Children suffer in teaching scandal [Independent.ie]
- Published: 25 April 2011
THIS week, as always in the Easter season, the teaching unions will gather for their annual conferences.
Their members will express their concerns, in explicit and sometimes heated terms, to the new Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn. And these concerns will be more numerous and pressing than usual.
Like everybody else, the teachers have been hit hard by the financial crisis. Large numbers of the unions' members, especially recent graduates, have the utmost difficulty finding jobs.
At the same time, recent reports have shocked the sector with their revelations about declining standards in Irish education. We have fallen steeply in the world tables. Almost a quarter of our 15-year-old boys are illiterate. We lag in mathematics and science.
There are widespread complaints that at every level, including university, students are not taught how to think for themselves.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
