300pc rise in demand for used text books [Independent.ie]
- Published: 24 August 2009
STRUGGLING parents are turning to secondhand books in a bid to bring down their back-to-school costs, with a four-fold increase in demand for them this year.
One website has reported a dramatic surge in the number of parents using its free service, which allows those with unwanted school books, and others seeking specific books, to post notices online.
Paul Baird, who has been running schoolbooksonline.ie for almost 10 years, said he has seen a "massive increase" in the number of people looking for secondhand books since last year. He believes the recession is forcing many cash-strapped parents to reduce their costs.
Full Story: http://www.independent.ie/
Aptitude tests likely for more top courses - including teaching [Independent.ie]
- Published: 24 August 2009
PRESSURE is mounting to extend controversial aptitude tests used for entry into medicine to other third-level courses. Likely first areas that could be affected include pharmacy, veterinary medicine, law and even teaching.
The Department of Education and Science said the operation of the HPAT aptitude test for medicine this year will be monitored to see if such tests should be extended to other high points courses. The decision to introduce the HPAT test for medicine caused a storm when many high-flying students with maximum points missed out on a place.
A move to extend the tests to other courses has been backed by the head of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), the employers' organisation IBEC and the Irish National Teachers Organisation. All three organisations say the Leaving Certificate alone is no longer enough to measure the suitability of students for a range of courses. All three want a public debate on the issues.
Full Story: http://www.independent.ie/
There is no exam that can tell us who will be a good doctor [Independent.ie]
- Published: 23 August 2009
The new aptitude test is favouring the clever work-shirker over the diligent student, believes John Crown
Well done Marie Claire McGrath of Tipperary who scored full marks -- 600 points -- in the recent Leaving Certificate examination. No matter how smart, or how advantaged she might have been, she could not have achieved this feat without an unbelievable amount of dedication and sacrificing many of the pleasures of her youth.
Her heart was set on going to medical school, and becoming a doctor. She could not have done better in the exam which our secondary school system is built around, and by all accounts is a highly motivated, normal 17-year-old. Yet she has been deemed to be an unsuitable person for admission to our profession.
Full Story: http://www.independent.ie/
Divide and rule begins at school [Guardian.co.uk]
- Published: 22 August 2009
*UK perspective article
There is nothing more pernicious than the educational divide in this country.
Series: Lucy Mangan's weekend column
Previous | IndexLucy Mangan: Divide and rule begins at school
There is nothing more pernicious than the educational divide in this country.
I went to a secondary school where the pupils never had a book each. All the years we were there, we shared one between two or three. Sometimes I take this fact out, place it carefully on the ground and stare at it in disbelief. I used to look for the positive. Ah, the 80s! Ra-ra skirts, neon make-up and a marked lack of public funds everywhere. It gave the family - my mother in the NHS, my dad in teaching, me and my sister in state education - so much to bond over.
This has always been my trouble, I think. I am too slow to anger. I should have become immediately and vociferously politicised the moment I realised that reading Animal Farm from a 60-degree angle (only the one in the middle got to sit upright) was an optimal approach solely to developing scoliosis, rather than an interest in literature.
Instead, as I try to negotiate my way through the rocky territory of life, it has taken fully 20 years of watching unsuspected chasms of ignorance yawn open beneath my feet to make me fully appreciate just how much we were bilked.
The heavy work of raising my flabby consciousness receives the occasional boost, of course, by news such as the Independent Schools Council's threat to take legal action against the Charities Commission for suggesting (that's "suggesting", not "stating what has since their inception been blindingly obvious but traditionally ignored") that some (again, that's "some", as opposed to "blindingly obviously, all") independent schools don't pass the public benefit test and - drum roll from young Fotherington-Thomas, who has been taking extra lessons in the specially-soundproofed music room in the west tower at 50 quid a pop on top of his £10,000-a-term fees - shouldn't really be classed as charities at all. I know. I know. You don't say.
Full Story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Moving from highly qualified to highly effective teachers [ASCD]
- Published: 21 August 2009
ASCD recently held a briefing on Capitol Hill to explore the various policies and practices necessary to transform highly qualified teachers to highly effective teachers, and ways to help struggling teachers improve.
Full Story: http://www.ascd.org/
