Daily half-hour of PE 'unrealistic', says Quinn [IrishTimes]
- Published: 10 May 2011
MINISTER FOR Education Ruairí Quinn says schools are unable to provide the 30 minutes a day of physical activity recommended in the National Taskforce on Obesity.
Mr Quinn told the Dáil last week that it was “unrealistic” for schools to achieve the 30-minute daily minimum which the taskforce said was needed to fight child obesity.
The Minister cited a number of reasons why this was not possible, including the length of the school day and the pressure on time to cover other areas of the curriculum adequately.
Mr Quinn also pointed out that any changes to the length of the school day would require negotiation with the teacher unions, as well as significant additional resources.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Keeper of the school gate [IrishTimes]
- Published: 10 May 2011
THE EDUCATION PROFILE: FR MICHAEL DRUMM, CHAIRMAN OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIP: In the school-patronage battle, is Fr Michael Drumm the ‘soft face of a hard line’ or a pragmatist who will help deliver real change in Irish schools?
TRANSFER OF SCHOOL patronage is already a hot topic. Some people see Fr Michael Drumm, brother of the former HSE boss Brendan, as the face of Catholic resistance. Others say he is simply a voice of reason on a complex issue. Either way, Drumm is poised to become one of the best-known figures in Irish education over the next year.
As chairman of the Catholic Schools Partnership, an umbrella support group for those involved in Catholic education, Drumm is essentially a spokesman for the side that stands to lose in the proposed patronage shake-up. He is representing the Catholic stakeholders at the Forum of Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Curriculum the same for 12 years but new versions keep on coming [Independent.ie]
- Published: 10 May 2011
THE primary school curriculum hasn't changed since it was introduced in 1999.
But third-class English book 'A Perfect Fit' -- which contains extracts from eight children's novels -- has. Not by much, though.
A revised 2005 edition replaces two of the original eight extracts.
"In line with the New English language curriculum 2000, 'A Perfect Fit' includes extracts from various novels," a spokesperson for publishers Educational Company said yesterday.
"Unfortunately, a number of these went out of print, and we were forced to update this title."
But one teacher asked: "So what if one or two stories linked to a novel are out of print?"
Full Story: www.independent.ie
End text book rip-off [Independent.ie]
- Published: 10 May 2011
THIS autumn, parents will be paying up to €400 for textbooks for a son or daughter starting first or fifth year in secondary school, and €100 in the case of a child starting primary school. For some, at a time of such distress and pressure for families, the bill will seem the last straw. And with the last straw could come what middle-class families would regard as the last resort.
Audry Deane of the St Vincent de Paul Society says that increasing numbers of parents cannot afford to buy the textbooks. They have to seek the society's help.
Why must they spend so much money -- money they can ill afford -- on this item?
In the first place, textbooks are expensive, and no wonder, considering the high standards of production. But secondly, there are far too many of them. New editions constantly appear, ostensibly for the sake of necessary updating but very often with only tiny changes which add little or nothing to a reader's knowledge.
And what amounts to a necessary update?
Full Story: www.independent.ie
New editions of costly text books show few changes [Independent.ie]
- Published: 10 May 2011
PARENTS forced to fork out for new versions of school books have to work hard to spot the difference from the old ones.
There is a growing clamour of protest from teacher unions and the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP) over what they claim are unnecessary textbook revisions.
Now, comparisons done by the Irish Independent have confirmed that many of the changes are cosmetic.
New editions appear regularly, even though the only subjects where there have been any syllabus changes for years are Leaving Certificate Irish and maths.
Teachers feel they have no choice but to put a new edition on the book list, because the former edition has usually been withdrawn from sale.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
