We cut education spending at our peril
- Published: 09 April 2009
[source: Irish Times]
by AIDAN GAUGHRAN
Tuesday April 7th 2009
TEACHING MATTERS : In terms of tackling the economic crisis, most attention so far has been focused on the banking, the housing sector and the public finances.
Based on the Government's track record, there are real fears that today's Budget will see vital social spending on areas such as education sacrificed to rescue these sectors. This is despite a fairly widespread consensus that education will be one of the key drivers of recovery.
It is easy to see through some of the calls to ring fence educational spending which have come from big business. Even the casual observer can see these calls are motivated by the desire for the education system to deliver the next generation of skilled labour for big business.
But protecting education from the scalpel could, in fact, lead to far more than profits for the self-serving, semi-detached financial elite. Maintaining investment in education could actually ensure that the next generation realises that people are more important than profit and so avoid a possible re-run of the current economic disaster.
In terms of today's Budget announcements, the first step will be to protect investment in education. But to achieve real, long-term returns from education will take more than protecting the investment alone.
In order to ensure widespread societal benefit from education the system will have to be liberated from the ideology of the marketplace that has slowly but surely subverted its true purposes. Education is not a process through which to implement Darwinian theories. Selection of the fittest and rejection of the rest, predetermining the life chances of individuals from childhood has no place in world of education.
Education is about maximising the potential of all, not just the privileged few.
Education in its real sense is about human development and the fulfilment of human potential. Just as education is not a marketplace, neither is it a commodity to be bought by those with means. It is a human right, the birthright of every child and young person in a civilised society.
A major contributor to the economic collapse that we have witnessed is down to a lack of accountability and the absence of effective regulation in the world of finance. For the last two decades, existing effective regulation was deliberately and purposefully swept aside by free market capitalists. Perversely, during that same period the world of education has witnessed an increase in regulation, red tape, bureaucracy and accountability that has reached epidemic proportions. Billion-dollar deals could be transacted without a shred of accountability but a teacher was unable to teach a reading lesson to eight-year-olds without a tsunami of bureaucracy and red tape.
It is time to reverse the roles. Financiers must be subjected to real and robust regulation. Teachers who day in day out perform a valuable public service must have some of the regulatory burden removed from their shoulders.
Positioning schools to play a part in re-creating a better, fairer society will not be an easy task. It will not be completed in the short term. Given the day that is in it, there is an understandable fear that teachers and parents will be back in the trenches battling for scarce resources, perhaps for many years to come.
Brian Lenihan would do the State some service today if he were to avoid that scenario, ring fence education funding and not distract teachers from creating a better future for all Irish citizens.
Aidan Gaughran teaches on Clonmel, Co Tipperary and is a member of the education committeee of the INTO
Special needs pupils should sit new exam [independent.ie]
- Published: 08 April 2009
Source: independent.ie
By Katherine Donnelly
Wednesday April 08 2009
An alternative Junior Certificate for pupils with mild to moderate learning disabilities is under discussion by government education advisers.
It would apply to certain students with little or no chance of attaining the traditional Junior Cert qualification .
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) is considering a special learning programme with a qualification rated at a level below the Junior Cert.
The need for an alternative is becoming increasingly evident as more pupils with special needs enrol in mainstream schools, although some are in special schools.
Some of these students may participate in the Junior Cert cycle, but if they do not take the exam, there is no other qualification available to them.
The proposed new programme would not apply to all students with special needs, but a minority in the moderate to lower functioning learning disability spectrum.
The NCCA advises that it will require money and other resources but warns, "while the practical and policy implications are very significant so are the needs of the group of students in question". At any one time there would be fewer than 1,000 such students in second-level education.
In a preliminary discussion paper, the NCCA notes that in the 20 years since the introduction of the Junior Cert, the profile of students has changed, reflecting a greater diversity of learning needs.
Legislative and policy changes in the area of special education had given rise to the issue of equality and entitlements for students with special educational needs, it states.
With the greater diversity, principals can identify students who need concerted support in personal, social and vocational development and who would find it impossible to attain the learning outcomes associated with the Junior Cert.
The rate of progress of such students, many of whom will be the subject of Individual Education Plans (IEPs) may be slower and the level they can expect to reach is generally lower than that attained by their peers.
It highlights a need to focus on the individual learning needs of such students and seek to achieve a balance between providing a broad and balanced curriculum and a curriculum appropriate to their specific needs.
However, the NCCA acknowledges that this would be a challenge, particularly for mainstream schools, which are structured, scheduled and organised to meet the needs of groups of students rather than individuals.
The paper stresses the importance for these students to attain a qualification that would be nationally recognised, placed in the 10 point National Qualification Framework and designed to offer progression in education.
The Junior Cert is a level three in that scale, and the NCCA has suggested the alternative programme be awarded a level two, equivalent to the existing Further Education Training and Awards Council (FETAC) level two award.
The NCCA says that its proposals would "make a significant contribution to inclusive education and, for the students in question, would offer a nationally recognised qualification at junior cycle for the first time.
The NCCA plans to work with schools and other relevant educational settings and FETAC to prepare a more extensive discussion paper.
- Katherine Donnelly
Minister O'Keeffe outlines key Budget measures in Education as part of efforts to cut public spending [DES]
- Published: 07 April 2009
Source: DES
As part of the Government's efforts to reduce public expenditure, the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe TD, today outlined the details of the 2009 Supplementary Budget provision for his Department.
The gross allocation for the Department of Education and Science is now €9.493 billion.
The measures introduced today account for a reduction of €81 million in overall gross expenditure compared with the pre-Supplementary Budget estimate of €9.574 billion.
Minister O'Keeffe said: 'I'm pleased that frontline services in schools have been protected in this Budget and that we're continuing to invest significantly in education at all levels.
'Despite the severe economic circumstances, we've still prioritised our capital budget in schools.
'I expect that all school building projects I've already announced to go to tender will proceed this year.
'The more competitive environment in the construction sector will enable me to maximise the return I get for the Government's capital investment in education.'
However, Minister O'Keeffe pointed that current expenditure is to be reduced by €27 million to €8.643 billion while capital expenditure is to be reduced by €54 million to €850 million.
'The reductions in current and capital expenditure were necessary as part of the Government's efforts to reduce overall public expenditure and stabilise the public finances.
'I'm pleased to announce the creation of 6,910 extra places for unemployed workers in the further and higher education sectors.
'This is part of the new labour market activation initiative agreed between my Department, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Social and Family Affairs,' said Minster O'Keeffe.
He said the total cost of this initiative in education for this year is €18.85 million.
The Minister for Lifelong Learning, Seán Haughey TD, welcomed the move, saying: 'This joint approach to labour market activation brings forward a range of measures aimed at keeping workers in jobs, re-skilling and facilitating better access to allowances.'
ENDS
Note 1: The revised allocation agreed today is a reduction of some €134 million over the original Budget allocation of €9.627 billion announced last October. In addition to the €81m mentioned above other adjustments amounting to €53 million have been made since October. These adjustments include a technical transfer of €43 million to the Department of Health and Children in respect of youth services; general administrative and payroll reductions across a range of areas totalling €25 million; savings in respect of reductions in the rate of professional fees of €3 million. These reductions were offset by a net allocation of an extra €17.8 million for building projects earlier this year as part of a Government decision on capital expenditure. The net allocation announced in the October Budget has been adjusted to take account of the pension levy which is estimated to yield €331 million during this year.
Note 2: Please find attached a briefing note outlining the main details of today's Supplementary Budget for the education sector.
http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/PR09-04-07A.doc
Internet 'cogging' rife, says DCU chief [independent.ie]
- Published: 07 April 2009
Source: independent.ie
By Caitrina Cody
Tuesday April 07 2009
GROWING numbers of college students are using the internet to plagiarise course work, according to a leading academic.
Dublin City University President Ferdinand von Prondzynski said the web had transformed plagiarism into an industry, making material available to confused students at the click of a mouse.
Writing on his blog, he said that in the past plagiarism "required a fair amount of effort if it was to pass muster -- it was necessary for the miscreant to seek out a library, or a bookshop, or the help of somebody more expert".
Nowadays all that had changed, thanks to students who were plundering the rich resources of online journals in the hope of better grades.
Intentionally
But many students were not intentionally cheating, said Prof von Prondzynski, and were simply confused about the rules surrounding plagiarism.
"As an external examiner in another college, I encountered one student who had no idea that he was plagiarising another person's work," he said.
"I asked all the other examiners how much of it they felt was going on and, at a guess, they felt that around 10pc of the material passing through their hands had been plagiarised."
The DCU president recalled another incident in a different college when he reviewed the work of one student after it had been graded by another examiner. "As I read it, it seemed very familiar to me . . . and rightly so, as I had written it myself," he said. "He had lifted a whole chapter from a book I had written a few years earlier and presented it as his work.
"What amused me even more was that the two internal examiners hadn't noticed the plagiarism and gave the student's effort (in reality, word for word my own work) a mark of 58pc," said Prof von Prondzynski.
The academic said that better communication was needed in universities to help students understand how to avoid plagiarising while still using other sources in their essays.
"Many who plagiarise don't do so in a spirit of malice, but feel it is the educational counterpart to tax evasion -- naughty, but almost heroic," he said.
"But the downside is that it gives rise to an atmosphere of suspicion and forces examiners to waste time looking for plagiarism. It means they begin to mistrust students of average ability when they hand in better-than-average papers."
- Caitrina Cody
O'Keeffe criticised for giving 'partial information' [independent.ie]
- Published: 07 April 2009
Source: independent.ie
By Katherine Donnelly
Tuesday April 07 2009
EDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe is under fire after publishing a school building programme that only provides "partial information".
The minister has bowed to pressure by publishing a list of the status of 247 school building projects within his department.
But the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) said that the list is full of holes, with no timescale provided.
The minister has promised further details in due course, but INTO general secretary John Carr said that they had been promised full information by the end of last year.
The list produced by the minister shows at what stage the 247 projects are in the department's procedural framework, known as architectural planning, for major capital work .
But the INTO criticised the list for giving no indication of priority or timescale and said many applications from schools were not even on the list, noting that in November the minister said there were 360 major projects in "architectural planning".
Mr Carr said: "This is only partial information.
"What people want to see is the full list of all schools in the building programme, the priority rating assigned to each school and an indicative timescale for building projects.
"Without this data, schools have no way of knowing when, if ever, their building projects will come on stream. Without this transparency schools cannot have confidence in the system."
He said said that over five months ago Mr O'Keeffe told the Dail that he had instructed his officials that all of the data on schools and their priority rating should be put on the department's website.
"He said he hoped this would be done by the end of last year. It still hasn't happened and now schools all over the country wanted to know why."
Demands
Mr Carr said that from 2002 to 2004, following demands by the INTO for transparency and accountability in the building programme, Noel Dempsey produced full information on school building.
"At the time, at least all schools in the country knew where they stood and could have trust and confidence in the process," Mr Carr added.
His successor in the Department of Education, Mary Hanafin, did not continue that practice.
Last night a spokesman for Mr O'Keeffe said he had already indicated that he intended to publish on the department's website information on the details of projects on the school building and modernisation programme.
"Information will be provided on the status of the project, the band rating and type of project. Work on formatting these lists is at an advanced stage and the minister hopes to be in a position to publish very shortly."
The latest criticisms follow revelations that two schools were added, at the last minute, to the list of projects to go to tender and construction this year.
The minister's spokesman said yesterday: "Lists will always be changed. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."
- Katherine Donnelly
