It’s morning. It’s raining outside. I’ve just hung up the washing to dry on the clothes horse. I’m still resisting putting the heating on. Like most of us, I’m conscious of rising costs, so I’m hoping the sun comes out, brightens the heavy wool of grey cloud, hoping my wet towels get a fighting chance.

Hopeful is my go-to emotion this week. In some ways, the budget announcements are buoying me along. In education, the reduction in teacher/student ratio is entirely positive. We can never go wrong by investing in the time and space we need to build relationships in classrooms. Never. This is only good, good, good.

Having fewer children in classrooms is a toasty radiator beneath my washing, a band of hot sun coming through my window. Principals will need the money and resources as soon as possible, and not a month into the next academic year, but this money is well spent. No question.

The announcement relating to free schoolbooks, a budget of 47million for primary, is less straightforward for me.

In principle, it’s a huge relief for parents. The Barnardos survey this year recorded parents having to pay €424 to equip a fourth-class student going back to school. The average cost of schoolbooks alone at primary level for parents is €110, according to the Irish League of Credit Unions. The budgetary move certainly brings us into line with other European countries. Indeed, Northern Ireland has had free books since 1947. So, for parents of primary school children, this is a bright sunny day of an announcement. It’s white sheets billowing on a washing line in May. As a parent of three myself, it’s positive.

But as a teacher, I’m a little less celebratory. Will the announcement result in better teaching? Will it provide what children most need? What about secondary?

I taught in the British system for 12 years and never once used a textbook. Returning to Ireland as a mother and teacher was a genuine culture shock. I’d never want our system to become anything like the English one, but I’ve been trained out of using textbooks and for me, it works. It draws my focus towards the students in front of me first. Then I look for material. Never the other way round. This might be a lot to do with my subject: secondary English. When I teach a poem for example, I give them the poem and we go from there. Yes, I’ll consult textbooks, but I see no reason for my students to buy them.

I also have time to prepare. I teach three days a week now. I work a different job the other two, but I have much needed mental space, away from the classroom. This is why I always champion less contact time for teachers during the school year, more time to plan, to become truly reflective practitioners.

Don’t get me wrong, textbooks can be wonderful, and I don’t want to be entirely dismissive. They work brilliantly for some. But they are also, by their nature, fairly blunt resources; they’re difficult to differentiate for a mixed ability class, and harder to keep relevant, with knowledge and news constantly changing. Rental schemes are up and running in many schools, but they’re hampered by the arrival of updated editions and revisions on a yearly basis.

There is so much waste.

Single-use workbooks with plastic covers bother me hugely. Schools demanding ipads on top of textbooks also bothers me. One teacher told me at a conference recently that their school asks students to do just this, parents spending up to 1000 euro on required school resources. Do children need devices at school? Are class sets a better option? Should we spend our money on ensuring connectivity in the ten percent of the country that lacks it instead of buying more and more books?

I have more questions than answers.

Anyway, back to hope for me, back to my washing, hopeful for September sun and light. I’m glad that parents will feel less of a pinch next year. I just hope we don’t waste money we don’t have on piles of textbooks without asking questions, without doing some necessary research and trialling different, perhaps more sustainable options.

Seamus Heaney said, “Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.”

Our small country and our education system is wonderful in so many ways, populated with the best of people and the very best of intentions. I’m happy to hope – happy to believe there’s something good, something better to work towards.

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