SVP help with the homework
- Published: 17 December 2008
Source: Irish Independent
Education is the key to helping young people escape the poverty trap
Wednesday December 17 2008
In their homework club in Dublin's north inner city, volunteers from the Society of St Vincent de Paul are helping teenage pupils with their maths.
Michael Lennon, a SVP volunteer who works for a pharmaceutical company, offers tuition to Junior Cert and Leaving Cert students as they grapple with equations.
Like hundreds of volunteers across the country Michael is giving his time to the project free of charge.
"I hope that it helps to boost their self-confidence,'' says Michael.
"I think that's what it's all about with maths.''
The pupils, who all come all from disadvantaged backgrounds, get the sort of one-to-one help that is rarely available in schools.
The homework club is one of over 50 similar low-profile operations run by SVP across the country.
Many of the volunteers are fully qualified teachers, students and graduates. Pupils generally attend the clubs once or twice a week.
"Many of the students would find it difficult to get their work done at home, because of their family circumstances,'' says Tony Rock, director of SVP's Ozanam House resource centre, which hosts the north inner city homework club. "They may not have a quiet space to work in.''
Among the students are "unaccompanied minors'' from Africa who do not have parents in Ireland. Without the homework club, they might receive little help with education outside school.
The extra tuition at the club helps these young students to overcome the language barrier and adapt to our second-level system.
The resource centre on Mountjoy Square is a hive of activity at seven in the evening.
On the top floor, students are being tutored, while on another floor, members of the centre's youth group are hosting a Christmas dinner for parents.
SVP is best known for the direct aid that it provides to hard-up families, particularly at Christmas.
At this time of year, the charity is preparing parcels of food and presents which will be distributed right across the country. At Ozanam House, there is a storeroom piled up with presents to be dispatched to families.
The society's active involvement in education is less well known, but is now considered just as important.
As well as the homework clubs, the society provides crèche and pre-school facilities, pays for school books, runs breakfast clubs, and helps out third-level students and those in adult education.
At Ozanam House, local people can do courses in computers, art and the English language.
The centre's manager Tony Rock hopes the adult education classes will eventually be recognised by FETAC, the further education qualifications body.
Increasingly, senior figures in St Vincent de Paul see education as the key to helping young people to escape from a cycle of unemployment and poverty.
SVP's vice president, John Monaghan, is passionate on the issue.
"If people from areas such as this (the north inner city) are to get good jobs they have to be educated.''
Monaghan, a professor of engineering at Trinity College, was incensed by the recent education cuts.
As he outlined SVP's approach to education, he did not mince his words about the withdrawal of certain grants to disadvantaged students, describing them as "insane''.
"The cuts make no sense at all, from a financial point of view, apart from anything else.
"If you look at inmates in Mountjoy Prison, you will find that the vast majority have very low educational attainment.
"The State is spending €90,000 on prisoners in Mountjoy, but if they spent money on the education of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, they would not have to be spending so much.''
Professor John Monaghan says there should be a new National Development Plan aimed at people, rather than infrastructure.
This would include education in its remit.
"By cutting back on education, the Government will help to reinforce a dependency culture that could last for generations.
"Those who leave school with no qualifications, or even with a Junior Cert, will find it increasingly difficult to get a good job and face the prospect of casual employment or life on the dole.
With no real career prospects and no hope for the future it would not be surprising if antisocial behaviour and crime did not appear an attractive career option for some young people.
"If that happens, then not only will the potential of these young people to contribute to their communities be lost, but as a State we will, at the very least, have to pay for additional welfare expenses and, sadly, even the cost of keeping them in prison.''
- Kim Bielenberg
Minister O'Keeffe announces go-ahead for seven schools under PPP plan
- Published: 16 December 2008
Source: D.E.S.
'Third bundle to create over 4,800 new school places' - Minister
The Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe TD, today announced seven projects to be included in the third bundle of schools as part of the department's public-private partnership (PPP) programme.
Six are post-primary schools and one is a primary school.
They are located in counties Donegal, Leitrim, Galway, Wexford, Waterford and Westmeath.
Announcing the projects, Minister O'Keeffe said the schools will provide new accommodation for over 4,800 pupils.
'I'm delighted to announce these projects as part of the third bundle of the PPP programme.
'They will create new school places for over 4,800 pupils, radically improving our educational infrastructure at primary and post-primary levels.
'I want to congratulate each school on their selection and I hope that construction work can begin as quickly as possible once all necessary steps have been taken in the PPP process.
'I've asked officials from my department's PPP unit to immediately begin the pre-procurement process for the third bundle.
'Stakeholder meetings will be held with each school early next year to detail the PPP procurement mechanism and the role of the individual schools in the bundled project.
'Under the PPP programme, projects are procured in bundles and offered to the market on a design, build, finance and operate basis.
'One of the main advantages PPP schools have is that the principal is not involved on a daily basis in maintenance and caretaking issues.
'These become the responsibility of the PPP operator for the period of the contract.
'The National Development Finance Agency will procure the schools for the Department of Education and Science,' said Minister O'Keeffe.
Subject to the completion of the planning process, the current indicative timeframe for these schools to become operational is late 2012.
The following schools are to be included in the third bundle of the PPP programme:
Post-primary
Coláiste Ailigh, Letterkenny, Co Donegal: to provide a permanent school for the gaelcholáiste established in 2000 [350 pupils].
Ballinamore Community School, Co Leitrim: arising from the amalgamation of Fatima and Felim's Secondary School and Ballinamore Vocational School [400 pupils].
Doughiska Community College, Co Galway: new school for a rapidly growing population in the Doughiska area [650 pupils]. It will be provided on a shared campus with the new primary school - see below.
Gorey, Co Wexford: new school for a rapidly growing population in the Gorey area [1,000 pupils].
Tramore Community School, Co Waterford: arising from the amalgamation of CBS Tramore and Stella Maris schools [1,000 pupils].
Athlone Community College, Co Westmeath: replacement for the current building [1,000 pupils].
Primary
Doughiska, Co Galway: new school for a rapidly growing population in the Doughiska area [447 pupils].
ENDS
2009 - Get used to cutback culture
- Published: 16 December 2008
Source: Irish Times
SEAN FLYNN, Education Editor
Tue, Dec 16, 2008
2008 was a dramatic year in education as parents, teachers and schools came to terms with the new cutback culture. But what kind of year was it for key players in the education sector? And what are their prospects for 2009?
BATT O'KEEFFE
Minister for Education and Science
O'Keeffe was the surprise choice to replace Mary Hanafin in Brian Cowen's first Cabinet. A former Cork inter-county footballer, the 62 year-old is the most controversial minister since Noel Dempsey in 2002.
O'Keeffe is not unlike Dempsey. Both share the same left-wing ideology and the same left-field perspective. And both like to shake up the cosy consensus.
With Dempsey-style courage and resolution, Batt moved to reopen the debate on third-level fees and he began to ask awkward questions about spending at third level.
O'Keeffe also adopted a combative approach to the teacher unions, especially the INTO. In his view, all that cosying up by his predecessor Mary Hanafin to the INTO served little purpose; he would take on the union if required.
O'Keeffe's education cutbacks in the Budget have unleashed the most significant confrontation between the education sector and the minister since the ASTI strike. O'Keeffe has been criticised for some cold-hearted cuts, but he has also gained kudos for his political resolve.
2009 will be dominated by the end game on the Budget cuts as most take effect in September. The INTO will be pumping up the volume in advance of the local and European elections, so O'Keeffe will be under renewed pressure.
His hope is that the weakening economy will erode public support for the teaching sector.
But at this moment there is, as the pundits might say, all to play for.
MARY HANAFIN
Former Minister for Education and Science
This time last year, Mary Hanafin was riding high as Queen of Education and someone widely touted as a future Fíanna Fáil leader.
Her record in education was actually very good, delivering more teachers and putting a greater focus on special needs than any of her predecessors.
But Brian Cowen was unimpressed when she seemed to blame him for a U-turn on class size and she was sidelined to Social and Family Affairs after the election.
The powerful INTO will not be top of her Christmas card list. Eighteen months ago, its leader, John Carr, in a rare gaffe, expressed the hope that she would be back in Education after the election.
But that INTO campaign on class size in the run-in to the election damaged Hanafin. She can count herself unlucky. In four short years, she achieved a great deal in education. Expect her back sooner rather than later in a senior Cabinet role.
HUGH BRADY
President UCD
A year of steady progress for Brady, the most powerful and influential figure in third-level education.
Brady saw UCD's stock rise in the key world rankings as his impatient drive for modernisation in Belfield bedded down.
There was the strong sense that UCD has regained much of its lost lustre - thanks in no small measure to the Brady drive for greater efficiency and better standards.
Brady also took a lead role in formulating the response of all seven university presidents to Batt's fees initiative. Framing a response to the Government's proposals - expected around March - is among next year's tasks.
JOHN CARR
INTO general secretary
Carr signalled his intention to retire this year, but only after mobilising the troops in impressive fashion.
The INTO deserves a great deal of the credit for those mass demonstrations against the Budget cutbacks which saw over 100,000 on the streets in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Tullamore and Donegal. It was a forceful reminder of how the INTO can be relied upon to deliver its members.
But what now for the campaign of protest?
Privately, some INTO members say the class size issue may have to be "parked" as the economic crisis deepens and the public mood changes.
But Carr will want to keep up the pressure in advance of the local and European elections in June. It will be no easy task. There is a perception among some that the campaign against the Budget has already peaked. In 2009, Carr's task will be to crank up the engine - again.
THE GRADUATE CLASS OF 2008
Spare a thought for those who graduated from college in the past year. After years of zero graduate unemployment, the Tiger cubs are facing hard times.
To compound the misery, a huge proportion of our graduates opted for courses in business and administration, precisely the sectors under pressure in what they are calling the "first middle class recession".
In 2009 , expect a huge proportion of graduates to either plan a postgrad course in 2009. The remainder are planning to take that gap year (or two) in Australia. They may have a good degree but - with the economy in free fall - they can only sit and wait for recovery.
BRIAN HAYES AND RUAIRI QUINN
Fine Gael and Labour spokesmen on education
With those swingeing Budget cutbacks, Batt O'Keeffe gave the opposition a stick to beat him with it. And they have not been found wanting.
The Dynamic Duo of Hayes and Quinn (left)have managed to raise the level of debate on education. Both are star performers in the Dáil and both have a voracious appetite for hard work
It's all a far cry from those freewheeling days when Olwyn Enright and Jan O'Sullivan barely landed a blow on Mary Hanafin.
That said, O'Keeffe is holding up well under pressure. His natural affability often helps him to counter the brickbats from the opposition.
The challenge facing Hayes and Quinn in 2009 is to convince the public O'Keeffe is accident prone and lacks any coherent vision. They are poised and ready to pounce in 2009.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION INSPECTORS
School inspection reports have got a bad press since first published two years ago. But slowly, almost imperceptibly, the reports have become a key resource for information on schools. There are increasing signs that the the inspectors will not hold back on criticism where it was warranted.
In all, over 2,000 reports have now been published on the Department of Education website. Read in conjunction with The Irish Times's annual feeder schools list, they give parents a decent insight into what it happening in schools.
FERDIA KELLY
General Secretary of the Joint Managerial Body for Secondary Schools
It was a busy year for Kelly, whose group manage over 400 voluntary secondary schools.
A former principal of Ard Scoil Rís in Marino, Dublin, Kelly has emerged as one of the most powerful figures in Irish education.
During the Budget rumpus, it was his stark warnings of possible school closures in January that helped to focus minds in the Department. Ultimately, it was his quiet persistence which delivered a compromise deal.
Kelly is modest and unassuming, but he has widely respected across the education sector.
His key task in 2009? Maintaining the pressure on Batt to row back on other Budget cutbacks in the desperately underfunded second-level sector.
IoTS
The three institutes of technology (Waterford, Cork and Dublin) seeking university status
Remember those innocent days when the battle for university designation by the various IoTs was the big story in education?
The various campaigns may be continuing, but they have no prospect of success in the current climate.
Aside from the economic downturn, WIT - who led the way in demanding university status - must also now cope with a Minister who once worked as a lecturer in CIT. A Cork minister giving university status to Cork? Now, that is a remote prospect.
The forthcoming National Strategy on Higher Education will also allow the Government to kick the issue to touch.
But DIT's case may be reviewed before the big move to a new €1 billion Grangegorman campus in 2012.
THE LEAVING CERT CLASS OF 2008
The Class of 2008 face some difficult decisions when it completes the CAO application shortly.
They are a very different group - the first Leaving Cert cohort in a generation who face real economic uncertainty.
With parents more cautious, expect students to take a safer route in their CAO choices. Teaching and jobs in the public service are suddenly de rigueur.
But those high-profile courses in property, business, marketing and communications could be less popular.
2009: 10 things to expect
1 Batt O'Keeffe to get a hard time at the annual round of teacher conferences in mid-April.
2 The return of third-level fees, unleashing a huge wave of student protest in September.
3 An increasing spotlight on teachers' pay and conditions, as the economic clouds darken.
4 Increasing speculation that Sheila Nunan will be named as the next INTO general secretary.
5 More students to desert business and finance courses in their CAO applications.
6 The Department of Education to get much tougher with the teacher unions in negotiations on working conditions.
7 More focus on those long, long holidays enjoyed by some staff in the 14 institutes of technology.
8 The end of the boom in private education as the economy moves in depression.
9 No more rows about car-parking spaces in third-level colleges - students will be back on public transport.
10 Newly-qualified primary teachers struggling to get full-time jobs.
O'Keeffe approves seven public-private school projects
- Published: 16 December 2008
Source: Irish Independent
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has approved seven school building projects that are due to be completed in a public-private partnership deal.
Six of the projects are secondary schools and one is a primary school.
They are located in Donegal, Leitrim, Galway, Wexford, Waterford and Westmeath.
Mr O'Keeffe says the schools will accommodate more than 4,800 pupils.
Primary schools should be funded like research
- Published: 15 December 2008
Source: Irish Independent
Monday December 15 2008
NEWS that nearly €1.5bn of taxpayers' money has been invested in research and development activities in the last two years contrasts sharply with spending on science and technology at primary level.
This is more than five times the sum of money that couldn't be found to fund computers in schools, and compares to no spending for science equipment in primary schools.
Reports that a further €300m is to be invested must be seen in the context of the education cutbacks in primary schools. This figure would more than reverse the class size increases, and compounds the loss of English language teachers and funding cuts imposed on disadvantaged children, Travellers and special needs children.
Government policy appears to be to cut back on spending that benefits everyone while investing in a small number of elite students.
In the world of education, this policy fundamentally undermines any remaining commitment to giving equality of opportunity to all children.
Because of under-investment in primary schools, some children's educational futures are determined at a young age. For example, because there is little or no learning support for maths in primary schools many children develop negative attitudes to this essential subject.
Because class sizes are so large, many children do not get the science learning that is needed. Because most schools have clapped out computers, children's attitudes to technology are increasingly formed outside of the classroom.
Yet instead of rectifying this situation and giving all children an equal chance to succeed, the Government invests in those who make it to third level and even more in those who make it to fourth level.
Among developed countries, Ireland is one of the lowest spenders on education. For every €5 we spend on primary, €7 is spent on post primary and €10 on third level.
However, my observations should not be seen as an argument for redistributing already scarce education funding. If educational investment is truly to aid economic recovery, primary schools should be brought up to the funding standards of third level. Only then might every child feel cherished in the way the proclamation intended.
John Carr is general secretary of INTO
- John Carr
