Exiled: the parents who dared to teach at home [timesonline.co.uk]
- Published: 24 March 2010
It was just after 7am in a chilly October day in 2006 when the police came knocking. Uwe and Hannalore Romeike and their three children remained quiet, scarcely daring to breath and hoping the cops would leave if they got no answer. But the officers were determined and threatened to break down the door. Reluctantly Uwe, a piano teacher, opened the door of his home in Bissingen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Shortly afterwards, the police drove away with three of their four children.
The Romeikes’ crime? Educating their children at home in a country where such activity is not only illegal, but regarded as highly suspect and even antisocial. A German court recently suggested that home schooling fosters the creation of “parallel societies”. And the police were called in to take the Romeike children to school.
Full Story: www.timesonline.co.uk
First-class honours degrees double since 1997 [learningireland.ie]
- Published: 24 March 2010
THE percentage of university students getting first-class honours has almost doubled since 1997. Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe yesterday confirmed to the Dáil that a review by his department had found significant "grade inflation" in both third and second-level.
The analysis found the percentage of university students getting first-class honours degrees rose from 8.3% in 1997 to 16.2% in 2008.
Similarly, the number of first-class awards given out by institutes of technology (excluding the Dublin Institute of Technology) increased from 11.2% in 1998 to 16.6% in 2008.
Full Story: www.learningireland.ie
Parents, teachers join forces to fight recent school cuts [meathchronicle.ie]
- Published: 24 March 2010
Parents, teachers and boards of management across the county are to undertake a major campaign against recent education cuts.
Over 200 people attended a meeting at Ratoath Senior National School recently, where serious concern was raised at the extent of the recent cuts and the impact they were having on children.
The meeting heard that class sizes in Meath are the third largest in the country and parents expressed outrage at the cuts in funding for special needs, language support, buildings needs and substitution, as well as the increase in class sizes.
Full Story: www.meathchronicle.ie
VEC to investigate the number of school drop outs [leitrimobserver.ie]
- Published: 24 March 2010
Cllr John Ward brought up the issue at the March meeting saying "There is a Youth Reach Centre in nearly every county in Ireland, except Leitrim." He enquired into why this was so.
CEO of Leitrim VEC, John Blunnie said that these centres are for people "who have dropped out early from school." He said the reason why Leitrim has never looked for one is that based on the Department of Education's statistics, Leitrim has only a "small number" of pupils who drop out of school. Mr Blunnie also told members that in the past the Traveller Training Centre in Carrick-on-Shannon had also facilitated those who had dropped out of school, unfortunately he said this situation has changed. Mr Blunnie said the Youth Reach Centre would need at least 15 - 20 young people aged 15-18 years old to attend it each year for it to be viable.
Full Story: www.leitrimobserver.ie
Should the churches be running schools? [informer.ie]
- Published: 24 March 2010
YES
It would be a great pity if failures on the part of church leaders were to have a serious negative impact on Catholic schools. One of the most notable contributions of the church is in the area of education. Why is it throughout the world that Catholic schools are so popular? It is surely because parents value the quality of the education provided and it is difficult to believe that so many parents could get such an important decision so wrong.
Parents are the primary educators of their children. This is recognised in the Irish Constitution and in many important international legal instruments. The churches are involved in education because there are parents who want to have their children educated in a Catholic / Protestant school.
Catholic schools in Ireland make an enormous contribution to our society and are models of inclusivity and care for all the students who attend them.Listening to some commentators one would think that there is some major flaw, almost a moral difficulty, in the management and patronage structures of these schools. Is it not the case that such criticisms tell us much more about the agendas of these commentators than they do about the reality of our schools? These schools are caring and inclusive communities. They have adapted to demographic change with significant net migration into Ireland and have led the way in integrating the ‘new Irish’ into local communities.
Full Story: www.informer.ie
