Parents will have say on the Church handover of schools [Independent.ie]
- Published: 13 April 2011
Quinn's worth: Minister for Education plans changesTechnologic: Principal Marianne Henry with pupils at Naas Community National School. Photo by Ronan Lang
Parents are likely to play a key role in deciding the future of Catholic primary schools as the new Minister for Education moves to take hundreds of them out of church control.
There is common agreement, even within Government itself, that Ruairi Quinn's initial target of removing 50% of schools from Catholic patronage by the beginning of next year is unrealistic.
At present the Catholic Church acts as the patron of 90% of the country's 3,200 primary schools.
The church itself accepts that it will have to give up the patronage of many of its schools.
The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has been a prime instigator of this process.
Ruairi Quinn is currently setting up a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism to work out how the running of schools will be handed over.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
School literacy project 'has good results' [schooldays.ie]
- Published: 12 April 2011
A literacy project launched in Ireland's education system has delivered good results.
The Write to Read programme was implemented at Our Lady Immaculate Junior National School in Darndale two years ago and since then its pupils have shown significant improvement in their abilities.
Results of the pilot project revealed that the proportion of first and second-class students who were above the 80th percentile for reading went from zero to 20 per cent.
The scheme worked by providing 90 minutes of literacy lessons to kids every day and giving them the opportunity to take part in writing workshops where they could be more creative.
Full Story: www.schooldays.ie
Quinn warns of teacher pay cuts if deal fails to deliver [IrishTimes]
- Published: 12 April 2011
PAY CUTS for teachers and other public servants have not been ruled out if the Croke Park agreement fails to deliver real savings, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has signalled.
Asked about the possibility of pay cuts – raised over the weekend by Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte – Mr Quinn said everyone realised tangible savings must be achieved under the deal.
He said discussions with the teachers’ unions ahead of the Easter conferences would be focusing on the necessity of Croke Park.
He was happy to co-operate with constructive proposals to achieve the necessary additional productivity and savings. But everyone realised what needed to be done.
The Croke Park deal promises no pay cuts and redundancies until 2014 in return for modernisation measures and productivity gains.
The Cabinet met last night to consider how savings might be achieved in each department.
Last week a Department of Finance briefing document expressed alarm at the slow pace of savings in the department. To date the agreement has managed to yield savings of €39 million. The briefing pointed out this represents less than half of 1 per cent of total education spending.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Vague religion syllabus and poor teaching leave pupils without a prayer [IrishTimes]
- Published: 12 April 2011
ADDRESSING A crowd protesting against the Pope’s visit to Britain last year, Richard Dawkins fulminated with the passion of a fundamentalist preacher against the Catholic Church for filling the children’s heads with the “vile obscenity” of original sin and “the terrifying falsehood” of hell.
Unless religious education in British Catholic schools is much more effective than it is in Irish Catholic schools, Dawkins need not worry: most Catholic children will not have heard of original sin, and will only have heard of hell in popular culture.
In 2007 the Iona Institute, a body committed to preserving orthodox Catholic teaching, conducted a survey among Irish people aged 15 to 24. Only 5 per cent could quote the First Commandment, 32 per cent could not say where Jesus was born, and 35 per cent did not know what is celebrated at Easter. Fewer than half knew what the Trinity is comprised of, and only 15 per cent knew what transubstantiation is.
In a response to the survey’s findings, reminiscent of Father Ted, the Catholic bishops argued that it was unfair to expect young people to know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and that “in a stable” should have been an acceptable answer. Their lordships clearly favour multiple- choice questions in scripture.
This pitiful ignorance of the basic facts and tenets not just of Catholicism but of Christianity raises the question of whether the significant resources devoted to teaching religion in Irish schools are largely wasted.
In the 1980s, the imparting of traditional doctrine was abandoned in Catholic schools and was replaced by a syllabus so broad and vague that practically anything that is connected, however tenuously, to religion or spirituality can be taught.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Teacher's Pet [IrishTimes]
- Published: 12 April 2011
Has there ever been a Minister for Education like Ruairí Quinn?
After only a month in his brief, the swashbuckling new minister has already generated more controversy than most of his predecessors managed during a full term in Marlborough St.
Here’s a reminder of how he has shaken things up.
- He has demanded that no less than 50 per cent of Catholic primary schools should be transferred to new patrons in a process which should begin in January 2012.
- He has questioned the amount of time spent on religious instruction and preparation for the sacraments in schools.
- He has described the recent OECD rankings as a wake-up call for Irish education. We have been “codding” ourselves in believing we have one of the best education systems in the world, he says.
- He has said the Leaving and Junior Cert exams are no longer fit for purpose. Junior Cert students he says, “go through this chicane, a kind of shrinking thing . . .where you are really relying on what you can remember rather than what you think.”
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
