Cutbacks threatening retention rate, union warns [schooldays.ie]
- Published: 17 May 2011
The Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) has stated that the good work done to ensure more children remain in school may be negated if proposed education cuts continue.
General secretary of the TUI Peter MacMenamin said that while the news that more young people are staying on to take the Leaving Certificate is welcome, a dropout rate of one in six is still "unacceptably high" and could worsen due to a lack of funding.
Last week, a new report revealed that there has been a significant rise in the number of students completing their secondary education, with boys especially showing a large improvement in retention rates.
He explained that many middle-management positions, such as year heads, are going unfilled as incumbents retire and are not replaced due to saving drives.
Full Story: www.schooldays.ie
Must try harder: this year's report card for the key figures in higher education [IrishTimes]
- Published: 17 May 2011
LEFTFIELD: IT WAS A SIGHT to remind me of my days at the coalface. On a stop-over in Dublin, I saw a young man struggling to carry what must have been 500 exam answer books to his car. As I passed, he dropped about half of them and I took pity and helped him pick them up. He told me he had four days to return them so they could be sent to the external examiner. That’s four days, and probably some of the nights too, of non-stop marking. I miss teaching students and exchanging ideas with them, but hell, I don’t miss the marking.
If I’m not marking student exam papers, maybe I can grade the efforts of some of the key figures in higher education over the past academic year instead. I’ll mark them strictly, with absolutely no grade inflation, so a good mark really means something.
Let me look at the political class first. Generally these are like the usual bunch of students – on the whole well-meaning, with some of them just a little bit dim, but mostly coming out with an unexciting but solid 2.2. We’ve had two ministers for education this term, though they are not easily comparable.
Mary Coughlan slipped into the post in a sideways (or downward) move, and in many ways she struggled in class. I cannot fault her helpfulness and her desire to make a difference, but education was not her natural field.
Ruairí Quinn is an entirely different proposition. Having been Labour spokesman for education he was well prepared for the job, and moreover clearly eager to get down to business. Since taking up the post, he has hardly put a foot wrong. He has challenged the vested interests (from the church to the trade unions), and has quickly recognised which issues need to be addressed in order to build confidence in Ireland’s education system. He easily gets a First, and his report card will recommend him highly. The only slight niggle is that he is continuing with the implementation of the Hunt Report which should just be shelved; and I am waiting to see how much of the terrible employment control framework (which appears to limit research activity) he intends to retain; again, it should just be scrapped. I would also give a good mark to former minister Batt O’Keeffe, but he has already graduated.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Here comes the summer camp [IrishTimes]
- Published: 17 May 2011
There has been an explosion of new summer camps, providing everything from gardening to literacy to Lego. There’s also an appetite for cross-pollination – surfing and French, anyone? Below is LOUISE HOLDEN 's selection of some of the activities available to entertain and, in some cases, seriously enhance CVs
LANGUAGES
French and Surf Academy
Surf lessons in the safe bay in Hendaye, near Biarritz. Targeted at Leaving Cert students, there are 2.5 hours French a day, including a 20-minute individual oral class. Irish surf team and local French instructors. Cultural day trips. For 3rd/4th/5th years, starts June 20th. Students stay from 10-14 days. From €999. frenchandsurf.com, alec@frenchandsurf.com
Stein Summer Language Travel
Two weeks of Spanish or French lessons in Marbella or Cannes, and a full activity programme, including excursions. Full board in the student residence, €1,450. Available throughout July until mid-August. 24-hour supervision. steinstudyabroad.ie
Gael Linn Summer
Irish Schools
Gaeltacht Summer Colleges located in the Cork, Mayo and Donegal Gaeltachts in June, July and August for students aged 11 to 18. gael-linn.ie
Ógras
Five-day Irish language summer camps for six to 12-year-olds in July and August. Venues in Dublin, Mayo, Kildare, Derry, Donegal, Cork, Galway, Kerry. eolas@ogras.ie, ogras.ie
Alliance Française
Summer camps for 5-12 years old in July and August. The theme this year is ‘Tour de France’. From 10am-2.30pm alliance-francaise.ie, primary@alliance-francaise.ie
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
The last thing the Junior Certificate needs is a quick fix - it's not entirely broken [IrishTimes]
- Published: 17 May 2011
For all its faults, the existing Junior Certificate programme has many strengths, writes BRIAN MOONEY
AFTER MANY years of consultation, the NCCA published the report Junior Cycle Developments, Innovation and Identity, the summary of its consultation findings in February.
The new Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn has now set September 2012 as a target date for the introduction of a revised Junior Certificate programme.
As a precursor to the NCCA consultation process, the ESRI carried out research into the experiences of students in the junior cycle. Among the many issues highlighted, the research identified discontinuities in the learning experiences between primary and post-primary school; that students were often taking what appeared to be an excessive number of subjects; that curriculum provision in some schools was relatively “unbalanced” with many students having no access to subjects with a practical orientation; and that the pressure experienced by teachers to complete the course for the examination meant that, at certain times, an over-reliance on giving extensive notes or on textbooks become the norm.
At the same time, students expressed a preference for more varied approaches to teaching and learning, and were more engaged with learning when these approaches were used.
Four overarching concerns have emerged from the NCCA consultation process:
First, the existing junior cycle programme has inbuilt inequalities and does not meet the needs of all students. The challenge for any new curriculum is that it be accompanied by the resources required to ensure that disadvantaged students can benefit equally from it.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Back to basics [IrishTimes]
- Published: 17 May 2011
THE EDUCATION PROFILE INEZ BAILEY, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY AGENCY: When she started work in adult literacy, Inez Bailey thought she would be dealing with a shrinking population – that’s not how it has turned out, writes GRAINNE FALLER
IRISH EDUCATION was given a massive wake-up call late last year when the OECD/Pisa survey revealed that Ireland is failing to meet the most basic of educational standards. On reading levels, the survey found that Ireland had slipped from fifth place in 2000 to 17th place, the sharpest decline among 39 countries surveyed.
Shockingly, almost a quarter of 15 year-old boys failed to achieve the level of literacy required to simply function in society.
“Those 15 year-olds were surveyed in 2009, so most are probably not in education anymore,” says Inez Bailey, director of the National Adult Literacy Agency (Nala). “We’re all talking about how to improve standards for children coming up through the system but nobody has really asked what can be done for the people who have already been failed.”
At the helm of Nala since 1997, Bailey has overseen enormous change in the approach to adult literacy issues in Ireland. “I started working there as a researcher in 1995,” she says. “It was a very bleak time in terms of resources and even awareness of the problems.”
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
