Teacher's apple is rotten to the core [economist.com]
- Published: 03 November 2011
ACROSS England hundreds of thousands of parents are in the process of choosing a state school for their child. They inspect premises on open days, quiz head teachers and staff, and, at some of the better establishments, they may also be shown round by a well-groomed star pupil who will regale them with tales of derring do. As they decide which schools to place in order of preference on the application form, they will weigh the chances of their child getting into each one. The matter is far from straightforward.
England's state schools have an absurdly complex rule book for how they may and may not choose their pupils. Apart from the 164 remaining grammar schools, none is allowed to select pupils on the basis of their outstanding academic prowess. Some schools instead select on musical ability, which is supposed to be identified using tests that potential pupils cannot be coached to pass, but which many suspect pick up those lucky ones whose parents forked out for piano lessons. Others chose pupils to represent the full spectrum of academic ability, still others do it by lottery. Professed parental piety will help win a place at a high-performing church school. In any event, paying a premium to live as close as possible to the school of your choice will improve the chances of your child being admitted.
Full Story: www.economist.com
Draft proposals due on primary level handovers [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 03 November 2011
EXPERTS appointed to oversee Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector are finalising draft policy proposals.
Much of their deliberations are about ways to identify communities where there may be enough demand for wider choice of primary school types for the local Catholic bishop to divest his patronage and make a school available to an alternative patron.
This key area will form part of the draft suggestions to be presented on November 17 by the group, chaired by former professor of education at NUI Maynooth, John Coolahan.
More complicated issues to have been raised by education stakeholders in June, included questions around how to choose which local Catholic school might be handed over, how to select an alternative patron, how existing schools in rural areas can best accommodate children of other or no faiths, and legal questions around the transfer of property held in trust.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
Groups apply for school patronages [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 03 November 2011
THE Department of Education has received applications from eight groups to be patrons of 13 new primary schools due to open in the next two years.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn announced in June that the new schools will open in major population growth areas in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Kildare.
His department invited interested bodies to apply for the patronages up to early last month, with a newly formed, independent New Schools Establishment Group to recommend a patron in each case to the minister.
There were just two applicants for almost half the planned schools, but there are four prospective patrons for three of them.
The multi-denominational schools group Educate Together has applied to become patron to all but one. The Vocational Education Committees (VECs) in counties Cork, Dublin and Kildare and in Galway city have applied to open community national schools in 10 areas.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
Parents need specialised help to support special needs children [advertiser.ie]
- Published: 03 November 2011
Criticising the opposition for continuing to “play politics with the SNA issue”, Fine Gael's spokesperson on social protection Senator Fidelma Healy Eames has called for parents of children with special needs to be the Government's central focus by providing specialised help and support.
“I have discussed this issue with schools and parents here and in the UK and the consensus is that parents are the missing piece in the special needs' jigsaw. The SNA is only part of the picture. We need to work more closely with parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) from the moment of diagnosis, so they are enabled to help their child. At school level the Department of Education should be the lead agency on the issue. For example, the Department’s own report points to the fact that a large proportion of the SNAs are allocated to children with behavioural difficulties. Much as schools play a vital role in supporting children with special needs, parents have the child for 17 or 18 hours a day. To ignore their influence in the SEN child's life is to miss the point.
“Behavioural difficulties are a concern both in the home and in the school. Simply allocating SNAs in school is unlikely to change the child’s overall behaviour. Working with parents is a critical missing piece in the total picture. Jim Mulkerrins, Department of Education’s head of special education, agreed with me on this point at last week's Oireachtas Education committee,” she said.
Full Story: www.advertiser.ie
Boom led to large fall in pupil-teacher ratios [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 02 November 2011
THE increased investment in education during the boom years resulted in Ireland having one of the biggest falls in primary pupil-teacher ratios in Europe.
According to Eurostat, the EU’s official statistical office, the number of pupils per teacher in primary education here fell from 22 to 16 between 2000 and 2009. But while only Malta, Lithuania and Latvia — from 18 countries with comparable data — recorded bigger falls, Ireland’s primary pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) was still higher than the EU average of 14.5:1 in 2009.
The allocation of mainstream teachers to primary schools, which help determine class sizes, were increased in 2006 and 2007. But the PTR drop also reflects big increases in the number of special needs teachers sanctioned by governments during the period concerned.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
