Paul Keenan

Proper investment in primary schools could result in systemic change in education and lead to a situation where prisons in Ireland would close, according to a school principal who has effected dramatic change in her school through music.

Speaking during Catholic Schools Week, Sr Bernadette Sweeney, principal of St Agnes' primary school in Crumlin, Dublin, and co-founder of a project to give violin tuition to all her students under the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme, said systematic changes and investment in education are key to the future of education.

''We've become so tied up with institutions,'' Sr Bernadette said. ''But it is important to know what we want from our education system. Isn't it producing children who have self-esteem and the ability to face the world?''

In the debate currently underway into the future vision for education in this country, Sr Bernadette stressed that ''we need to replace the word 'power' with 'empower''' and remember it is the children who are at the heart of the system.

In this, Sr Bernadette said that, while ''the Catholic ethos in schools has had an enormous effect, and has contributed hugely both to the arts and in schools'', it was time for the next step in Irish education, now more diverse than in the past.

This, she stressed, requires ''a universal ethos, to bring out the good in every child. We all want the best for our children''.

Such has been the success of the St Agnes initiative that the school orchestra was invited to open proceedings at last week's conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN) at Citywest in Dublin.

Confidence

''Everyone there was unanimous in how successful we have been in building the confidence of the children,'' Sr Bernadette said, describing the gathering of principals as one where ''everyone was dedicated to providing the very best for the children in their care.''

Sr Bernadette called on politicians to now match recent investments in this vision of education. ''U2'', she pointed out, ''offered a €5m grant to encourage instrumental music in all schools in Ireland. Politicians need to recognise its value and fund it equally.

''Let's get on and do it,'' she urged. ''If we invest in children now, we could close every prison in the country.''

Sr Bernadette's words echoed the message delivered by Cardinal Seán Brady at the Emmasu retreat Centre in Dublin on Monday as he launched Catholic Schools week. Speaking about the future of schools, and calls for the Church to pull out of education in this country, Dr Brady stressed, ''there is no such thing as a value-free school'', and it was for parents who want Government management of schools to ask ''what philosophy of life, of the human person, of the child would the Government of the day promote''.