Criticism of plans for education 'unfair' [IrishTimes]
- Published: 04 July 2011
CRITICISM OF the Government’s education strategies by a former leading university academic was “unfair” and misinformed, the Department of Education has said.
Prof Tom Begley, who was until recently dean of UCD’s Smurfit and Quinn business schools, said the Leaving Cert should be scrapped and the Government “does not have a clue” how to manage third-level education.
In an interview published in the Sunday Times yesterday, Mr Begley, a US academic who has returned to the US after seven years at UCD, said the Government lacked a strategy for third-level education, although he said Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn was showing “some good early signs”.
In relation to the Leaving Cert he is reported as saying: “I would love to see it taken out into a field and blown up. It is completely dysfunctional.”
A spokeswoman for the department yesterday said Mr Quinn was on the record in relation to his concerns about the “points system” for third-level entry and the effect this had had on the Leaving Cert and the readiness of new entrants into higher education.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
