College rejects call for tougher teacher entry level
February 19, 2013
A LEADING education college has shot down a proposal to demand higher Leaving Cert grades for primary teaching – saying it would actually cause a drop in standards.
The suggested change is part of wider efforts to improve teacher quality generally, and and so boost literacy and numeracy levels among primary students. But St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, has come out strongly against it, insisting that rather than improving the standard of trainee teachers, it would have the reverse effect.
The Teaching Council, the watchdog for the profession, has been consulting with interested parties over its plans for revised entry requirements for teaching. The proposal for higher Leaving Cert grades in Irish, English and maths has provoked concerns.
Currently, trainee primary teachers need a minimum of an Irish higher level C3, English higher level D3 or ordinary level C3, and maths D3, at either higher or ordinary level.
Under the proposals, new entrants would need an Irish higher level B, an English higher level B and a maths higher level C or ordinary level A. Entrants to primary teacher training are among the best Leaving Cert performers every year, with a minimum of 470 CAO points. But the council said concerns had been expressed about whether or not all successful applicants to teacher training had adequate levels of literacy and numeracy for the job.
However, St Patrick’s president Dr Daire Keogh said that while some slight amendment to entry requirements might be appropriate, they could not see any reason for a change to the extent proposed. Dr Keogh has warned that the new requirements might lead to a situation where there were not enough school-leavers with the higher grades.
Guarantee
In a submission to the council, he said that among the 2012 entry to St Patrick’s, over half of the students who accepted places would not have met the proposed new entry requirements.
These were students who had a minimum of 470 CAO points – and many with more than 500 points and all falling within the top 15pc of Leaving Cert performers. He said if proposed changes for English, Irish and maths were in place, the college would have had to go to its waiting list in search of students meeting the requirements. But that would mean a lowering of points, with no guarantee that this process would secure the required number of students, he said.
Dr Keogh said the calibre of students entering teacher education was not in question, and a recent report concluded that the academic standard was amongst the highest, if not ‘the’ highest, in the world.
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Church wants a state promise on ethos in schools
January 22, 2013
THE battle lines are being drawn between Catholic bishops and Education Minister Ruairi Quinn over the future of primary schools.
Moves to reduce the dominance of the Church in primary education will see the handover of some schools to other patron bodies. But the church is seeking guarantees about the protection of the ethos of schools that remain under Catholic control.
Last year the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism produced a blueprint on a process for divesting Catholic schools to other patrons, and on ways to ensure that denominational schools were more inclusive.
One strand involves the handover of Catholic schools to another patron body in areas where parents express a demand for greater choice. Following surveys late last year, the Catholic Church has been asked to divest a school in each of five towns and suburbs and the Department of Education is currently running similar surveys in a further 38 areas.
The other element of change is concerned with laying down new rules for the treatment of religion in all primary schools to ensure that they are inclusive. That is to be subject to a public consultation process that will get under way after the parental surveys are completed in February. That will mean an overlap between the two strands of the process and, while there is no formal link, a leading Catholic educationalist yesterday called for a trade-off.
Professor Eamonn Conway said that no Catholic primary schools should be handed over without firm guarantees that the ethos of the remaining schools would be respected. Prof Conway is head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and a priest of the Tuam archdiocese. He said that under one proposal, Catholic schools would be forced to display all religious symbols along with their own and to vet hymns and prayers to ensure they were sufficiently ‘inclusive’.
He also challenged the proposal to delete Rule 68, which obliges national schools to ensure that a religious spirit underpins all their work. He challenged proposals to weaken Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, which protects the right of religious organisations, including schools, to employ only individuals who will respect the ethos of their employer.
Mandatory
Prof Conway also said a proposed new programme for primary schools, Education about Religion and Beliefs (ERB), should not be made mandatory because it “could teach pupils in a secularist view of religion”.
Catholic bishops also used the launch of Catholic Schools Week yesterday to insist that any change to the ethos must not undermine the faith of school-going children. Bishop Brendan Kelly of Achonry said it would be a “terrible travesty” for children “if a natural part of who they are is not acknowledged and nurtured in our schools”.
His concerns were echoed by Bishop Jones of Elphin who told the young congregation: “It is because of you that we are all concerned about Catholic education in our schools.”
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More parents to vote on taking schools from Catholic control
January 14, 2013
PARENTS in 38 more towns and suburbs are being asked to decide whether they want to hand over a Catholic primary school to another patron.
It is part of the historic move to reduce the dominance of the church in primary education. It follows a similar exercise late last year, when parents in five areas voted in favour of greater choice.
As a result, the Catholic Church – which controls over 90pc of the country’s 3,000 primary schools – has been asked to hand over one in each of the five areas to the multi-denominational body, Educate Together, which had most support as an alternative patron.
Parents of all children up to 12 years in the 38 areas, which encompasses 311 schools, are being asked if they want change, and if so, who they would like to see operating their local primary schools.
The 38 towns and suburbs have stable populations and little prospect of any new school opening, so the only way to offer choice is to transfer the patronage of existing schools.
The bodies that have indicated a desire to take over a school in the areas are Vocational Education Committees (VECs), which have developed the Community National School model, the Irish language patron body, An Foras Patrunachta, Educate Together, and, in a small number of areas, the National Learning Network, which deals with pupils with special needs, and the Nigerian-based Redeemed Christian Church of God.
The surveys are going live today on www.education.ie, and will continue until February 8. Paper-based versions of the survey are also available on request. Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said it was “an historic opportunity” for parents to have a real say in the type of school their children attend.
Kildare town has been removed from the original list of areas to be surveyed because it already has an Educate Together school and An Foras Patrunachta will establish a Gaelscoil there next September. The Department of Education will run an information campaign on the issue.
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New build for school
December 17, 2012
A LIMERICK city primary school is to get a new multi-million euro building. Castletroy is to get a new 16classroom school, with construction starting next year.
Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh in Monaleen is the only Limerick primary school to form part of the 2013 school build, announced by Minister Ruairi Quinn this week.
It has been operating out of pre-fabs for 11 years.
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We’re failing to prepare pupils for jobs of the future
December 12, 2012
IRISH 10-year-olds have been outperformed in science and maths in international tests, prompting new concerns about how well the education system is equipping students for jobs of the future.
Ireland ranked 10th out of 45 in reading, 17th out of 50 in maths and 22nd out of 50 in science in the world’s largest educational assessments at primary school level.
Irish pupils scored above average in all three areas – but while they were among the best in reading, they fell significantly behind many top-performing countries in maths and science.
Ireland has scored no better at science or maths than when similar tests were carried out in 1995 – when science wasn’t even on the primary curriculum.
Tony Donohoe, head of education policy with employers’ organisation IBEC, expressed concern at Ireland’s science ranking. He said: “Our performance could, at best, be described as average and given our aspirations to be a knowledge-based economy, average is not good enough.”
Mr Donohoe said Ireland had a particular interest in developing a pipeline of science and technology skills to maintain and develop competitiveness.
One of the issues highlighted in the reports is the amount of teaching time devoted to the different subjects in primary schools. Mr Donohoe noted that Irish pupils spent 25pc less time learning science than the survey average, and significantly less time than the top countries. Ireland is close to the bottom of the league in terms of tuition time for science, at the lower end of the scale for maths, and at the high end for reading.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn welcomed the aboveaverage performance by Irish pupils in all three tests, but added: “We cannot be complacent. Clearly, we need to improve our teaching of mathematics and science at all levels.”
Mr Quinn said that he would like to see more time devoted to science and maths in schools, rather than Irish and religion. He noted that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) was currently conducting a review of time spent teaching all subjects at primary level and said he was awaiting the outcome with interest.
The studies, known as TIMSS (maths and science) and PIRLS (reading) were carried out among about 300,000 pupils internationally – including about 4,500 in Ireland in spring 2011. Since then, teaching time for maths and reading has been increased in primary schools under the new Literacy and Numeracy Strategy.
While primary pupils spend an hour a week on science, Department of Education rules require them to spend two-and-a-half hours a week on religion. Other studies have shown that Irish primary pupils spend only 4pc of their class time on science – half the international average of 8pc. By comparison, primary schools devote 10pc of teaching time to religion, two-and-a-half times more than the international average of 4pc.
Irish National Teachers’ Organisation general secretary Sheila Nunan said having increased the time allocated to maths in the curriculum “we now need to look at doing the same for science”.
She said that aspects of science were relatively new in Irish primary schools and outcomes were relatively good despite the fact that most teachers did not have a background in chemistry and physics in Leaving Cert. “Government needs to support ongoing professional development for teachers in this area. Funding must also be found for proper science equipment to support inquiry and experiment in the classroom.”
Irish Primary Principals Network director Sean Cottrell said the findings were “encouraging, but should be treated as a call to action rather than just a reason to rest on our laurels”.
Reduced
Five countries performed significantly better than Ireland in reading: Hong Kong, Finland, Singapore, the Russian Federation and Northern Ireland.
In maths, Ireland was significantly below countries such as Singapore, Korea, Japan, Northern Ireland, Finland, England and the US. In science, Irish students were significantly below Korea, Singapore, Finland, Japan, the US, Sweden and England.
Ireland has, however, reduced the proportion of really weak pupils in reading and maths, attributed to extra resources put into schools to support students suffering a disadvantage.
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Parents being asked to help fund schools in cash crisis
November 28, 2012
HALF of primary schools spent more last year than they received in income, with parents being pressed to help with funding.
Another one in five (22pc) barely broke even in the academic year to August, according to research for the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA). And the financial pressure is worsening after Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said the minor works grant for schools won’t be paid this year.
One school has been forced to text parents to tell them to put extra layers of clothing on their children for warmth, as they struggle to cope with funding cutbacks.
The principal of Our Lady of the Wayside national school in Bluebell, Dublin, told how children sometimes wear coats in the classroom as they have “no money” to pay for their struggling heating system to be serviced.
Anne McCluskey, who is in her sixth year as principal at the school deemed disadvantaged by the State, said the problems paying for the minor repair works at her 120-pupil school were being mirrored around the country.
Ms McCluskey said the school simply did not have the money to pay for the day-to-day repair and maintenance jobs. Each morning, she goes out to try and “kick-start” the boiler.
The Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) has urged the Department of Education to reinstate the vital minor works grant – worth €8,000 to a school for maintenance – which was slashed in the last Budget.
The CPSMA survey, conducted by Amarach Research, found over nine in 10 schools (93pc) received a minor works grant last year to carry out essential repairs. But now schools are losing out because of cuts in state grants, and also the additional monies that most raise through other sources such as voluntary contributions and fundraising.
More than eight in 10 (86pc) schools rely on ad-hoc fundraising, while four in 10 (43pc) ask parents to make an annual voluntary contribution.
Funding
However, in more than half of cases (57pc), the amount of additional monies received by schools from these other sources last year was down on the previous year.
The survey was carried out among 540 primary schools over a period between October and November. CPSMA general secretary Eileen Flynn said schools at primary level were always the “poor relation” in terms of funding, even in times of plenty. But now they could not even make ends meet, she said.
With the Budget due next week, Ms Flynn warned that any further cuts to school finances would be “devastating”. Sean Cottrell, director of the IPPN, said: “Back in the 70s and early 80s, we saw some awful pictures on television of schools with rat holes.
“We will be heading back to that, there has been a lot of good money spent over the past five years on school buildings but we will lose that benefit if we don’t maintain them properly.”
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TV advert ideas sought by ‘Foinse’
November 27, 2012
STUDENTS are being encouraged to get their creative juices flowing and come up with ideas for a television advert to promote Bliain na Gaeilge, a yearlong festival in 2013 to celebrate the Irish language.
The competition, being run by TG4 and Irish language newspaper ‘Foinse’, which is published with the Irish Independent on Wednesdays, is open to students at both second and third-level. The deadline for entries is Friday.
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Young want secular State and more focus on Irish
November 19, 2012
YOUNG people want major reforms of the education system to include a focus on learning Irish, more investment in special education, and extra classes in IT and new technologies.
Equal marriage and adoption rights for gay and transgender couples and the creation of a secular State are also among the rights demanded by 17- to 26- year- olds who took part in an initiative by President Michael D Higgins to help reshape the country.
The ‘ Take Charge of Change’ declaration says that Ireland should become a secular, inclusive and multi- lingual State with excellent education and health systems.
But it says that political reform is needed to bring about the necessary changes.
“Our vision for Ireland is a secular, inclusive, multilingual, confident State with excellent and universally accessible education, health and social support systems; an Ireland of which we can be proud on the global stage,” it says. “We have to engage in a process of systematic political reform.
“Our vision includes economic prosperity, an enterprise culture and the opportunity for education and employment for all, a place where young people reach their potential, have a solid future and a valued voice, free from forced emigration and the burden of national debt.”
It comes after Mr Higgins invited young people last May to take part in a national discussion on how Ireland should develop.
Regional workshops were held in Dublin, Cork, Monaghan and Galway last September.
It resulted in a report called ‘ Being Young and Irish’, which was launched by the president over the weekend.
Myth
“If anyone is in any doubt now about the myth that young people are disengaged, disaffected and cynical, well, there is your answer,” Mr Higgins said.
Concerns about employment, the future of the economy and a belief that university courses should be free have also been identified as major priorities for the 800 people who took part.
Reform of the Leaving Certificate was needed because it emphasised rote learning and failed to prepare students for “active citizenship”. Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald said the views would be taken into account for the young people’s strategy, which is currently being drafted.
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Just 40pc vote on handover of schools
November 14, 2012
THE first surveys on the possible handover of Catholic primary schools to other patron bodies have resulted in a low turnout by parents.
At most, 40pc of parents have had their say – and the actual number could be much lower.
An expert group will now analyse the results and will give recommendations to the Department of Education on whether there is a demand for change. The department is also considering whether they need to make any changes before similar surveys are conducted in 39 other areas.
Parents in five areas were asked to vote in recent weeks on whether they would like a greater choice of patron for their local schools. The move is designed to reflect the growing diversity in Irish society and to give parents an opportunity to reduce the dominance of the Catholic Church in primary education.
The church, which controls about 90pc of primary schools, agrees that greater choice is required and is willing to hand over schools in line with parental preferences.
In the first instance, parents were asked to say whether they favoured any change, and, if, so, to give their preference of an alternative patron body from a list provided. The list included all-Irish and multi-denominational schools
The surveys were conducted in Arklow, Co Wicklow; Trim, Co Meath; Whitehall, Dublin; Castlebar, Co Mayo, and Tramore, Co Waterford, and were open to parents of preschool and primary-aged children.
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Why Irish language may soon be a Celtic myth
October 31, 2012
The State has to step in to prevent the demise of our native tongue, writes Conchur O Giollagain
THE Irish language as a communal, collective identity is on its last legs. This was the principal finding of the 2007 Comprehensive Linguistic Study of the Use of Irish in the Gaeltacht. This study was an integral part of a 10-year-long research and consultative process, which regrettably has come to a conclusion of sorts with the revised Gaeltacht Act.
Irish is collapsing in the gaeltacht for two main reasons: a strong decline in the proportion of young, home speakers of Irish; and, secondly, inadequate communal and educational supports to enable even the home speakers to acquire a native-like ability and to function with social ease through Irish in their own peer groups.
Among the central recommendations of the study were: to give statutory effect to designated language-planning initiatives for communities with varying language vitalities, priority being afforded to the stronger areas, so as to counteract their slide below the viability threshold of 70pc of active Irish speakers in a given district; a revamped and attractive support scheme for Irish-speaking families; a bespoke gaeltacht educational system and curriculum; Irish-language socialisation strategies for educational and youth organisations; holistically integrated planning across all domains – language, education, socio-economic; and, finally, the establishment of a rural district council for gaeltacht districts in the stronger areas.
In refusing to engage seriously with any aspect of these recommendations, the State is effectively facilitating the demise of the Gaeltacht. The amended legislation adopts elements of the stylistics of the study, but in essence it is an act of evasion rather than engagement with the clearly documented threats to the sustainability of Irish as a living language. The new Act lacks both analytical rigour and political sincerity.
The language planning provisions of the new Act have been greeted with a mixture of dismay and a sense of missed opportunity by local organisations in the Gaeltacht.
The combination of the visionless political leadership from the State and the evasiveness of the Act will only serve to spiritually diminish the remaining adherents of gaeltacht identity so as to encourage a meek acceptance of their fate.
It now appears that the apparatus of the State is either unwilling or incapable – or perhaps both – of taking on issues concerning linguistic complexity.
Historically, many linguistic minorities have looked to Ireland for leadership. Our failure to address the language issue sends out a disappointing message to the world. It is obvious, however, that more effective interventions are required from the State.
Dr Conchur O Giollagain is the academic director of the MA sa Leann Teanga in NUI Galway and co-author of the Comprehensive Linguistic Study of the Use of Irish in the Gaeltacht.
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