Resignation of Irish Language Commissioner Seán Ó Cuirreáin
December 5, 2013
Seán Ó Cuirreáin announced this evening that he is resigning from his role as Irish Language Commissioner.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin said he was concerned about the State’s lack of commitment to the protection of Irish speakers’ rights. The former deputy head of Radio na Gaeltachta said that he felt he was left with no other choice but to resign from his position. Mr Ó Cuirreáin was the first person to be appointed to the role of An Coimisnéir Teangain in 2004. Part of his remit was to ensure the implementation of Irish language legislation. His resignation is due to take effect in February.
www.independent.ie
Aistear na heolaíochta
December 4, 2013
Impact of austerity means Junior Cert change is a big ask
December 3, 2013
The timeframe for junior-cycle reform should be changed to deliver what has been promised
The Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) recognises the huge importance of a high quality public education system. So, we believe, does the Minister for Education. We know that an ongoing process of development is essential to meet the needs of every individual student, of society at large and of the Irish economy. However, we believe that change that is rash, and for which adequate preparation has not been made, can cause lasting damage to the system and particularly to individual students.
While respecting that the curriculum should evolve, the TUI is adamant that we must not mimic the experience of England, where pendulum swings in policy have caused systemic damaged and have demoralised both teachers and students. Change must be properly planned, managed and resourced. In three bilateral meetings since mid-October, the TUI has given the Department of Education and Skills every opportunity to provide hard, practical evidence that the current proposals for change in junior cycle, which start next September, will be properly resourced to enable effective implementation. The Department has consistently failed to supply such evidence.
The Junior Cert may not be a high-stakes exam, but it is an important record of a young person’s achievement and progress at a critical developmental stage of life. A “school crest” certification process runs the real risk of debasing the value of the certificate and reducing public confidence in the assessment system. The TUI believes the retention of an appropriate form of external assessment and moderation and State certification is necessary to maintain standards, ensure consistency and support equity. In this regard, TUI has sought greater clarity in relation to assessment but regrettably, this has not been forthcoming. Teachers are concerned that they will be overwhelmed with administrative demands and diverted from their core responsibilities of teaching, resulting in a diminished student engagement and experience. Parents and teachers are rightly worried.
Scorched environment
It would be folly for anybody, the Minister included, to ignore the scorched environment that austerity has created in schools. Every parent knows that schools have been stripped bare. Teacher numbers have been slashed, class sizes have increased, senior posts have disappeared, budgets have been dramatically reduced and thousands of key pastoral resources such as guidance counsellors and year heads have been lost. Teachers, including principal and deputy principal teachers, have never been more stretched, with workloads already dramatically increased as a consequence of larger class groups, reduced staffing and a plethora of new bureaucratic demands and initiatives. Furthermore, the capacity of schools to raise any private funds has diminished significantly. Together, these factors represent a threat to the day-to-day operation of services in schools. A significant threat looms for many students in small, yet viable schools who will simply not have access to the diverse curriculum opportunities available in larger schools. Matters of curricular access and social equity have, therefore, not been addressed and we must avert a further layer of rural disadvantage or polarisation based on postcode or on a family’s relative wealth or poverty,
Whatever capacity to implement change that might have been there before the austerity cuts has long since been stripped out of the system. Every school is now considerably less well equipped to deal with radical change than five years ago. At a time when schools lack the most basic resources, how can they be expected to provide the technical expertise, access to ICT, differentiated learning opportunities and other required facilities? Connectivity is needed; not just to broadband, but to a rooted sense of realism.
Gerard Craughwell is president of the TUI
www.irishtimes.com
Tenth anniversary of Gaelscoil na Daróige
December 2, 2013
Derry Irish language primary school, Gaelscoil na Daróige, is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and has plans for continued growth.
The school opened its doors in 2003 with a handful of pupils but has grown and developed over the last decade and now has almost 80 children between the gaelscoil and naiscoil. Brian Mac Neachtain, manager of the gaelscoil said; “This year Naíscoil na Daróige celebrates its tenth year offering a bilingual education. This has given the parents the opportunity to give their child the gift of the Irish language in a part of Derry which formally had no Irish medium education facilities.”
Mr Mac Neachtain said the decade of Irish medium education has helped the development of the Irish language in the city. “Naíscoil and Gaelscoil na Daróige have been an enormous benefit to the development of the Irish language in this area. “From humble beginnings in terms of children attending the naíscoil and gaelscoil we have almost eighty children attending our school and a growing list of parents who desire a bilingual education for their children,” he said. As well as primary education through Irish, the school also offers preschool education services. “The children now start at our naíscoil at the age of three and then move up to our gaelscoil becoming fully bilingual in Irish and English by the age of eleven.
“Recent research has indicated that children attending Irish medium schools achieve higher results in mathematics and English than children attending English medium schools. “This type of research has increased demand and lead to our Irish speaking community expanding and developing with our facilities now being used every evening after school and even at the weekend for activities and events for the community. “We always see ourselves as a community school and have a great relationship with parents, whom we know on a first name basis. We try to involve whole families in the life of the school, from the younger brothers and sisters of pupils to the parents.
“They are all part of the wider school community,” he explained. The gaelscoil manager also said the school, which received official recognition from the Department of Education in 2009, will continue to grow work on a new permanent building expected to begin next summer. “We are looking forward to the future as the school continues to grow by year and the new preschool will be holding their annual open day on Wednesday December 4th from 4pm to 6pm. “New parents are welcome to come along and meet the staff and parents of children attending the naíscoil to view our facilities and get further information on bilingual education,” he said. Gaelscoil na Daróige currently employs four staff in its naíscoil and four teaching staff and two classroom assistants in its gaelscoil.
www.derryjournal.com
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com 02 Nollaig 2013
Schools celebrate after 20-year wait for upgrade ends with new build plans
December 2, 2013
SCHOOLS waiting for up to 20 years for a decent home are among those celebrating the Department of Education’s building programme for next year.
Almost 40 new primary- and post-primary schools will be built and many others will get extensions. Overwhelmingly, the focus of the programme is on new schools to cater for the rise in enrolments in areas that have experienced a large rise in population in recent years. Some projects will involve the replacement of old and dilapidated schools or the construction of permanent accommodation to replace pre-fabs. Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has announced a total of 70 major school building projects – either new schools or extensions – at both primary- and post-primary level. In one case, a Dublin primary school housed on the grounds of a GAA club is finally getting a permanent home.
By the time Gaelscoil Bharra in Cabra, Dublin, opens the doors of its new building in September 2015, it will have been waiting for 20 years. The school has been operating out of Naomh Fionnbarra GAA Club and principal Sean O Donghaile said he was “delighted” that its campaign was over. And, at an overcrowded primary school in Co Kerry, a 17-year campaign for a new building also comes to an end. Blennerville Primary School, outside Tralee, submitted an application for a new building in 1996. The 70 projects listed for construction are 22 new schools and 12 extensions at primary level, 12 new schools and 20 extensions at second-level and three new special schools and one extension. Overall, they will deliver over 27,500 permanent school places, of which about 21,000 will cater for rising enrolments.
Mr Quinn said his “primary aim is to ensure that every child growing up in Ireland can access a place in a classroom when they go to school”. Together with the school projects already announced in July and other ongoing projects from 2013, it means that a total of 168 major school projects will be on site next year.
EXPENDITURE
In addition, Mr Quinn said that a total of 44 major school projects had now reached substantial completion in 2013. As the population boom that started in the late 1990s works its way through the education system, enrolments at second-level will continue to grow up to at least 2024. Mr Quinn said €470m would be spent on primary- and post-primary infrastructure next year, with a projected expenditure on large-scale projects of over €320m. Total enrolment in both primary- and post-primary schools is expected to grow by over 70,000 between now and 2017 – over 45,000 at primary 25,000 at post-primary. It will be a boost for the construction industry and will support 3,200 direct jobs and 640 indirect jobs in 2014.
It is part of a €2bn five-year capital investment programme, launched March 2012 covering 275 new major school building projects to begin up to 2016. The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) welcomed the announcement but called on the department to ringfence 7.5pc of all future capital funding for the maintenance of existing buildings. INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan said it did not make economic sense to build new schools and extensions while at the same time allowing others to deteriorate.
www.independent.ie
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com 02 Nollaig 2013
Irish Independent – Katherine Donnelly
Three new schools for Cork
November 29, 2013
TWO of Cork’s biggest boom towns will get three new secondary schools by 2016 — with two schools planned for Carrigaline and one for Midleton/Carrigtwohill.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has just confirmed patronage for the schools, which will cater for 1,200 students in Carrigaline and 1,000 students in the Midleton/Carrigtwohill area. Rapid population growth in these towns during the boom period has left the existing school structures creaking at the seams.
Carrigaline is to get a 600-student “Catholic school” modelled along the ethos of the historic Christian Brothers College in thecity, but it will be a non-fee paying and co-educational. The satellite town will also get a new multi-denominational Educate Together school, catering for a further 600 students.
These school developments will be entirely separate to an existing plan in Carrigaline for a 24-classroom Gaelscoil, a 500-pupil Gaelcholáiste and a seven classroom Sonas Special School. In the Midleton area, the Cork Education and Training Board, along with the Bishop of Cloyne, will oversee a new 1,000-student secondary school.
Minister Simon Coveney said the discussion now would be on the selection of sites.
“We hope to see this process fast tracked as quickly as possible. This is a real investment in education but also an investment in choice and diversity in education.”
Minister for State in the Department of Education and Skills, Seán Sherlock, said:
“These are schools that have been requested by the parents of the area, and the Department is responding to the needs and demands of the parents.”
“I look forward to the next step in the process, which includes securing specific sites.”
East Cork TD David Stanton welcomed the new schools for the Midleton area, saying:
“There has been significant population growth in the Midleton/Carrigtohill area in recent years, meaning this new school is badly needed. It will provide a high quality and modern education setting for thousands of teenagers in the years ahead.”
www.eveningecho.ie
Assessing school league tables
November 28, 2013
Sir, – Given that so many Irish-language schools are at the top of the league table for entrants to third-level education, what is the justification for the 10 per cent bonus marks given for answering certain Leaving Cert papers through Irish?
The old idea was that since studying through Irish resulted in students acquiring less knowledge, that their marks should be topped up to sustain them in that challenging activity. Clearly that’s nonsense. So why does the Department of Education continue this practice, an obvious corruption of the examination marking system? The 10 per cent is an example of the sort of institutionalised favouritism to select groups which was the hallmark of governments in the past. Now it should be ended. – Yours, etc,
DONAL FLYNN,
Breffni Terrace,
Sandycove,
Co Dublin.
www.irishtimes.com
Ceiliúradh ar shiopa Green’s
November 28, 2013
More schools send all pupils to third level education
November 27, 2013
Fee-paying schools claim majority of places that have a high entry-point requirement
Non fee-paying schools dominate the 2013 league tables for sending students into third-level education, accounting for three-quarters of the top 100 schools. However students from fee-paying schools and Gaelscoileanna claim the vast majority of places that have a high entry-point requirement. These students capture most of the places in teacher-training, medicine, dentistry and law, according to The Irish Times Feeder Schools list published today. Broadly, there is little difference between the performance of fee-paying and State schools in the overall feeder list, which shows how many students each school sends to each third-level institution.
However, once again, the list of schools which send students to high points courses in the universities, teacher-training colleges, DIT and the Royal College of Surgeons, is almost entirely dominated by fee-paying schools. Here, the top nine schools are all fee-paying: eight of these are in south Dublin while one, Glenstal Abbey, is a boys boarding school in Limerick with day fees of just over €10,000. The 10th place on this list is taken by Coláiste Íosagáin, a girls Gaelcholáiste in Stillorgan, south Co Dublin. Seven of the remaining top 20 schools on this list are also fee-paying. This is a consistent annual pattern in the lists and suggests that the highest-earning professions – including business and finance and some science careers – have a higher proportion of people who attended a private school.
The numbers of schools that effectively send all of their students into third level has continued to climb in 2013 with almost one in seven schools achieving this. There were 97 schools in this top group. The figures also show, however, that little has changed in terms of access to higher education, with children in well-off neighbourhoods much more likely to attend third level than those in less advantaged areas. There are 17 schools in the top 100 in south Dublin – 14 of them fee-paying – while north Dublin boasts only two, Castleknock College and Ard Scoil Rís.
Attendance at a grind school does not seem to guarantee a third level place, the figures show. Only one, Ashfield College, Templeogue, Dublin, was among the top schools with all students attending third level. The league tables also highlight the importance of having an institute of higher education nearby as a way to increase student access and participation. Students are much more likely to attend college if there is a local third-level institute.
Data for these tables comes from the publicly funded third- level institutions and the State Examinations Commission.
www.irishtimes.com
Assessing school league tables
November 27, 2013
Sir, – Gráinne Faller (“Parents need transparent information on schools”, Opinion, November 27th), declared there should be a debate on school performance tables.
Just over a fortnight ago, the Chief Inspector’s Report 2010-2012 was published. It contains an analysis of all 2,378 inspections which took place in second-level schools during this period, including surveys of 29,000 students and 20,000 parents. School inspection reports, which are available to the public online, contain factual information on the performance of each school across domains such as the quality of school management, the quality of supports for students and the quality of teaching and learning in subjects. In other words, contrary to Gráinne Faller’s claim that parents do not have easy access to information on schools, these reports answer key questions such as: Is the school well run? Are there good student support structures? Are the subjects taught in a manner consistent with improving educational outcomes for students?
League tables are based on a narrow and distorted view of second-level education, ie that it is all about exam results and CAO points. League tables tell us very little about schools because they ignore the multi-faceted work they do. League tables do not consider that each school and student is unique. They fail to see merit in the fact that schools set and meet goals based on the individual needs of their students. League tables dismiss the challenges faced a nd of ten overcome by s t udents and t eachers in every school in the country. The real debate in education is not about league tables, it is about what we want as a society and how schools can work to help us achieve that. At present only 55 per cent of second-level students in Ireland transfer to higher education. Despite the ongoing publication of feeder-school league tables, second-level schools continue to operate on the premise that their mission is to assist all students to achieve their potential as young people and as citizens.
However, if the message is that league tables matter more, all young people, and indeed all of society, will come to suffer.
– Yours, etc, PAT KING, ASTI General Secretary, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8.
Sir, – Can I deduce from the school “league tables” (2013 School League Tables supplement, November 26th) that if the pupils from schools where a minority proceed to third-level education were transferred to fee-paying schools or Gaelscoileanna that virtually all of these pupils would then all go on to third-level and capture many o f the places on high points entry courses? – Yours, etc, JOSEPH MACKEY, Kilkenny West, Glasson, Athlone, Co Westmeath.
Sir, – I refer to your publication of feeder tables to Irish institutions of higher education and to Gráinne Faller’s article on the measurement of schools’ academic performance (Opinion, November 27th).
At St Columba’s College, we have long championed the rights of parents to have a s much information as possible regarding the school’s performance in public examinations and this is why we always publish an average points score per candidate in the annual Leaving Certificate. This information is promulgated on the college website together with information about results against national averages. I know of no other school in Ireland which is so open about its results, but would certainly welcome similar openness from other institutions. In 2013, St Columba’s had an average CAO points score of 466 per candidate across all papers taken at all levels. Over the past five years, it has had an average score of more than 450 points per candidate. Regrettably, however, this outstanding achievement is not recognised in your tables because, by your own admission, the information you have at your disposal is limited. It is time there was much more transparency for parents – and the wider public – in the information given out by schools in Ireland. – Yours, etc, Dr LJ HASLETT, Warden, St Columba’s College, Dublin 16.
A chara, – It is always an interesting set of data, but one wonders whether the use of the “per cent progression” figure is in any way reflective of how particular schools are performing in the year in question. The sample population that would be most instructive as to how well our schools and students are doing, is surely the performance of that year’s Leaving Cert cohort. The “per cent progression” number includes a school’s students who are repeating first year in university as well as mature students. This skews the school performance data potentially significantly given that only 71 per cent of this year’s college registrations sat the Leaving Cert in 2013. Therefore, though perhaps unlikely, it i s possible for a school whose alumni had statistically significantly high failure rates in their first year exams and elect to repeat the year, to appear higher on the league list than a school where every one of its Leaving Cert 2013 students progressed to university. This surely suggests the data as presented should be interpreted with care. The data source is not something The Irish Times can control, but I am sure most who scour these league tables would rather a “pure” dataset, based solely on analysis of those who sat the current year’s Leaving Cert. That would allow us develop real indicators of how our secondary schools and our students are performing over time. – Is mise, DES O’SULLIVAN, Springfort, Montenotte, Cork.
A chara, – It is ironic that on the day you publish dubious “league tables”, Dan Flinter’s appointment as chair of The Irish Times Ltd should be announced (Home News, November 26th). A very wise appointment. Dan Flinter went to the same school as myself, CBS Athy. Out of perhaps 25 Leavi ng Cert graduates in the three years during which Dan Flinter graduated, one became editor of a national newspaper, another a university vice president, a third an enormously successful business consultant in the US, etc. And not a fee in sight! And there was me! – Yours, etc, BRENDAN RYAN, Senator 1981-92, 1997-07, CBS Athy 1964, The Orchards, Montenotte, Cork.
www.irishtimes.com
