Church 'shocked' by Quinn plan for schools [Independent.ie]
- Published: 29 March 2011
CATHOLIC Church leaders last night said they were shocked by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn's target of transferring more than 1,500 church schools to other patrons.
And they argued that his start date for the transfers to begin in next January was too ambitious.
The minister is setting up a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism which will report by the end of October, with the possibility of transfers starting early next year. But church sources said the minister was going too far, too fast.
Around 3,000 primary schools -- roughly 90pc of the total -- are run by the church and the minister intends to cut this figure by 50pc to allow for greater diversity.
While they welcomed the forum, church sources said it was the church that first raised the issue of an over supply of Catholic schools and that they were finalising a lengthy period of consultation on the issue.
The Catholic Schools Partnership, which was established by the Irish Episcopal Conference and the Conference of Religious of Ireland, is to publish a position paper next week.
The results of its consultation process will be analysed by representatives from all dioceses at four regional assemblies in June 2011.
Sources say the paper will stress the issue of parental choice and is likely to call for pilot projects in a small number of areas where there is felt to be an over-supply of church schools.
"It's not an easy matter to decide which school should close -- there are also legal issues involved," said one source.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Attack of the book-writing kids [IrishTimes]
- Published: 29 March 2011
Ninety books written, designed and illustrated by Dublin children are on display at Trinity College as part of a project that encourages them to create their own worlds
‘WE HAD A lot more zombies in the beginning,” says writer Emer Martin. She’s talking about the story ideas that the fifth-class boys of Our Lady of Good Counsel school, Drimnagh, initially came up with for Bookmarks, an outreach project run by the Trinity Access Programmes (Tap).
Perhaps it’s not a complete surprise, too, that toilets proved a popular portal to another world among these 10-year-old boys. (“We told them it couldn’t be via a dream,” says Martin.) Other portals include fridges, tunnels, being knocked unconscious or, as in Jamie McGratten’s opening sentences, a basket: “I was sitting in my house bored out of my head, so I just put a basket on my head for the craic. I took it off five minutes later and ended up in a strange world.”
Glenn Byrne’s arresting story is about a giant machine-gun-toting rabbit called Buster Bunny and a robot, which is used to cook sausages on. His page borders are all of blood-tipped bullets, and heads on stakes. “This place is an abomination,” he has written of his world. Where did he get that word from? “I just thought about this auld fella I know, who’s always saying everything is an abomination,” he says. “It means not nice.”
Adam Smith has illustrated his story, Up the Stairs of Horrorville , like a cartoon strip. His imagined world, full of description, is one where, he writes, “the sky was always purple, the seas were always wine, the land was jet black”.
“You need to make things more interesting, so you have to describe them more,” he says. “One of my hobbies is writing stories. I’m thinking of one right now. It’s about a gem that gets robbed from a museum at night.”
For the past five years Tap has been working with primary schools across Dublin that the programme deems to be in disadvantaged areas. For the Bookmarks scheme it has worked specifically on projects that guide each child in a class towards writing and illustrating his or her own book. The books produced then go on display to the public in the Long Room at Trinity College Dublin. This year the Bookmarks theme is Journey, and, since February, Martin and artist Hannah Maguire have been working weekly with children from three schools: Our Lady of Good Counsel Boys’ National School; Scoil Eoin, Kilbarrack; and St Brigid’s, Haddington Road.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Child's play is top of the agenda [IrishTimes]
- Published: 29 March 2011
Two rival organisations, representing 80 per cent of the providers of centre- based childcare, have joined forces to ensure their voices are heard, writes SHEILA WAYMAN
GONE IS the time when a child’s first day at school represented a tearful cutting of the apron strings. Now children generally arrive at primary level as confident veterans of pre-school, attuned to classroom routine and being part of a group.
The take-up on the free pre-school year, which was introduced in January 2010 under the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme, is “phenomenal”, says the chief executive of the Irish Preschool Play Association (IPPA), Irene Gunning.
An estimated 97 per cent of children now attend pre-school and 94 per cent of childcare centres have opted into the ECCE scheme.
For three hours a day, five days a week, for 38 weeks of the year, children between the ages of three and four are entitled to go to a pre-school free of charge. The State pays centres €64.50 a week for each child (€75 where staff are more highly trained) and the services can levy only “top up” fees from parents for more hours or additional, optional extras such as food, outings and other activities.
To see pre-school as a place where children learn to sit down at a table quietly in preparation for “real” school would be a mistake.
Parents should look on it as a very rich year for their children, says Gunning, when they are stretched physically and intellectually, socially and emotionally. Children learn by doing, which should be a messy, noisy, very active process.
The ECCE scheme is funded by the State but provided by a childcare industry which operates in the open market and developed rapidly at a time when getting more women into the workforce was an economic imperative.
For the past 20-plus years, two rival organisations have represented the sector, but now they are merging to form “one big voice” called Early Childhood Ireland, representing at least 80 per cent of providers of centre-based childcare. It will enable them to pool resources for, among other things, training, lobbying and research to inform policies.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Small rural schools are the heartbeat of the community, they must be saved [IrishTimes]
- Published: 29 March 2011
OPINION: The Government’s value-for-money audit is threatening the survival of small rural schools – but to close them would be a false economy, writes JOHN McKENNA
OUR FINANCIAL predicament in today’s Ireland is so parlous and so unpredictable that none of us can truthfully say: “We have been here before”. But other countries can say that they have been in pretty much the same mess that we find ourselves in.
We need to look at how they dug themselves out of the hole, corrected their finances and, as regards the seed bed of primary education, made sure that they were producing bright, well-educated children to help with the recovery of the economy and the recovery of the country.
Finland is one country which has been in a similar situation as Ireland is in today. In the early 1990s Finland’s economy was in tatters. Their unemployment rate was higher than ours, and their GDP plummeted.
So, what did they do? They increased spending on education and they clambered quickly out of recession, they rebuilt their economy, and their country.
Today, Finnish schoolchildren are top of European league tables in numeracy and literacy, thanks to generous spending on education, which accounts for
7 per cent of GDP. We spend less that 5 per cent of GDP on education. And the Government wants to cut back on even this low rate.
That is what is being proposed via the Small Primary Schools Value For Money Review. Primary schools with less than 50 pupils are being examined as part of a plan to save €20 million.
If small primary schools are forced to close, amalgamate and cut resources, you can be assured of one thing: children’s quality of education will suffer.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Pupils tell Minister what is wrong with Ireland [IrishTimes]
- Published: 29 March 2011
DIVORCE, DRUGS, alcohol abuse, bullying and the bad weather are some of the worst things about being a child in Ireland today.
But we don’t have wars, everyone has a roof over their head and there are less rules and restrictions than in other countries.
These are some of the views expressed by the first group of young people given the chance to participate in a consultation for a new National Children’s Strategy.
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald launched the consultation process yesterday and said she hoped the strategy would be in place by December.
She said the national consultation was a good opportunity for children to inform politicians and civil servants about their needs, wants, hopes and ambitions.
Erika, a 12-year-old who got the chance to fill out one of the consultation forms, drew a picture of her family inside a large heart. Her parents are smiling and happy but she is looking sad in the picture.
“One of the worst things in Ireland is that there are lots of divorces,” she said.
“But we don’t have any wars here, which is good . . . If I could change one thing I’d like to stop people dying of diseases,” she said.
“I’d change the weather,” said Holly, a 12-year-old sitting next to Erika.
She said that one of the worst things was that children were getting less pocket money because of the recession. Family and friends are some of the best things about being a child in Ireland.
Judith, a 12-year-old pupil at Loreto National School in Crumlin, said that the best thing about being a child is not having to worry about paying bills or taxes.
“But we do have to worry about whether our parents have jobs or not these days,” she said.
“If I had to change one thing it would be the food in hospitals. My cousin is in hospital and the food is terrible,” she said.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
