Despite sharp drops in state aid, New York City’s Department of Education plans to increase its technology spending, including $542 million next year alone that will primarily pay for wiring and other behind-the-wall upgrades to city schools.
School patronage [IrishTimes]
- Published: 30 March 2011
THE DECISION by Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to establish a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism is welcome. The need for some kind of forum to tease out these issues has been a long standing demand of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) but former education ministers, Batt O’Keeffe and Mary Coughlan, appeared reluctant to establish it. Mr Quinn maintains it will not be a talking shop. Its task, he says, will be to work out the practicalities of how transfer/divesting can be advanced to ensure that demands for diversity of patronage can be identified and met.
The debate on patronage was triggered three years ago when the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin acknowledged the church was over-represented in Irish education. At the time, Dr Martin suggested that perhaps one in four Catholic schools could be divested. But he has not been prescriptive about the degree of control the church should retain or divest in Irish education.
It is by no means certain if his open-minded approach is shared by other members of the hierarchy. Catholic Church leaders are reported as being “shocked’’ by suggestions from Mr Quinn that some 50 per cent of 3,000 primary schools under the church’s control could be divested. There are indications that a forthcoming position paper from the Catholic Schools Partnership – established by the Episcopal Conference and the Conference of Religious in Ireland – may adopt a less accommodating stance than that signalled by Dr Martin.
It is to be hoped that the church will not retreat to the trenches. The facts are as outlined by Mr Quinn in an interview on Today FM yesterday. A situation where the church controls almost 90 per cent of primary schools does not reflect the “contours of modern Ireland’’. In today’s schools, the church cannot even be certain that the teacher charged with preparing his pupils for the sacraments shares the Catholic faith.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Quinn appoints journalist as adviser [IrishTimes]
- Published: 30 March 2011
THE LONG-SERVING education editor of the Irish Independent , John Walshe, has been appointed as a special adviser to Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn.
Mr Quinn said he looked forward to using Mr Walshe’s extensive knowledge of the education system to further the Government’s policy agenda and deliver “a high-quality educational experience” to students at all levels.
“We have a very ambitious programme for education, which is one of the key drivers of the economy, but we also have to protect the disadvantaged and ensure that no child leaves school unable to read or write,” Mr Quinn said.
Meanwhile, it is expected to be announced soon that former Fine Gael communications director Ciarán Conlon will serve as a special adviser to Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Richard Bruton on policy matters.
Mr Conlon, who was recently director of election planning and strategy, began his career with a research and teaching post at UCD before moving to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. He worked with MRPA Kinman Communications and provided media and communications advice to the Progressive Democrats ahead of the 2002 general election.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Cut back targets for under-fives, says review [guardian.co.uk]
- Published: 30 March 2011
Childminders and nursery workers feel they're spending too much time filling in forms, says Dame Clare Tickell, who has reviewed the early years curriculum for the government.
Tickell's review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) will recommend today that the curriculum be scaled right back, reducing the number of goals young children are expected to meet from 69 to 17.
The EYFS, dubbed the "nappy curriculum", was introduced by the last Labour government and became mandatory in September 2008.
Tickell, chief executive of the Action for Children charity, says: "The early years curriculum is a fantastic resource that has unified and united teachers, and before its introduction there wasn't the regulation, but what we have now needs revising."
She told the BBC: "We had enormous feedback from people during the review - 3,300 responses. What came back is that practitioners felt a lot of time was taken up filling in boxes and not enough with the children. Much of this work isn't actually in the early years goals, but it is the way it has been interpreted.
"What we have tried to do is make it slimmer and more simple. We have reduced the number of goals from 69 to 17 by clustering them."
She added: "The areas which are important to look at are personal, social and emotional development. But physical is important too. Professionals need to recognise when a child is not developing and understand what to do."
Full Story: www.guardian.co.uk
Govt accused of 'slash and burn' [nzherald.co.nz]
- Published: 30 March 2011
The Government is being accused of taking a slash and burn approach to spending after Finance Minister Bill English signalled cuts to public services and new figures showed substantial job losses in the sector.
Mr English yesterday warned the Government intended to hasten public service reforms, and some public services, which he dubbed "nice-to-haves", were likely to be cut.
"Something has to give, and that has to be lower-value activities the government is currently funding," he said.
Full Story: www.nzherald.co.nz
Amid Layoffs, City to Spend More on School Technology [NYTimes.com]
- Published: 30 March 2011
The city is making an effort to move toward computer-based learning and testing programs.
The surge is part of an effort to move toward more online learning and computer-based standardized tests. But it comes just two years after the city declared a victory on the technology front, saying that every classroom in every school had had plug-in Internet connections and wireless access set up, an undertaking that cost roughly half a billion dollars over several years.
Full Story: nytimes.com
