Survey shows ‘demand for diversity’
April 3, 2013
Educate Together named as preferred choice by majority of parents in study
The results of the recent Department of Education patronage survey were “significant” and “clearly show a demand for diversity”, the chief executive of the multidenominational Educate Together primary school organisation said yesterday.
Twenty-three of the 38 areas of the country surveyed had demonstrated demand for an immediate change in the existing school patronage, the department said in a statement this week. The majority of parents who took part in the survey named Educate Together as their preferred patron.
Educate Together chief exeecutive Paul Rowe said the organisation was “delighted that so many parents across the country want an Educate Together school in their community.
The Forum for Patronage and Pluralism has given parents in these communities the opportunity to express preference for the schools they want. We are honoured that so many communities have put their trust in Educate Together and our educational ethos.” He said the survey results were significant as they clearly showed demand for diversity of school-type existed across the country.
“Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn is to be commended for the forum initiative. It has given parents a real opportunity to choose the type of schools they want for their children’s education.”
The association representing vocational colleges has expressed concern about restrictions placed on patrons to promote their model to parents. The Irish Vocational Education Assocation gave a “qualified welcome” to the survey which found demand for its community national school model in two areas, Carrigaline in Co Cork and Celbridge Co Kildare. The restrictions meant potential patrons could spend €300 promoting themselves to parents in each survey area.
As the VEC’s community national school model was the “newest” available to parents, they needed to “be allowed to promote and advertise their merits, and parents need to be made aware” of it as a choice, association general secretary Michael Moriarty said. The VEC currently operates eight community national schools in the State.
Irish language patron An Foras Pátrúnachta was “delighted” to have been pre-ferred by parents in Birr, Co Offaly where there had been “strong demand” for a Gaelscoil for “quite a while”, general secretary Caoimhín ÓhEaghra said.
However the organisation raised concern about the use of a survey system to cater for a linguistic minority. An Foras Pátrúnachta is patron of 59 primary schools with two more opening next year.
www.irishtimes.com
Ruairi Quinn plans to make school enrolment fairer
April 3, 2013
Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn is to publish draft legislation in the coming months aimed at making school enrolment policies fairer. The legislation is aimed at making policies more just, especially for newcomers to an area, and other groups, such as children from the travelling community. It has been almost two years since the Department of Education published a discussion document on school enrolment policies. It outlined proposals to make the school entry system fairer to all, proposals including the outlawing of the practice of giving priority to the children of past pupils or staff. Practices such as this disadvantage newcomers and others, including children from the travelling community. Yesterday evening the minister said he would be bringing draft legislation to Cabinet shortly. Parents would no longer have to pay simply to apply for a school place. It would also outlaw schools interviewing parents and children prior to acceptance. Mr Quinn said the draft legislation would be published in coming months for consultation. Later today Mr Quinn will address the Teachers’ Union of Ireland’s annual congress in Galway. Yesterday, he was heckled during his speeches at the conferences of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland and the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation.
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Catholic patrons welcome schools report
April 2, 2013
There is a “measurable small demand” for change in school patronage in certain areas and parents should have a choice, chairman of the Council for Education of the Irish Bishops’ Conference has said.
Catholic patrons have welcomed the primary school patronage report which showed demand for change from parents in 23 areas. However, attention must be given to the “large majority” of parents who expressed no interest in change, the council chairman Fr Michael Drumm said. He was speaking as a survey on parental preferences for primary school patronage was published today by the Department of Education.
Catholic bishops in 23 areas across the State have six months to provide detailed proposals on how they plan on divesting primary schools of their patronage. Of 23 areas, between 2.2 per cent and 8 per cent of parents with children in school favoured change, the council said. The areas “vary quite a bit”, Fr Drumm said. The report raised the issue of “displacement” of trying to cater for the views of a minority who want change, Fr Drumm said. The problem on the ground was that numbers displaced could be greater than numbers catered for, he said. In Celbridge, Co Kildare, some 100 parents desired a different type of school but the smallest Catholic school was 300 children, he said. It was about getting the “balance right” , he added. Demand for choice was “lower than anticipated” Fr Drumm said. The survey showed a “very strong affirmation” of Catholic schools with no real interest in change from 15 of 38 areas, he said.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn said this morning he expected Catholic bishops to cooperate in identifying suitable primary schools for the transfer of patronage. The Department of Education will send surveys to the patrons seeking an initial response after three months and a final response in six months, he said. “I would hope and expect during that period a suitable school will be identified by them within the various towns and arrangements will be made for the orderly transfer of the patronage of that school back to the Department of Education,” Mr Quinn said on RTÉ Radio. Mr Quinn said he expected cooperation from the Catholic Church because patronage had been identified as an issue by Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin. It was about “parental choice” not a “general election”, Mr Quinn said.
Out of 38 survey areas selected according to specific demographic criteria, 23 have demonstrated demand for “an immediate change in the existing school patronage”, according to a Department of Education statement. The majority of parents who took part in the survey named Educate Together as their preferred patron. Educate Together was “delighted” and “honoured” that many communities had selected them as a preferred patron,chief executive Paul Rowe said in a statement. The results were “significant” and showed “demand for diversity”, he said. He praised the “goodwill” shown by the Catholic bishops to the process.
Co Cork VEC was “delighted” to be the preferred patron chosen by parents in Carrigaline, chief executive Joan Russell said. If Co Cork VEC becomes patron of a Carrigaline school it would be its second primary patronage. It is due to open its first primary school in Mallow next year. “I am aware this is only the first step… and am respectful of existing patrons,” Ms Russell said. The community national school model was “not well known” in Cork so the growth would allow parents to become familiar with it, she said.
Among the 23 schools identified in the report were Dublin 6, Malahide, Palmerstown, Portmarnock, Rush, Tuam, Westport, Ballina, Clonmel, Passage West, Dungarvan, Fermoy, Kells, Killarney, Leixlip, Loughrea, Cobh, Nenagh, New Ross, Shannon, Celbridge and Carrigaline.
One area, Birr in Co Offaly, showed sufficient demand for a Gaelscoil. Several others specified VEC patronage as their preferred option.
There was insufficient demand in areas such as Wicklow, Skerries, Carrick-on-Suir and Roscommon, among others.
The level of demand required to support change was set at the minimum enrolment required for a four-teacher school, somewhere between 80 and 100 pupils. A total of 10,715 valid survey responses were received.
www.irishtimes.com
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Poll: 60% of towns want new patrons
April 2, 2013
Parents in just 60% of towns dominated by Catholic primary schools have voted to have control handed over to different patrons.
Educate Together has emerged as the preferred patron to take over one of the local schools in 20 of the 23 areas where there was enough demand for choice.
But the most surprising outcome of the surveys — completed in January by parents of almost 20,000 primary school pupils and pre-school children — was that the vast majority in 15 out of 38 areas were satisfied with the current provision.
The research was carried out by the Department of Education in areas where there is little or no alternative to Catholic schools, but where populations are not growing enough for new schools to be built.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has said up to half of all Catholic primary schools may need to be divested, but the level of demand shows this is not the case. He wants bishops in each of the 23 areas where change is recommended to provide details within six months on how they plan to make schools available to patrons.
For recommended new patrons by town, see http://exa.mn/hn
www.irishexaminer.com
Union chief wants report on future of schools published
April 2, 2013
Teachers fear over 1,000 schools with fewer than 80 pupils may be under threat
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn was challenged by Irish National Teachers’ Organisation president Anne Fay to publish a report commissioned on primary schools amid growing fears t ha t more t ha n 1 , 000 schools with under 80 pupils or three teachers or fewer may face closure.
Ms Fay told the union’s 145th annual congress that Mr Quinn, who addresses del egates today, should move to publish the Value for Money report commissioned 2½ years ago by the Department of Education on the future of primary schools.
Ms Fa y , who teaches in a three-teacher school in Fermoy, Co Cork, criticised the leaking of some of the report at the weekend. It was reported on Sunday that the viability of more than 600 small schools would be thrown into doubt by the report.
“We got selective leaks of this report to a Sunday newspaper by the Minister, I presume, which I believe shows a lack of respect for parents, teachers and communities all over Ireland. Over a thousand schools now fear for their very existence,” she said. Loud applause Loudly applauded by the 800 delegates in Cork, Ms Fay went on to remind Mr Quinn of the commitment he gave on behalf of the Labour Party when in opposition and just before t he 2011 general election to oppose any forced amalgamation of schools.
“The now Minister for Education and Science wrote on February 15th, 2011, just before the general election: ‘The Labour Party has never supported the forcible amalgamation of rural schools’, another debased pre-election promise to add to what is becoming a very long list.”
Ms Fay said teachers still manage to take great pride in their work despite being anxious and worried about the future and cuts in education and, even when greatly overworked, have the interests of their pupils foremost in their mind. ‘Palpable anger’ “But alongside that pride, I have detected a palpable anger – there is anger at the attitudes of some of our employers, commentators and politicians who seem to think, bizarrely and erroneously, that teaching is an easy life,” she said.
“There is anger at changes to terms and conditions that focus on saving money and not on making the education system better, and anger at investment in education becoming another discredited election promise, not a priority to return Ireland to economic growth and social equality.”
Ms Fay opted not to speak on Croke Park II proposals on pay which are currently being voted on by union members. However, union sources confirmed to The Irish Times that there was a lot of anger voiced at the Croke Park II proposals at a private session.
www.irishtimes.com
Gaeltacht ar an dé deiridh?
April 2, 2013
‘We don’t have any such thing as a Gaeltacht any more,’ says Seosamh Mac Donnacha in the current issue of Comhar. He says that most of the people living in the Gaeltacht are bilingual native speakers, and that they don’t acquire the two languages at the same speed or to the same level of proficiency.
We must ask ourselves a basic question: What is a Gaeltacht? Up until now, the Dublin Government has been happy to draw a line and create an ‘Indian reservation’ without proper infrastructure. Mac Donnacha says that a child brought up in the Gaeltacht would not be able to get basic services through Irish, he would not be able to get a complete education through Irish, he would not be able to get a job without English, and he would not be able to speak to the gardaí in Gaoth Dobhair in Irish.
That is the biggest problem facing Irish in the Gaeltacht and in non-Irish speaking areas: there is no Irish in the environment. When you go into a big paper shop here, you see hundreds of magazines in English (most of them rubbish, but that’s another story.) You cannot get an Irish language magazine in any paper shop in Derry. By the way, you can buy Paris Match in the city centre every week.
If you go abroad, you can pick up the local language very quickly. It is spoken everywhere: on the street, in the house, in the shops, in offices etc. You hear the language all the time on the radio and on the television. You see newspapers and notices in the language. You are constantly in contact with the language- an obvious fact. But that does not happen in Ireland. And a language cannot develop unless it is used continuously in public life.
There is only one country in the world where you can get a job in the public sector without knowing the national language- that is the mad house called Ireland, of course, a land of useless politicians and soulless bureaucrats.
Well, St. Patrick’s Day is over. Irish will be put back in the drawer for another year. But if we keep on going the way we are going, we will go to the cupboard some day, and there will be nothing in it.
www.derryjournal.com
Quinn will announce Church to lose school control
April 2, 2013
‘Clear demand’ for greater diversity cannot be ignored, insists minister
THE Catholic Church is being told to hand over another 23 primary schools in an historic shake-up of the eduction system designed to offer parents more choice.
Department of Education surveys in 43 towns and suburbs over the past six months found that two-thirds of parents wanted a more diverse range of schools – meaning a reduction of the church’s overwhelming dominance of school patronage.
The results of the consultation with 10,000 parents on future control of local schools can be revealed today, with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn pointing out that a majority of areas surveyed had shown sufficient parental demand for wider choice of schools. He insisted: “We cannot ignore this call for change.”
Meanwhile, the fate of 1,000 small rural schools hangs in the balance as they are considered too small to satisfy an “optimum” threshold for value for money. A new report, to be published soon, will recommend that the optimum future size for Irish schools is four teachers and 80 students or more.
Mr Quinn, who will today address two teachers’ unions, has been accused of leaving thousands of pupils and parents in limbo if their school does not meet the minimum size.
Mr Quinn is now overseeing a period of massive change within the schools system as the issues of patronage and small rural schools both come to a head. His department now wants detailed proposals from the bishops on divesting schools within six months, in a significant shift towards multidenominational education. But early transfers do not appear on the cards after a senior Catholic Church educationalist questioned the calculations involved.
Surveys in 38 areas were undertaken in January-February among parents of children under the age of 12. They were targeted at towns and suburbs where there is a relatively stable population and, therefore, little prospect of an additional school being built.
The demand for a change of patronage at 23 of these 38 primary schools is on top of five schools around the country which were previously identified by the department, and where the Church has already been told to transfer control. The department will now be contacting the Catholic patron in each of the newly identified areas to request that they consider the options.
Mr Quinn said he was confident of a generous response from the existing patron – the local Catholic bishop in each of the areas – to “the clear demand for change”. In practical terms, it means that in any of these areas, where there may be several local Catholic schools, mergers will be necessary to free up a building for a school under different patronage.
Where change is favoured, the multi-denominational Educate Together is the top choice and has been nominated as the patron for 25 schools, including in the five areas previously identified.
Two towns will see the establishment of English language, new-style Community National Schools, run by the local Vocational Education Committee. And in one area, an Irish language school under the patronage of An Foras Patrunachta is recommended. Most of the areas surveyed already had a Gaelscoil option for parents deemed capable of accommodating demand for Irish language medium schools.
Paul Rowe, of Educate Together, said the results clearly showed demand for diversity of school type exists across the country.
Conclusions
However, while 10,000 responses were gathered, Fr Michael Drumm of the Catholic Schools Partnership said the participation rates of parents in the surveys were low. He said that within each area the responses only varied from 13pc to 26pc and advised against drawing conclusions.
He said there was a need for much closer analysis of the figures and consultation with communities on the ground For example, Fr Drumm said in Ballina, where the department is recommending an Educate Together school, parents of only 2.2pc of existing primary pupils expressed a preference for an English-language multi-denominational school. And he warned the proposals could involve much greater displacement for pupils in an existing school than those the department is seeking to accommodate.
The Catholic Church controls about 2,840, or 90pc, of almost 3,200 primary schools in Ireland. While the 28 schools earmarked for change represent less than 1pc of this, developments over the coming months will be closely watched as they could mark a watershed in Church-state relations over school patronage.
The department set the minimum enrolment sufficient for a four-teacher school as the benchmark for deciding on whether there was sufficient demand for change. A total of 10,715 valid responses were received during the surveys, and were checked against data held by the Department of Social Protection to ensure that the children listed were linked to PPS numbers given.
It followed the five pilot surveys, which were conducted last October and November – all of which showed a demand for Educate Together schools.
www.independent.ie
Bishops have six months to set out plans for school patronage change
April 2, 2013
Catholic bishops in 23 areas across the State have six months to provide detailed proposals on how they plan on divesting primary schools of their patronage.
The move comes on the publication of a survey on parental preferences for primary school patronage published today by the Department of Education.
Out of 38 survey areas selected according to specific demographic criteria, 23 have demonstrated demand for “an immediate change in the existing school patronage”, according to a Department of Education statement.
Among the 23 were Dublin 6, Malahide, Palmerstown, Portmarnock , Rush, Tuam, Westport, Ballina, Clonmel, Passage West, Dungarvan, Fermoy, Kells, Killarney, Leixlip, Loughrea, Cobh, Nenagh, New Ross, Shannon, Celbridge and Carrigaline.
One area, Birr in Co Offaly, showed sufficient demand for a Gaelscoil. Several others specified VEC patronage as their preferred option. There was insufficient demand in areas such as Wicklow, Skerries, Carrick-on-Suir and Roscommon, among others.
The level of demand required to support change was set at the minimum enrolment required for a four- teacher school, somewhere between 80 and 100 pupils. A total of 10,715 valid survey responses were received.The majority of parents who took part in the survey named Educate Together as their preferred patron.
Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn said: “We cannot ignore this call for change”. Fr Michael Drumm, chairperson of the Catholic Schools Partnership, said the figures needed closer analysis.
www.irishtimes.com
A very Irish revolution taking place in Naas
March 26, 2013
There is an Irish revolution of sorts taking place in Naas and the surrounding areas these days. It’s the As Gaeilge Revolution.
Kildare is one of the fastest-growing Irish-speaking counties outside the Gaeltacht to take up the cupla focal and in Naas there has been a huge surge in Irish-speaking community activities and education in recent years.
For example, in the local education system there is now for the first time ever waiting lists for Gaelscoil Nas na Riogh in Piper’s Hill and the Gael Colaiste Chill Dara on the Newbridge Road.
In addition, there is also a host of family activities with Glor na Riogh, the weekly Bricfeasta as Gaeilge met-ups in Alice’s Restaurant, trad sessions and Irish language lessons with Sult na Sollan, to name but a few local organisations that are promoting and using the Irish language and its culture. The Leader caught up with various groups in Naas and Sallins during the recent Seachtain na Gaeilge.
Sallins lady Eithne Ni Fhlathartaith and Alice’s restaurant owner Eileen Meagher were the founding members of Bricfeasta as Gaeilge every Saturday morning for the simple grá of Irish language.
“I starting coming here to Alice’s three years ago now. I heard Eileen the owner speaking Irish to somebody and joined in the conversation and then I met the people from Sult na Sollan and we suggested setting up the Bricfeasta as Gaeilge,” explains Eithne.
“I was born in Dublin in an Irish speaking household and I went to an English-speaking school. My father was from Galway and that is where my love of Irish began. I don’t think a country is whole without its language and I think every person in this country have some bit of Irish and we all should be using it. There is an Irish revolution happening in Naas and Sallins and it is definitely growing. We have up to 20 people here every Saturday morning and we do Irish classes and cater for all abilities. A lot of people are rusty with the language and finding it difficult to find a place in Kildare to use their language and that’s where we come in.”
As the song says it’s true that you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant! “I’m from Two Mile House and we originally spoke only Irish in my house,“ explained owner and mother of three Eileen.
“I’m opened 21 years and a lady came into the restaurant a few years ago and said ‘I know who you are’. She use to cycle out to Two Mile House to speak Irish with my father because they had the same Spiddal Irish and so when she told me that we started in whispers. Then I met Eithne and Sult na Sollan got involved. My father played the box and piano accordion and we all spoke Irish and danced. We speak Irish during the week too and schoolchildren come into the restaurant to practice their as Gaeilge which is lovely. It’s all age groups and it’s amazing. We have the Gaeltacht here in Naas!”
The Leader also spoke to Dáithí de Faoite of Sult na Sollan. “County Kildare has been recognised as the fastest-growing Irish speaking area in the country,” he explains.
“If you look at the figures from the Central Statistics Office. There is about 42 per cent of people in the area who say they speak Irish. About 20,000 people just in Sallins, Naas, Kill, Johnstown, Prosperous area that speak Irish regularly. So it’s pretty enormous. What we are really trying to do is reach out and build on the network and grow the community. If there is anyone out there who would like to join in our activities just check out our website www.SultnaSollán.ie. We are involved not just in the Irish language but also Irish traditional music and dancing.”
Father of three Dáithí embraced the love of the Irish language after attending the Gaeltacht for several years with his brother and continuing that interest throughout college.
“Although I didn’t study Irish in college I have a great network of friends who speak Irish and are very passionate about. My wife is a Galway native Irish speaker and we are raising our kids through Irish. She works as a teacher in the Gael Colaiste so she actually speaks very little English in her life. It’s amazing really and it’s how all marriages should work!” he jokes.
Dáithí explains that Sult na Sollan runs weekly Irish classes in Sallins, regular trad sessions in Flanagans Mill and they also attend the Saturday morning bricfeasta in Alice’s.
“What is fantastic is that we have every generation here, from grandparents to newborns. It’s a real vibrant community. Once you can order your coffee, say hello to people and make the effort in Irish you are most welcome. And of course some people do speak better Irish with a bit of drink on them too but that would be at our trad sessions!”
A very confident seven-year-old Daragh de Faoite also spoke of his love of Irish to the Leader. “We speak Irish at home and at school. I love coming to Alice’s to get scones and bars. I go to Gael Scoil Nas na Riogh and I love muniteoir Niamh. I going to be an Irish teacher when I grow up and am going to teach in the same school I am in now.”
Naas mother of three and secondary-school teacher Siobhain Grogan is very involved in Gael Scoil Nas na Riogh and Glor na Riogh. She spoke to the Leader before a Seachtain na Gaeilge family trip to K-Bowl.
“I was brought up in Naas. I went to school through English and my husband was brought up in Mayo through English. We are both secondary school teachers in an English-speaking school in Dublin. In recent years we have observed a lot of students switching between different languages and we had huge admiration and envy. So we had a chat and we decided to school our children through Irish and Irish culture. We had our first child eight years ago and we now have two other children, and we always speak Irish at home. Our children have been Irish speakers since birth and can flip between English and Irish. We can see the benefits of our children being bilingual and the cultural associations and it doesn’t matter if we had it growing up or not. We are learning too. There’s a great Irish-speaking community here in Naas and we’re looking to expand on that.”
www.leinsterleader.ie
Scoil Mhuire debates its way to All Ireland win
March 26, 2013
After some tough talking as gaeilge, three sixth-year students from Scoil Mhuire in Cork have won the prestigious Gael Linn national debating competition, becoming the first Cork school to scoop the Irish language debating title.
Team captain Aisling Hourihan, Emma Dobson and Zoe Boland opposed the motion that the Irish people have lost their national identity. They interpreted identity as closely associated with culture, language, sport and homegrown Irish heroes with whom the nation identifies.
The team, coached by Samantha Mulcahy with help from teacher Eileen Dineen, argued convincingly, in their native tongue, the Irish still have a very strong national identity. They were presented with the Corn An Phiarsaigh and each girl also won a cash prize.
“The girls are a credit to the school and their families that they are so passionate about Irish language,” a Scoil Mhuire spokesperson said.
“It is a great honour and a credit for the school that they have become the first Cork school to win this competition.
“We are not an all-Irish language school but we do put huge emphasis on oral Irish and we are delighted to get recognition for that.”
The girls made it through to the national final after talking their way through the Munster round of competition opposing the motion ‘tá mórchinntí an rialtais seo ar leas an náisiúin’ —that this Government’s major decisions are benefiting the nation — and defeating Presentation College, The Mardyke, Cork, Pobalscoil Eoin Baiste, Hospital, Co Limerick, and Laurel Hill Secondary School, Limerick.
www.irishexaminer.com
