special skills skill Sinead,

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which is I think they have one

school and then there are others.

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For those of you don't know what

a patron does, their main job.

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And perhaps their only job is to

create something that is known as the

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characteristic spirit of the school.

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So it's the ethos of the school

and whether that's a religious

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leaning of the school, the language.

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Of the school or other types

of characteristics that make

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us the type of school it is.

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So on first Patrina.

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Their focus is on language and that is the

Irish language and that is their ethos.

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However to me.

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Patron buddy act more as a buffer.

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Ah it might have its ethos

or its characteristics bears.

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I see it as more of a buffer and

it simply aids the state in dodging

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its responsibilities are providing a

properly functioning education system.

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Because if we look at the education

system, we look at the constitution.

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At the moment it states that the

government provides for education.

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It doesn't provide education.

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It provides for education.

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That tiny three letter word is

why we have a patronage model.

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The state is responsible for

providing money to patron bodies,

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to run their network of schools.

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And that includes paying for all their

buildings, which is why the department

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of education effectively gift something

like 5 billion Euro a year to the Catholic

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church and gifted to them for free.

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But the patrons body is to oversee

this network of boards of management,

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which is essentially a group of eight.

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Meaning.

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Volunteers who all manage, who are off.

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Forced to voluntarily manage all aspects

of one school, each these eight people.

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And because of this model, every

school is a private entity, or I

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like to call them little fiefdoms.

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And to me, this is where the

root of everything bad in

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the education system lies.

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Schools in many ways are no different

from businesses despite being

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about 95%, the same as each other.

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So if you look at close shots, for

example, as a business, most clothes

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shops are pretty much the same.

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But they are all competing

with each other for survival.

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Schools, income, unlike clothing shops,

their income is dependent on the number

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of children that attend their schools.

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So depending on how many children

attend your school, It depends.

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On the amount of income you guys

and the number of staff you have

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also depends on the number of

children that attend the school.

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And this creates a system where if

there are more, if there's more than

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one school in a particular area or a

catchment area, They are all vying for

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those same children in order to survive.

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If you have no children,

you have no teachers and you

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have no money and you close.

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But anything above zero means you survive.

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Whether or not the schools have the

same patron body over them or not.

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In most cases, they are still

competing with each other.

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So even Catholic schools will

compete with other Catholic schools.

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However, when you add that ingredient

of patronage into the mix, it does add

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another layer of competitiveness because

two Catholic schools, in some ways there's

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very little in their differences at all.

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And you could say there is a

choice between those two schools

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because they offer the same thing.

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Catholic schools, for example, which are

the vast majority of schools try their

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best to be everything to everybody.

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In my view I don't think

most conflict schools are.

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You know, Very Catholic anymore.

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I think most people, I don't think

that's the in fact it's probably

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the least controversial thing

I've said about Catholic schools.

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And in some ways I feel they do

a really good job of pleasing.

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The majority of people, essentially,

most Catholic schools right now run a

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gauntlet of being a nut to Catholic.

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And being Catholic enough to please

both their patron arms, their clients.

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And when I say clients, I tend to

mean parents rather than children,

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because it's the parents who decide

what school their child enrolls.

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The vast majority of clients

are, what can kindly be called?

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Cultural Catholics.

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I think it is, I think it's

fair to say the vast majority of

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Catholics in Ireland do not believe

in the tenants of Catholicism.

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But they do like the rites of passage.

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And I think I've heard it known.

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As the hutches matches

and dispatches, so birth.

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So the christenings, the matches,

the weddings and the dispatchers,

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the funerals as many call them.

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But they can effectively outsource to

other rights passages to the school,

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namely the communion and confirmation,

which don't rhyme with hatch match or

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dispatch without having to take any

responsibility for preparing their

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own children for those sacraments.

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So if you are a parent and you do

the baptism, you ag and outsource,

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and the religious rites of passage,

the communion and the confirmation

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to a school without having to attend.

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At the church very often.

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For those clients, these parents that

they want children to speak Irish.

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Again, they can outsource this

to the school as many do, without

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having to take any responsibility

for learning the language themselves.

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It strikes me as very interesting, the

number of parents that enrolled their

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children to Escalona but then send it

to English, medium secondary schools.

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I wonder why that is a lot of the

time and I have my own theories.

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But I think it's a failure on someone

that children, if you go to a Gwalia.

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School go to an English

medium primary school.

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And I don't know if it's the guayle.

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It's that, that has, that

is is the failure there.

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I think there's some thing else going on.

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And while I may be accused of in Ferring,

gamification of the patron and system.

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By those two examples where

parents use the system to gain a

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perceived advantage for themselves.

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Parents that don't have choices,

which is generally anyone that doesn't

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subscribe to Catholicism wherever they

are on the spectrum of devoutness the

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patronage model is just, ah, lottery.

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For a Muslim family that wants

a Muslim school for third child,

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unless they live in Dublin or

are willing to travel to Dublin.

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The patronage model is no use to them.

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They have no choice.

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For a family that needed to send

their child to a non-religious school.

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For example, they have to hope

that they live in an area where

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there might be such a school.

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And in Ireland in 2024, there are

currently three counties where there isn't

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a single non-religious primary school.

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Almost half the counties in

Ireland have fewer than two.

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So as you can see,

choice is not something.

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That is in everybody's blessing.

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For example, I live in Carta.

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There is only one primary school in Carla

that has a multi-denominational school.

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I don't think I could consider myself

having a choice because I don't,

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I cannot send my child or I cannot

work in any other school in Carlo

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because I do not, I will not be able

to uphold the ethos and those risks

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myself of being fired for that.

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I do not want my child.

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Being given messages in a religion,

I don't, I do not subscribe to and

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have no interest in subscribing him

to, and I have no interest in him

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sitting hint in the back of a classroom

for half an hour, a day on 13 for

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more during the sacrament season.

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And I don't like him being a guest

or a visitor in his own classroom.

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Anyway, do you know this all ready?

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However, religion aside,

the patronage model has an

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effect on all sorts of things.

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And let's forget the religion for a

minute, because these are other things

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that are affected by the patronage model.

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Both transport insurance,

special education.

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And more, for example, on bus transport,

my child doesn't attend his two

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most local primary schools because

they're both have a religious ethos.

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And because the nearest school

that matches our conscience is

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over six kilometers from our house.

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We are entitled to bus

transport to the school.

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I think it's a shocking waste of money.

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I don't use the bus, but I could

particularly if I was working from home

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and has no other job, I could shove

them on a bus in the morning, rather

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than walking to his nearest school.

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Anyway, school insurance is another model.

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One schools are grouped by

insurance companies by their

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patron buddy or diocese.

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This means that if you happen to go to a

school in one diocese, your school could

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be paying for paying more insurance.

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Premium.

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That a school that is part

of on first Patreon, Okta.

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Or vice versa.

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It's baffling to me that this

happens to different schools,

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have different insurance premiums.

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And I wouldn't blame you if you didn't

believe me, but it is absolutely true.

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And I actually did a full podcast episode.

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On that.

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A couple of, a number of years ago

actually wrote to audience who are there.

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You have the monopoly on

insurance in Ireland for schools.

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And they refuse to divulge that

information, which effectively

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told me that I was right.

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Because if everyone was paying the same

level of insurance, they would have

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just told me, anyhow, I don't know.

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I could go on.

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I know.

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Anon.

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And by now, I imagine you can

see why I obsess over patronage.

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I can talk about it endlessly.

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To me, patronage causes more

problems than solutions.

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And if we scrapped patronage, children

would simply go to their nearest

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primary school and it would allow the

department of education to plan education

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properly because they would know

exactly which children will be going to,

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which primary school well in advance.

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And as you can imagine, this would make

things much easier when it comes to

379

planning for special education and so on.

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Speaking of which.

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Special education.

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I think if you asked all 3200 primary

school principals, what their top five

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concerns were in the education sector.

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I would be shocked if 1%

of them said patronage.

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On the other hand, if 100% of

them didn't say special education

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somewhere, I wouldn't believe you.

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I don't think there is a single primary

school in Ireland that hasn't been

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affected by the collapse of supports

for children with additional needs

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over the last two decades in Ireland.

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I dedicated a six part podcast episode

to the subject where I try to figure

391

out where it all went wrong and

then try to suggest some solutions.

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Essentially, there's a huge mess

that needs to be fixed very quickly.

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As we've already condemned a generation

of children who didn't get the resources

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on how they needed to manage the education

system and beyond the education system.

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For me, every classroom needs

to have a teaching assistant.

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And this is the main thrust of my

manifesto for special education.

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As I said in the podcast, if.

398

If I was to tell you my top

two things, I would change.

399

If I were the minister for education,

the first is, you know, would be

400

patronage, but the second would

be that every classroom needs

401

to have a teaching assistant.

402

And I want to tell you a

little bit more about that.

403

Because to me, a teaching

assistant reminds me of an iPod.

404

Because before I-pads existed.

405

We didn't really know.

406

We really needed them.

407

We had laptops and we had

phones and I think everybody

408

was happy enough with those.

409

And then in 2000, and I can't remember the

410

If I remember correctly or 20 10, 20 11.

411

And some point in the middle of that,

Steve jobs came onto the stage and

412

introduce the world's, the iPad.

413

And we didn't know we needed, I

would see the teaching assistants

414

as the same thing, the space between

the teacher on the SNA and the set.

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This is the second adult in the classroom

that helps the teacher that assist

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the teacher for lots and for anything

more or less a data add any, adapt,

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the set or SNA aren't going to do and

would save us a lot of time and money.

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It's the smaller jobs.

419

It's the ones where they're helping.

420

The group of children, it's bringing the

child who, who needs to be, who needs.

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Who's a dysregulated out of the

classroom for a minute to, to

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calm down or to have a chat.

423

It is the person who will

do your displays for you.

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It is the person who will

do a movement break with.

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With a child sit with the child, help the

child access the work in the classroom.

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They can do, they can assist the teacher.

427

And anyway they can, and every

classroom should have one.

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And funnily enough, Every classroom in

many countries in the, in Europe have one.

429

And it's about time.

430

We caught up.

431

Because every classroom needs to have

a teaching assistant as well as the

432

teacher, because low level needs have

to be managed in a classroom and it

433

can't be done by one person anymore.

434

And low-level needs today are not

the same as the low level needs.

435

They once were.

436

Low-level needs are not really low on

a teaching assistant is really needed.

437

Anyway, after that every school needs

to have onsite access to a nurse,

438

a psychologist, or a counselor,

or maybe both and a social worker.

439

Big schools would probably need more

than one psychologist or counselor.

440

And I'd also suggest that every

school would have access to therapies

441

such as occupational therapy,

speech and language therapy,

442

dieticians play therapies, and so on.

443

I don't believe it's realistic to

expect one for every single school.

444

So I would expand the role of the

special needs assistant to include

445

basic therapeutic interventions, like

occupational therapy and speech and

446

language therapy, which could be which

could be, it could be, you could get

447

one of those senior people to advise.

448

And SNA on the basics on every so

often the occupational therapists

449

and speech and language therapists

will come into the school to update.

450

The various interventions and so on.

451

So I really think these wraparound

services like nurses, psychologists,

452

counselors, social workers, speech, and

language therapists, all the rest of them.

453

These are.

454

I would say.

455

More.

456

Really important because if you can

catch children before they fall off

457

the cliff, because that is the only

way they're supported these days.

458

I think in the long run you would

save a huge amount of money.

459

And to me, the above alone

would fix a huge number of

460

issues with special education.

461

I also think of my manifesto.

462

That we would have to have a bit of a look

at special classes and whether they're

463

actually a positive solution in schools.

464

We've simply just opened them up without

thought research on special passes,

465

suggest they may not be the right tool.

466

What about the role of special

schools and what do we need to do

467

to ensure their support or property?

468

I'd have to have a look at that.

469

In my manifesto.

470

I think it says something that

again is poorly supported.

471

We need to give special schools

what they need instead of

472

offering little breadcrumbs.

473

I know the IPP and are very proud

of giving the administrative

474

status to deputy principals.

475

And I'm sure it's welcome.

476

But that is not the solution.

477

To special schools.

478

It is not, the solution is not

even close to the solution.

479

It's breadcrumbs.

480

I would also, I think we should look

at the full inclusion model, but it

481

would also need to be properly resourced

because if it isn't, it will fail.

482

In my podcast, I said special

education will be the scandal

483

of the 21st century in Ireland.

484

And we will talk about it in the

same breath as we do the sexual abuse

485

and physical abuse crimes of the

Catholic church in the 20th century.

486

We need to fix special education now,

and it's going to take a lot of thought.

487

And a lot of money.

488

Look at that segue into

my third manifesto piece.

489

And that is.

490

Funding.

491

One of the most curious pieces of

funding every budget day in Ireland

492

is the grant that is given to

horse racing and Greyhound racing.

493

And this year it was 99.1 million Euro.

494

The justification for this is that

without that almost 100 million Euro

495

grant, the Greyhound industry would

collapse and it needs to be propped up.

496

Now, whatever your opinion on Greyhound

drives racing is my point is that when

497

it comes to other sectors in Ireland,

The funding that is given is supposed

498

to ensure that the sector can function.

499

And when it comes to education,

it seems to be an exception.

500

Because we don't prop it up at all.

501

And while one might argue they haven't

heard of a school going bankrupt.

502

This is generally because of the

Goodwill of parents propping up the

503

system through fees, fundraising,

volunteering, and donations.

504

There are very few, if any primary schools

in Ireland that are properly financially

505

resourced, most primary schools have to

make choices between hiring a keener on a

506

caretaker because they can't afford both.

507

And whatever one they choose,

most schools can only afford

508

one on a very part-time basis.

509

Even very big schools, smaller schools.

510

Haven't got a hope.

511

Most primary schools have to hope that

the weather remains warm enough, so they

512

don't have to switch on the heating and

even if they do, and even when they do,

513

they often can only heat the building

for a very short time and asked the

514

children and staff to wear extra layers.

515

I don't know too many other public

services that require that most primary

516

schools have to wait until their essential

services such as boilers and alarms

517

fully break down because they don't get.

518

N a funding to keep them maintained.

519

And when they fully break down, they

can apply for emergency funding, but

520

there's no guarantee of that until they

have to threaten to close the school.

521

And many schools ring the department

of education so much that it's

522

really hard to find the phone number.

523

Now, I think you actually have to

email them or use some online form.

524

And three days later, while

you have a broken alarm, you

525

have to send children home.

526

And I don't know, it's mad.

527

There's a famous saying that teaching

is the only profession in the world

528

where you steal from your home in

order to be able to do your work.

529

Most teachers are working from

laptops that they're either their

530

own, or are several years out of date.

531

Teachers have to buy basic resources

like whiteboard, markers, crayons,

532

and everything else because schools

don't have the budget to pay for them.

533

I've actually heard of some teachers

that buy food and clothes for children

534

in their class, from their own pockets,

because teachers are good people in.

535

General, but they do not have the money

to help the children in their class.

536

So they end up doing it, but paying for

stuff like that from their own pockets.

537

To me, the funding model is

primarily linked to the patronage

538

model where the department of

education provides for education.

539

And if we took that word for,

we could see a system where the

540

state would be responsible for

funding, everything a school needed.

541

Whether that's the utility bills,

transport for swimming, insurance,

542

school lunches, caretakers, and so on.

543

Interestingly, there are nine

primary schools in Ireland that

544

have this actual model where the

state pays for all this stuff.

545

And they are called muddle schools.

546

And I would suggest if you

don't know what model schools

547

are, is that you look them up.

548

They have a very

interesting model, indeed.

549

And in fact, such an interesting

model, I think it's worth exploring.

550

I may do a podcast on the model

schools, their history, and

551

how they work and function.

552

Their patron is the minister for education

and they are a very good model to show how

553

the system could work in terms of funding.

554

But possibly little owls.

555

However for now, if we're going

to have to get funding from

556

the department of education.

557

Essentially, it's pretty simple.

558

You should treat us like Ray hounds.

559

So that are my three.

560

Malachi and manifesto pieces.

561

I wonder what you think of them.

562

I didn't actually talk about

teacher shortages, so maybe I

563

should add that is my fourth one.

564

I would say that it isn't just

about paying teachers more,

565

although that would help.

566

We are competing with teachers who

are going out for better conditions,

567

but we're also need to be looking at

other reasons why we have a shortage of

568

teachers because we are training enough

teachers to keep the system going.

569

It's just, teachers

are leaving the system.

570

I think some people think they're all

abroad making something themselves

571

in Saudi Arabia and told third Dubai.

572

Anyway, I don't think

they're in Saudi Arabia.

573

They're in Dubai and all

sorts of other countries.

574

But a lot of them are leaving

and doing other things.

575

I was at the IPP N this year and the

amount of teachers, former registered

576

teachers who are now working in private.

577

Businesses.

578

It was quite surprising to me.

579

They keep their teaching council number.

580

In case they want to go back.

581

But a lot of them are not working in

the private sector and doing very well.

582

And I think that's great for them.

583

The thing is most, most people, of

my generation started in teaching and

584

probably will end in teaching most people

of this generation that are outworking now

585

have several jobs throughout their career.

586

And far Paige them.

587

I think it's one of the

reasons why we have a shortage.

588

We are competing with other

jobs now people would find

589

working from home much more.

590

Attractive.

591

Than that say the holidays that we

got because fact I was chatting to

592

somebody who was working in Spain was

basically in Spain for the winter.

593

And was working from other holiday

home and going to the swimming pool and

594

having a lovely time doing their job.

595

And they flew over every month or

so to Ireland, to the office, to.

596

Tell everyone they realize,

I think, I don't know, but.

597

We are competing with much more

interesting work conditions.

598

Working from home allows people

to mind their children, if they're

599

sick and all the rest of it.

600

I think the teacher shortage

isn't as easy as money.

601

I think there's a lot going on patronage.

602

Falls into it.

603

Special education falls into a two.

604

Because again, There are reasons

why people don't go into teaching.

605

And not because of the children

particularly, but because of the systems

606

that make it so difficult to teach in

primary schools now, So there you, how

607

much my election manifesto with a bonus?

608

One on the teacher shortage.

609

I hope you've enjoyed

my election manifesto.

610

Vote for me.

611

No, I'm only joking.

612

I'm not going for action.

613

Don't worry.

614

I really.

615

I hope you've enjoyed this.

616

And if I do become the minister for

education at some point, and now, you

617

know what I'll be doing, so now you

now if I do go, then you can vote for

618

me and hopefully I'll get all those

things over the line just for you.

619

Thanks so much for listening.

620

The chat to you again soon.

621

All the very best.

622

Bye-bye.