The American writer, the late Gore Vidal was a progressive, sparky character which led him into many a quarrel with his contemporaries. He was his own man, with an acerbic tongue which often led him to be scathing about the establishment.

Politics, he once suggested, is made up of two words: 'Poli' which is Greek for many, and 'tics' which are bloodsucking insects. And he classically described “persuading people to vote against their own interests” as “the awesome genius of the political elite".

I recall an interview he did in his last years with Melvyn Bragg when he spoke about the educational system being designed to kill all curiosity.

“I seldom encounter a boring six-year-old,” he said, “but I never get to see an interesting 16-year-old".

An exaggeration perhaps, and I’ve come across plenty of interesting 16 year olds. But I think that many of us would identify with his frustration in the system whether it’s politics, education, health and everything else that is organised by our rulers.

What is particularly telling is that in matters such as education and health, the vast majority of us are on the side of the people at the coal face, the doctors, teachers and the rest of those involved in the establishment in making the decisions which the professionals have to implement. There’s a reason for that.

As regards the way those in power treat our children here in Northern Ireland, surely we’re entitled to hold two Ministers in particular to account about the way they have performed their responsibilities. I’m referring specifically to Health Minister, Robin Swann and to the Minister of Education, Peter Weir.

Last week, Minister Swann highlighted a funding gap in mental health services of £100million to £150million – per year – and he told the health committee that mental health services are experiencing “unprecedented challenges” and “it’s highly likely these will continue".

It appears that this Minister has a high popularity rating for his handling of the pandemic, but he continually followed advice which ignored warnings of serious mental health issues being built up, especially among children cooped up for months on end.

A teacher told me this week of a family she’d heard of, including one with special needs, who spent weeks and months on end being looked after by a granny with no garden. Most of their time was spent on their iPad.

It’s just one example of the issues which will surely come to the fore when we return to something like normality, whatever that is.

I fully understand the need for a strategy in protecting the health service in a pandemic and, indeed, ensuring people in the community were safe. But the strategy seemed to be total lockdown despite the warnings of other health problems building up underneath.

As if our waiting lists weren’t scandalous enough.

All this despite evidence that there was little danger in allowing some form of outdoor exercise for our young people in a controlled environment.

Minister Weir has come in for particular criticism over the policy of school closures, but particularly the way he handled exams, from the transfer test on-off fiasco and the GCSE and A level mess. This week, I quote from a tweet from one parent:

“My 17 year old has worked so hard this year, and he’s just finished all his AS assessments. Now, Peter Weir has moved the goalposts by announcing that, instead of this work making up 40 per cent of his overall A-levels, it will count for nothing, with all the pressure loaded on to 2022.”

Pressure. That’s a key word for what we’re doing to our young people, and it’s not just about the particular problems over the pandemic. Generally, society puts pressure on our kids and doesn’t seem to be providing them with the support or system to help them to fulfill their potential.

And yet, we have a very bright, resourceful younger generation. We also have many talented teachers who genuinely care about the children in their care and go the extra mile in tapping into their creativity and unleashing the talent within them.

I see many kids with tremendous dedication and ability in sport, others I see in forums being articulate and imaginative in their opinions and, possibly most impressive of all, showing compassion for others. And, no, I’m not wearing rose-tinted specs and ignoring the fact that there are also kids who fall short; but they’re kids and need our support, too.

Teachers, of course, are like every other profession, there are good and bad, but I see so many of them taking their responsibilities seriously.

I think of the Maya Angelou quote: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

And I remember my own school days, which seem about a thousand years ago now.

I passed the old eleven plus and went on to grammar school, but not being particularly good academically I just scraped through. However, I remember one primary school teacher in particular, a Major Doonan, who liked my essays and often encouraged me to write.

And I remember grammar school teachers whose empathy helped me to understand life a little better. I also recall a teacher who took glee in humiliating those of us who didn’t do so well, but he was very much a minority.

We have many fine kids and many wonderful human beings as teachers. Yet I would ask if our educational system is helping or hindering them.

Selection at the age of 11 remains a real bone of contention, with a perception still after all this time that we divide up children at that tender age into the smart ones who pass and the rest who aren’t quite as smart.

We all know that’s such nonsense, of course, but time after time parents of primary school children drive their kids on to 'pass'. I heard a discussion on radio this week in which one contributor claimed that other countries who do not use selection end up with greater educational achievement.

I don’t know the veracity of that, and selection is just one aspect of the whole question. Integration is another, and we need to continue to ask why we educate Protestant and Catholic children separately.

And in that same radio programme, it was claimed that the Northern Ireland Curriculum is not fit for purpose.

Which brings me back to the beginning; the people at the top of the system are making decisions which don’t seem to be child-centred, and yet we have so much talent in our younger generation and in the teaching profession.

As we often say about our political system, we deserve better.