O'Keeffe orders probe as college scores 900pc inflation in grades [Independent.ie]
- Published: 02 March 2010
THERE has been a remarkable 900pc increase in the percentage of first-class honours degrees awarded by one university, the Irish Independent has learned.
A confidential report also reveals dramatic rises in first class and 2.1 degrees across the university sector.
The rise has prompted an inquiry by Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe, who expects to have a report on 'grade inflation' within a few days.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
John Walshe: Rising degree of alarm at third-level grade inflation [Independent.ie]
- Published: 02 March 2010
THE Irish education system used to be miserly in the percentages of top grades awarded both in the Leaving and in college. But not any more.
The changes are remarkable, no matter how you look at the statistics.
In 1995 just 3.8pc of Leaving Cert students applying to the CAO earned 500 points or more while last year 8.5pc did so.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Getting into schools should be a real lottery [timesonline.co.uk]
- Published: 02 March 2010
Imagine a world in which every school was great, apart from those that were magnificent. It would hardly matter if children did not get a place in their preferred, magnificent, school. They would just have to make do with the school that was merely great.
But, this morning, here in the real world, almost 100,000 parents will receive, by letter, e-mail or text, the news that they have not got the school they wanted. Everyone will proclaim that new Labour’s obsession with choice is pointless and what matters is a good local school. They are wrong.
Full Story: www.timesonline.co.uk
Changing lives through music [IrishTimes]
- Published: 02 March 2010
EDUCATION PROFILE: Sister Bernadette Sweeney, principal of St Agnes Primary School in Crumlin and star of RTE’s Music Changes Lives , hits all the right notes in her approach to education, writes LOUISE HOLDEN
‘I’M NOT a nun. That word isn’t big enough to define a person. I’m a woman of the universe.” Sister Bernadette Sweeney makes her way through life without the friction of frustration and resentment. People don’t annoy her, she says. She is in love with life.The principal of St Agnes Primary School in Crumlin was raised in a small house in Walkinstown with her parents and nine siblings. Bernadette learned music from an early age; piano, guitar, drums and violin. Music has shaped her religious and educational life since – three principalships, her travels in the US and her work with the National Children’s Choir. Bernadette was ready to move on from schools and into another field of educational leadership when she was asked by her order to take on a disadvantaged school in transition in Dublin.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Secondary schools should 'take over' primaries, say Tories [timesonline.co.uk]
- Published: 02 March 2010
Successful secondary schools should take over local primary schools to drive up standards at an earlier stage, the Conservatives said yesterday.
Michael Gove, the Shadow Schools Secretary, urged head teachers of high-performing schools to turn themselves into academies and improve neighbouring schools.
“I would like to see far more primary schools coming under the wing of great secondary schools,” Mr Gove told an invited audience of heads in London.
Full Story: www.timesonline.co.uk
