Assembly-line model of education must change [IrishTimes.com]
- Published: 06 October 2009
OPINION: INTEL'S CRAIG Barrett gave us all a wake-up call when he said at the recent economic conference at Farmleigh House that Ireland's education system was failing to equip students for the 21st century. The problem is that our world has changed, but our school system hasn't.
Irish people tend to have a nostalgic sense of pride in our education system, based on a fading memory of a time when the level of education of our population was cited by IDA-enticed companies as a reason to locate in Ireland. We have lofty aspirations to transform Ireland into a Smart Economy - a creative launchpad for high-value start-ups, with a talented and flexible workforce. There is, unfortunately, a massive gulf between reality and this aspiration, and that gulf is nowhere more evident than in our secondary school system. Budget cuts are currently forcing secondary schools around the country to cut science subjects. This is an embarrassment for a country that trumpets its investment in science through Science Foundation Ireland and the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions.
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