Protests and insults over school cuts
February 3, 2012
Protests were held outside the Dáil and insults were hurled within it last night over the Government cuts to small schools.
More than 100 protesters gathered outside Leinster House urging Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to reverse the staffing cutbacks.
Inside the Dáil, meanwhile, Government and opposition TDs frequently clashed during the conclusion of the debate on a Fianna Fáil motion condemning the cuts.
Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae labelled the minister a disgrace and called on Government TDs to oppose the cuts.
That led to a particularly heated clash with his constituency rival in Kerry South, Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin, who insisted he was already doing his utmost to protect local schools.
Other Government TDs criticised Fianna Fáil for moving the motion, saying it was hypocritical from a party which had presided over the economic collapse which led to the cutbacks.
Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins reacted furiously to suggestions that his party had “no mandate” to raise the issue, accusing the Government of wanting to foster a “dictatorship”.
He claimed the coalition had an “anti-rural” agenda, as small schools were mostly rural-based.
Another Fianna Fáil TD, Dara Calleary, said the cuts would place the future existence of small schools, scoileanna Gaeilge, and schools of minority faiths in danger.
Minister of state Ciarán Cannon, responding on behalf of Mr Quinn, said it was scare-mongering to suggest schools would close.
The only issue, he said, was that their teacher numbers would not be “as advantageous” as they had been.
Exam focus to be reduced in Junior Cert overhaul
November 4, 2011
JUST six written exams worth 60% of total marks, points for extracurricular activities and a course for students with special needs are among the options for the qualification to replace the Junior Certificate.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn yesterday gave his backing to the major overhaul of the new three-year programme proposed to him in September. The first students to experience it will not start second level until 2014, meaning it applies to those currently in fourth class at primary level. Last month, the minister rowed back on earlier plans that a limit of eight subjects in which students could be examined would begin for next year’s first-year class, although he is encouraging schools to do so if they can. Instead, the entire revised programme drawn up by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) will be rolled out in three years’ time and the first award of the qualification to replace the Junior Certificate will begin in 2017. Among the changes, reported by the Irish Examiner in September after the NCCA finalised its proposals, are:
* The use of portfolio, continuous assessment and project work, which will be worth 40% of final marks in every subject, removing the focus on written exams at the end of third year and to be marked by teachers in schools.
* The introduction of short courses prescribed by the NCCA or designed by schools, to demonstrate innovation, creativity and critical thinking. These may include subject areas such as cultural studies, development education, book clubs, personal finance, web design, or participation in a school show.
* English, Irish and maths will be compulsory, and science may also be added.
* The three core subjects will be offered at higher and ordinary level but all others will only be examined at common level.
* The grading system A to No-Grade is to be replaced by awards of distinction, merit, pass or ‘not achieved’.
There is an option for a student to replace one or two mainstream subjects with two or four short courses, which could mean a student sits final exams in just six main subjects. The changes will be introduced on a phased basis, meaning English, and probably art, will be the first subjects in which the new qualification will be awarded in 2017. An alternative qualification will be available to students with mild to moderate categories of learning disability, who will be assessed in curriculum covering five areas: communication and literacy, numeracy, looking after myself, living in a community and preparing for work. The emphasis in reforming junior cycle has been to developing young people’s ability to learn and develop important skills, the overhaul also aims to reduce dependence on rote learning for the exam and to make experience of junior cycle more positive. NCCA chief executive, Anne Looney, said schools will have to start work on timetabling and other issues from next year. “Being ready is a big ask for a system more used to a slower pace of change and to change of a modest scale. Supporting schools and supporting teachers who will lead the change will be critical to getting these proposals from the paper and from the screen into the learning and lives of students,” she said.
* ncca.ie/juniorcycle
Real test
MAJOR discussions on implementing the reforms have yet to take place between the Department of Education, State Examinations Commission, teacher unions and school managers. Among the chief concerns of unions are the need to properly train teachers to deliver redesigned courses and to ensure schools with fewer resources to offer short courses are not disadvantaged. Mr Quinn acknowledged these concerns yesterday, but told the NCCA council that the transition year programme has shown that schools can develop their own innovative programmes and modules, sometimes in partnership with other organisations. More difficult to overcome, however, may be industrial relations issues about the planned marking of students’ continuous assessment work in their own schools. While the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland fears the impact of relations with students if members have to award marks to their own students for any elements of state exams, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland has an additional policy requiring payment for such work. Meanwhile, schools are to be allowed to re-employ teachers preparing exam classes for next June who are due to retire before the end of February.
Irish Examiner – Niall Murray
Groups apply for school patronages
November 3, 2011
THE Department of Education has received applications from eight groups to be patrons of 13 new primary schools due to open in the next two years.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn announced in June that the new schools will open in major population growth areas in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Kildare. His department invited interested bodies to apply for the patronages up to early last month, with a newly formed, independent New Schools Establishment Group to recommend a patron in each case to the minister. There were just two applicants for almost half the planned schools, but there are four prospective patrons for three of them. The multi-denominational schools group Educate Together has applied to become patron to all but one. The Vocational Education Committees (VECs) in counties Cork, Dublin and Kildare and in Galway city have applied to open community national schools in 10 areas. An Foras Pátrúnachta, which is already patron to 58 multi-denominational, Catholic, and inter-denominational all-Irish schools, has also expressed willingness to be patron to 10 of the 13 new schools. The applicants do not include any of the denominational patrons who account for more than 95% of almost 3,200 mainstream primary schools, including almost 90% under the patronage of Catholic bishops. The areas for new schools were chosen by the Department of Education based on rapid population growth and, in most cases, already have provision for Christian ethos primary education.
The Redeemed Christian Church of God is offering itself as the patron of choice for two schools in Tallaght and one school in Lucan. The church was founded in Nigeria and has more than 100 parishes in Ireland, describing itself as the fastest growing non-denominational church in Ireland. “The intention is that our schools would be all-inclusive and improve on existing situations in these areas, helping children to reach their potential,” said Dr John Dosu, pastor of one of the church’s parishes in Lucan, where three Educate Together schools operate. Lifeways Ireland Ltd is offering to meet demand for a Steiner school in Galway city. “We have suggested that the department look at the idea of a primary education campus that would optimise the use of public resources and allow parents a choice of schools with different patrons,” said Lifeways Ireland chairman Pearse O’Shiel. All applicants have to demonstrate local demand for their model and show that it would add greater diversity to local education provision.
Irish Examiner – Niall Murray
Parents of girls at top school get 50% of grant scheme
October 26, 2011
Parents of girls at top school get 50% of grant scheme
PARENTS whose children attend a prestigious all-girls school are claiming over half the total Department of Education’s remote area grant scheme.
The scheme was designed originally for islanders and those unable to access second level education in their locality. However, the main beneficiaries of the scheme are the parents of students at Coláiste Íde, the all-Irish country house-style boarding school in Dingle, Co Kerry. The majority of the 142 students at the school are able to avail of the grant towards their fees. The grant, not means tested, offers up to EUR5,000 euro per student, according to figures released to Radio Kerry. The grant scheme, administered by the department, was introduced in 1967 with free post-primary education and was designed to give pupils from islands and other remote regions an opportunity to be educated. The grants are based on distance and pupils who live over 25km from “suitable free education”. Coláiste Íde is the only all-Irish boarding school in the State and is in demand among second-level children who had their primary education in Gaelscoileanna. According to figures obtained by the local radio station, 99 of the 142 students in 2010 at Coláiste Íde qualified for the grant aid and drew down a total of EUR472,375.
Over the past five years, parents of boarders at the school have qualified for over EUR1.9 million in state aid to cover the fees. This was over 50% of all monies paid out by the Department of Education under the grant, which was paid in respect of pupils at 26 other schools since 2006. The EUR836,876 total cost of the scheme last year included payments relating to 14 other schools – six in Cork, four in Mayo, three in Galway and one in Donegal – and the next highest payment was EUR163,251 for students at the all-Irish Coláiste an Phiarsaigh in Glanmire, Co Cork. A spokesperson from the National Parents Council has called for a review in the light of special needs cutbacks affecting most schools. Coláiste Íde is housed in an elegant Georgian home on the shores of Dingle Bay on almost 110 acres of park and woodland. It offers stables and other facilities. Yesterday, a spokeswoman for Coláiste Íde said what parents claimed was not a matter for the school. However, the grants did not cover 100% of costs as the fees at the school were EUR6,000 in addition to other costs, the spokeswoman said.
On its website, the school advises parents: “A remote area grant, which presently covers the basic boarding school fee, may be available for children who are unable to get an all-irish education in their local area. Please ask the school for details.” Yesterday the Department of Education issued a statement indicating the scheme may be reviewed in the forthcoming budget. “All areas of Departmental expenditure, including the Remote Area Grant scheme, are subject to the Comprehensive Expenditure Review (CER) initiated by the Government. The Department is not in a position to comment on any aspect of the CER until decisions have been made by Government in the context of the upcoming Budget.”
Irish Examiner – Anne Lucey & Niall Murray
Teachers oppose assessing own junior pupils
September 27, 2011
TEACHER group leaders have said they oppose members marking their own students as part of the new Junior Certificate testing -even though hundreds are already doing so.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) said it favours reforms of the exam system but the introduction of assessment of students by their own teachers is not acceptable. As part of an overhaul of the three-year junior cycle, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has proposed that 40% of marks in all subjects would be based on portfolios of students learning. But the projects and other studies that make up those portfolios would be marked within each school, subject to samples being checked by the State Examinations Commission to ensure fairness and the maintenance of standards. The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) says teachers should be paid for any assessment of students. But ASTI objected on the bass that any move that places teachers in the role of judge rather than advocate of students will distort the professional relationship between them, and with parents. General secretary Pat King said the question of payment has never arisen for his members. “It’s a matter of the fairness and objectivity of the exam system,” he said. “All the teachers we consult don’t want to change that relationship with their students and they never mention money.”
The Irish Examiner reported this month that students at 94 of the 730 second-level schools had marks in the optional Junior Cert Irish submitted by their schools for this year’s results. The SEC does not pay external examiners to visit schools for Junior Cert oral tests but the number of schools doing the Irish oral exam has risen from fewer than 12 since plans were announced in 2007 to double the marks awarded for the exam to 40%. The use of local arrangements, where teachers would test students from neighbouring schools in oral Irish, is being discussed by unions, school management groups and the SEC. It is believed that an agreement on this might open the door for compromise on the wider issue and addresses teacher concerns about assessing their own pupils without major costs arising. The ASTI also said Education Minister Ruairi Quinn needs to ringfence funding for teacher development and technology investment if he approves the junior cycle reforms. They are concerned, too, at plans to limit pupils starting second level from next year to eight exam subjects, as there is uncertainty over who will decide which subjects they take, and when the decision will be made. The Department of Education said last night that Mr Quinn has yet to consider the NCCA proposals. They include plans to introduce short courses in areas such as active citizenship, participation in school performances and practical skills such as web design, personal finance and debating. The grading system would be replaced by awards of distinction, merit or pass, written exams would be reduced to two hours or less and higher and ordinary level would be replaced by a common qualification for all subjects except English, Irish and maths. A second new qualification is proposed for students with special educational needs.
Irish Examiner – Niall Murray
Globe trotter speaking up for our mother tongue
September 21, 2011
In his TV show No Béarla and in his plays, travel writer Manchán Magan aims to preserve our ‘precious’ Irish, says Pádraic Killeen
FOLLOWING the success of his debut play, Broken Croí/Heart Briste, in 2009, Manchán Magan returns to this year’s Absolut Fringe in Dublin with his second effort, Bás Tongue. Like the earlier play, Bás Tongue is bilingual, playing on the frisson between English and Irish. It examines the strange relationship we Irish have with our beleaguered ‘teanga náisiúnta’. Magan is known for his globe-trotting cultural programmes for TG4 and RTÉ, but he is also a travel writer, novelist, and a provocative commentator on the state of the Irish language. His 2007 TV show, No Béarla, pulled no punches in revealing the frailty of the mother tongue. It was an honest account of how diminished Irish is among the populace. It earned the mercurial Munster-man some “cold shoulders and hostile looks” from many in the gaeilgeoir community. “I was just trying to highlight some of the issues around the language,” he says. The criticism from within the Irish-speaking community both hurt and vexed him. Magan is, after all, a descendant of the famous O’Rahilly clan that was so central in promoting Irish language and culture in the wake of the Gaelic Revival.
Partly as a response to the gaeilgeoirí, then, Magan was inspired to try his hand at producing an Irish language play and – with the assistance of director Tom Creed – brought Broken Croí/Heart Briste to the stage in 2009. The show was a big hit, showered with positive reviews, nominations and awards. Within days of its opening, Magan was approached by the Abbey theatre and BBC Ulster with queries about future work. He is working on a commission for the Abbey. “Broken Croí did ridiculously well – a lot better than I thought it deserved to do,” says Magan. “But it was new. It was someone doing something new with the language. The concept was that it would be 60% in Irish, but 80% understandable to English speakers. “It’s linguistic engineering. You use certain words that the audience will need to understand the play. Everyone has, maybe, 1,500 or 2,000 words that we’ve just picked up from school. So there are things you can do with that.” Whatever the engineering behind it, the show worked. And so Magan now returns with a new effort employing a similar approach.
Again, it’s a two-hander and again Magan performs onstage (despite being, on his own account, “a shite actor”). Bás Tongue takes the form of a comical and fevered debate between a committed scholar of the language and a member of a new generation of young Irish lovers – the graduates of the gaelscoileanna – who now constitute a subculture on the island, complete with their own hipster-gaelic lexicon. “The guy’s an absolute snob about Irish and he loathes this new street-Irish being spoken in Dublin and Cork,” says Magan. “So that’s where the dramatic conflict comes from.” There are gags about “transvestite,” words like ‘talún’, references to the impression that listening to poet Seán Ó Riordáin’s made on traditional Irish speakers (in the words of Máire Mhac an tSaoi: “like chewing sand through your teeth”), and metaphors about how donning another language is like “putting on someone else’s knickers.” Ultimately, however, Magan’s agenda remains an earnest one. “What I want in this play is to give people a visceral sense of what it is to lose a language – to lose something that we’ve had for over four thousand years. There is something vast and precious being lost here,” he says.
Though he can occasionally sound pessimistic or melancholy about the state of the Irish language, Magan’s conversation is chiefly marked by a concrete optimism that insists the future lies in “playing” with the language, and he points to the success of the Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals in engaging with their own native tongue. Magan’s co-star, Roxanna Nic Liam, describes Magan as a “realist.” Nic Liam is a graduate of the gaelscoileanna, and she knows all too well that being realistic about the language inevitably triggers sorrow. “There are some words in Irish that describe things or feelings for which there are no words for in English,” she says. “They only exist in Irish. So there will be some things that will be completely lost. You won’t even have a sense of it. That’s what I find quite sad. The future for spoken Irish, she says, is in forming a “symbiotic” relation with English on the island. One wonders if the theatre of Manchán Magan is not already kick-starting that process.
Bás Tongue runs in Project Cube, September 19 – 24
Irish Examiner – Pádraic Killeen
4,300 pupils took oral Irish despite ban
September 14, 2011
ALMOST 4,300 students at one in eight second-level schools did a Junior Certificate Irish oral exam this year despite union bans on teachers conducting the tests.
The State Examinations Commission (SEC) does not pay for teachers to visit other schools to conduct oral tests for the Junior Certificate, unlike at Leaving Certificate level where the spoken exam is compulsory for Irish and a number of languages. However, although the oral exam is optional at Junior Certificate, the number of schools where students are being examined has soared since the marks for the oral test doubled from 20% of the overall grade to 40% last year. Between 2007, when the changes were announced, and 2009, the number of students who took the optional oral test more than doubled from 339 to 725 at 24 schools. But they rose last year to 1,687 students, 3.6% of all who took Junior Certificate Irish, at 54 schools. The SEC will issue results today to 4,276 students (8.9%) who were examined in oral Irish this year at 94 of the country’s 730 second-level schools in June.
The increase comes in spite of bans by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) on their members doing school-based assessments outside those paid for by the SEC. The Department of Education puts the increase down to pressure from parents on schools to have their children assessed, as they consider it “an important dry run for the high-stakes Leaving Certificate”. Schools notify the SEC on marks for optional oral Irish exams, which are added to those received for the written and listening exams in June. From next summer, the proportion of marks in Leaving Certificate Irish will also rise, from 25% to 40%. It is understood that while some schools pay teachers from other schools or retired staff to conduct the tests teachers at some schools have been assessing their own students. ASTI assistant general secretary Moira Leydon said she understands members have not been assessing their own students, but the union is concerned about teachers assessing students in other schools on an ad-hoc basis, which the union directed them not to do.
She said: “There needs to be a standardised measure applied to all elements of the state exams, whether it’s a practical test for woodwork, singing for music or the written German exam. “But it is also reasonable to expect that the same remuneration given to teachers who take part in other state exam assessments would apply to those who assess oral Irish in the Junior Certificate.” TUI told members not to conduct oral tests until arrangements acceptable to teachers and adequate resources are agreed, including payment and training. The union said it understands that in schools where its members work examiners are recruited from outside or paid by the school or vocational education committee.
Irish Examiner – Niall Murray
14 Meán Fómhair 2011
Gaelscoil moves from prefabs to dreamland
August 30, 2011
STUDENTS who were previously educated in prefabs on the grounds of a rugby club yesterday moved to a state-of-the-art school at a former hotel in Dunkettle, Co Cork.
Gaelscoil Uí Drisceoil was set up in 2006 with a roll-book of 17 children and was based in Old Christians Rugby Club premises in Rathcooney. Numbers at the primary school subsequently rose to 240 pupils, who were taught in four prefabs and three internal classrooms at the rugby club. Principal Siobhán Ní Chatháin noted that the Ibis Hotel in Dunkettle had closed down and approached the developer with a view to refurbishing the premises to suit the needs of her pupils. Developer Seamus Geaney had intended to refurbish the Ibis and reopen it as a hotel, but decided it would not be feasible due to the economic climate. The school’s board of management approached the Department of Education, which agreed to lease the hotel from Mr Geaney for 10 years. Ms Ní Chatháin said the developer has invested about EUR1 million of his own money in refurbishing the premises.
“We are over the moon. We are very grateful to Seamus Geaney as he has bent over backwards for us. Parents are coming in this morning and they are just gobsmacked at the place. “This is a dream school for any principal – particularly coming from prefabs. We didn’t have an enclosed yard in our old school. There is no such thing as a nice prefab. They are too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer.” The building stands on a 4.5-acre site and has ample external and internal facilities to accommodate the needs of a developing school. It is fitted out with 16 92sq ft (about 8.5sq m) classrooms, four resource rooms, two music rooms, a drama room, a computer room, a large open-plan library area, a purpose-built cookery room and an open-plan assembly/PE hall with attached sports changing room. The school also has a tennis court and a GAA pitch. Close to the junior yard, eight enclosed raised beds have been laid down for the children to learn about gardening, while in the senior play area a basketball court and two tennis courts are provided. The school also has an elevator for disability access and a CCTV system. In recent months the school council raised over EUR30,000 to purchase equipment such as laptops and LCD screens.
Ms Ní Chatháin said the state would do well to take note of the transformation of an unused facility into a state-of-the-art school and rid itself of portable buildings or unsuitable learning buildings for children. “I would encourage the department to come down and take a look at this building,” said Ms Ní Chatháin. “It makes sense that they would buy it eventually. We are so happy. Only for this it would have been prefab after prefab while we waited for planning permission for a new premises. Every school should have its own building. “This is like a dream. “We won’t be coming in to school on a Monday with muck at the entrance because there was a rugby match at the weekend.”
Irish Examiner – Olivia Kelleher
14 second-level schools scheduled to open by 2014
August 5, 2011
MORE than a dozen new second-level schools will begin classes for the first time in 2013 and 2014, mostly in the greater Dublin region.
The first will open next month in Gorey, Co Wexford, with Co Wexford VEC as patron, and Co Galway VEC will be patron to a second level school opening in Doughiska in 2013.
The Department of Education has now written to prospective patron bodies seeking applications to set up schools in 14 areas, with 1,000-student schools needed for 2013 in Claregalway, Co Galway; Lusk, Co Dublin; Naas, Co Kildare; and Navan, Co Meath.
A year later, schools for up to 1,000 pupils will open in Ashbourne, Co Meath; Drogheda and Dundalk, Co Louth; Maynooth, Co Kildare; west Blanchardstown, Balbriggan (an all-Irish gaelcholáiste); and Mulhuddart in Dublin. A school to cater for up to 750 students in Greystones, Co Wicklow, will also be needed for September 2014, as will two 500-place all-Irish second level schools in Dundrum on Dublin’s southside and for the Carrigaline area south of Cork city.
The department announced arrangements to select patrons for new second-level schools in June and groups or individuals who want to be patrons to these new schools must apply by mid-November.
Educate Together, which is patron to more than 50 multi-denominational primary schools, said having a standard, transparent process to decide their patronage is good news for parents campaigning for second-level Educate Together schools.
“It is especially positive that this process will take parental demand and the need for different types of schools into account,” said head of education and network development, Emer Nowlan.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn granted recognition to Educate Together to become a second-level patron earlier this year.
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Teacher training course reform
July 7, 2011
HUNDREDS of prospective primary teachers could be ineligible for training courses under higher standards of maths, Irish and English being demanded by the profession.
The Teaching Council is proposing major rises in the minimum Leaving Certificate grades needed in all three subjects for entry to the main primary teacher-training degrees.
Most of the 1,000 or so school-leavers who begin Bachelor of Education (BEd) programmes each year perform well above existing requirements, but the planned changes could rule out hundreds more who still meet Central Applications Office (CAO) points requirements.
More than 21,000 people applied through CAO last year for places on 30 Level 8 education degrees, which are mostly filled by entrants to BEd courses at the four largest colleges of education, who needed at least 470 out of 600 CAO points last year.
While the entry requirements have to be set in consultation with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, school students considering applying for BEd courses could now require the following grades in Leaving Certificate to be eligible:
* Maths: Higher level C3 or ordinary level A1 (currently only a D3 in ordinary or higher level maths is needed)
* Irish: Higher level B1 (up from a C3)
* English: Higher level B1 (up from ordinary level C3 or higher level D3).
A Teaching Council spokesperson said it is not planned to introduce the changes until autumn 2016, when the students who start second-level education next September will be sitting the Leaving Certificate.
An Irish-language admissions test would be mandatory for primary teaching or teaching the language at second level, while those who sat the Leaving Certificate more than five years before entry would have to take an admissions test to show their competence at literacy and numeracy.
As well as the aforementioned changes, alterations to the duration of courses are to be made.
Mr Quinn is due to confirm an extra year for BEd primary teaching degrees, bringing them to four years’ duration, and an extension of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education for second-level teachers to two years, when he publishes the national literacy and numeracy strategy tomorrow.
The changes for primary level are expected to take effect for entrants to courses next year and for those beginning second-level teaching programmes in 2014.
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, July 07, 2011
