IPPN

Criticism of teacher cover changes

Published: 18 December 2008

By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent
PROPOSED changes to substitution cover for second-level teachers will not be enough to allow schools to continue sports and other extra curricular activities, principals have warned.
A deal was reached earlier this month between Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe and school management bodies to lift proposed restrictions on cover for teachers on uncertified sick leave and official school business. The situation improved the scenario in which school managers and teachers had warned that the ban on all such substitution and supervision cover from January, as proposed in the budget, would have led to children being sent home because of inadequate supervision.

However, the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals said it will be impossible to implement the revised scheme.

Schools will be allocated a set number of hours for substitution or supervision, depending on their student numbers, based on a ratio of 16 hours substitution cover for schools with 100 pupils or less, 32 hours for a 200 pupil school and 64 hours for a 400 pupil school.

Association director Clive Byrne said that, while the level of cover will go a long way to averting the crisis previously expected, schools will have to curtail sports, drama and field trips.

"Most of the hours will be used by any school for uncertified sick leave ... There will be little time left after that for co-curricular activities," he said.

It is expected that the operation of the new scheme could also depend on the co-operation of teachers asked to supervise classes due to have been taken by colleagues who are away with class groups. Most of the country's 25,000 second level teachers are signed up to do 37 hours of supervision each school year for a payment of about €1,800, but those hours are almost entirely used up on fostered supervision of break times and after-school supervision.

Doubts over school building plan

Published: 18 December 2008

Source: Irish Examiner

DOUBTS have been raised about the four-year time scale in which Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe expects to have completed the latest group of schools built under a public private partnership (PPP) deal.

He announced yesterday that six second-level schools and one primary school each in Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Waterford, Westmeath and Wexford are to be included in the third bundle of PPP schools to be funded by his department, catering for up to 4,800 students when they open.

But Labour party education spokesperson Ruairi Quinn questioned his target for delivery of the latest seven schools by late 2012, which Mr O'Keeffe said was subject to completion of the planning process.

Following a pilot PPP schools project completed in 2002, two groups of PPP schools announced in 2005 and 2006 now look set to take between four and five years to complete.

"In light of the crisis affecting the provision of school places in areas of high population growth, use of the strategic infrastructure legislation should be examined to avail of the fast-track planning approach it would allow," Mr Quinn said.

He said using PPPs was now probably the most expensive way to build schools, as they involve interest rates to private companies which are much higher than existing European Central Bank rates.

"With the massive turndown in the construction industry, one would have to question if reversion to this expensive off-balance sheet borrowing is the best way to go, given the need for the State to get value for money in a falling market," he said.

Mr O'Keeffe said one of the main advantages of PPP schools is that the principal is not involved on a daily basis in maintenance and caretaking issues, which become the responsibility of the contract holder.

The minister's spokesperson said procedures for the second and subsequent projects allow agreement of definitive deadlines with private partners up front, which will also help speed up delivery of the schools.

Religious order fails to stop damages bid

Published: 18 December 2008

Source: Irish Examiner

A RELIGIOUS order yesterday failed in a High Court challenge seeking to stop a claim for damages against it by two men who were sexually abused more than 30 years ago by one of its teachers.

The teacher, a member of the Franciscan order, was jailed in 1998 after pleading guilty to physical and sexual assault on the two, when they were aged 11 and 12, and attending a national school where he worked.

The men, now aged 46 and 47, subsequently brought civil proceedings against the teacher and against the Franciscans claiming it was vicariously liable for the actions of the teacher.

Proceedings were also taken against the principal of the school, the parish priest as school manager, and against the Department of Education.

The men obtained judgment in default against the teacher in May 2006 and the case against him is due before the High Court for assessment of damages only. The case against the Franciscans is due to be heard before a judge and jury.

The Franciscans took High Court proceedings seeking to strike out the men's case against them because of alleged inordinate and inexcusable delay in commencing the damages claim in July 2000, and/or a further delay in prosecuting those proceedings, thereby causing prejudice to them (the Franciscans).

The Franciscans argued, among the reasons for seeking a strike out, that the death of the parish priest since the initiation of proceedings meant they were being asked to revisit matters of antiquity where they had lost a witness. They also argued it would be a travesty of justice to allow the hearing proceed because the Franciscans had no involvement in the school.

Lawyers for the two men argued the delay between the dates of the assaults and the bringing of the damages claim was excusable because medical reports showed both men were traumatised by what had happened and could not have taken proceedings sooner. Dismissing the Franciscans' application yesterday, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said while there had been an inordinate delay prior to instituting the proceedings, it was excusable. The central issue the court had to decide was whether or not the Franciscans knew, or ought to have known, that the teacher had abused before or had a tendency to abuse.

In the particular circumstances of this case and exercising his discretion based on general fairness, the judge said it would be inappropriate to dismiss the claim on grounds it was inordinate but excusable delay before the damages action was brought. The judge said with regard to the post-commencement of proceedings delay, he was satisfied the conduct of both sides contributed to this with regard to disclosure of documents and replies to correspondence.

'Apartheid' slur on Gaelscoileanna not based on facts

Published: 18 December 2008

Source: Irish Times

Parents are not getting an unfair advantage by sending their children to Irish-medium schools, writes Muireann Ní Mhóráin

AN EYE-CATCHING phrase like "educational apartheid" may grab attention but it should have some basis in reality. That reality, in Kate Holmquist's recent assault on Irish medium education, is an anecdotal world in which middle-class, privileged parents are said to be gaining an unfair advantage for their children by the novel route of having them attend all-Irish schools.

The facts, she says, speak for themselves. However, the series of factual errors by the often excellent Holmquist is remarkable. Political correctness aside, the use of a term like apartheid has to have some consciousness of its historical reality.

The Stillorgan she refers to (the schools she singles out are not actually in Stillorgan) is a long way from Soweto. Still, the suggestion that its citizens are enjoying an educational leg-up by opting for Irish-medium schools is worthy of examination.

It is correct to state that pupils who answer certain subjects in Irish at the written State examination are awarded extra marks - between 3 and 10 per cent - but this happens on a sliding scale. High-achieving pupils who go on to study, say, medicine benefit minimally from the bonus and only a tiny number nationally gain entrance by being awarded these additional marks.

In any language, 14 of the top 25 non-fee-paying schools ("fee-paying" Gaelscoileanna do not exist) in The Irish Timesleague table of feeder schools are not, as we are informed, Irish-speaking institutions. Only two of the schools are Gaelscoileanna. A further two teach some students through Irish. It is common for schools to have Irish language names, eg Clochar Ãosa agus Mhuire, but not to teach through Irish.

Next statement: "Every year, the most Leaving Cert students with the most As come largely from Irish-speaking schools."

In schoolyard parlance: Says who? No official figures are available quantifying the exam grades achieved by any category of pupil, nor is it currently legal to publish any such league tables.

We are blithely assured that "students from Irish-speaking schools are more likely to get on the university course of their choice, whether it's law, medicine or the arts".

This is simply not the case, as The Irish Timescorrectly reported in its Feeder Schools 2008 analysis: nearly 70 per cent of the top-ranked schools are fee-paying, English-medium schools.

Attending an Irish-speaking school, your child "will be surrounded by mostly middle-class children". Post-primary Gaelscoileanna in the Dublin area are based in Cabra, Clondalkin, Donaghmede, Glasnevin, Lucan and Tallaght, as well as Booterstown. All cater for pupils in their catchment areas and beyond, without regard to socio-economic background.

The child will also be likely "to have smaller classes", apparently. Any reference to published figures? Any basis in fact whatsoever? None.

Holmquist informs us things have "got to the stage now where having dyslexia is considered an enviable bonus amongst secondary school students, because it exempts these students from having to do Irish". Readers can make up their own minds on the virtues of this phrase.

The consoling quip "if only they'd written their letters the wrong way and become exempt" can be dismissed as juvenile.

A fantastic scenario is conjured up of parents and teachers struggling heroically to enable the children in their care to "communicate well" in English, only for all this good work to go to waste, as the unfortunate pupils are then disadvantaged by "being made to study Irish".

International evidence shows that children with language difficulties benefit from learning an additional language. In any event, the progress of these children would logically be stymied by "being made" to work their way through mathematics, history, science, French etc.

Bonus points for Mathematics would support progressive economic policy, we are now told. But bonus points for studying through Irish? Regressive at best, a form of racism at worst.

The inspiration for this polemic seems to have been an overheard conversation as Gaeilge on the Dart. Sadly, it reeks of "dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi".

And as for the paper of record? Must try harder.

Muireann Ní Mhóráin is chief executive of An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta

O'Keeffe furious as protesters target his family home

Published: 18 December 2008

Source: Irish Independent

By Ralph Riegel
Thursday December 18 2008

EDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe has expressed outrage after Gaelscoil parents and students staged a Santa protest outside his family home yesterday, leaving his wife very upset.

The demonstration -- by parents and supporters of Gaelscoil Bharra in Cabra, Dublin -- involved a sackful of Santa letters -- demanding a new school building -- being delivered to Mr O'Keeffe's Cork home in Ballincollig.

Mr O'Keeffe was on Government business in Dublin and only his wife, Mary, was at home.

She became upset when there was no sign of the demonstrators leaving.

"My wife felt as if she was effectively barricaded into her own home," Mr O'Keeffe told the Irish Independent. "I am more than 30 years in politics and I have never before experienced anything like this.

"I have no problem with people demonstrating or protesting against Government policies, it's part and parcel of democracy. But I have to say that staging events like this outside a family home does raise serious issues," he added.

Mr O'Keeffe also queried how appropriate it was for students to be given a day off school to make a 300-mile round trip to protest outside his Cork home.

"If they wanted to protest, I was in Dublin all day and I could have saved them the trouble of the trip," he said.

"I am checking the records now but, as far as I know, no-one from this school sought to send a direct deputation to me," he said.

Gaelscoil Bharra -- which caters for 220 students -- was founded 13 years ago but is still based in a series of ageing prefabs.

There was no suggestion the protesters behaved in an unruly or intimidating manner beyond mounting what was described as a noisy demonstration.

- Ralph Riegel