Embedded shortcomings in the system revealed
November 5, 2013
There was good news in this report – but it will be hard to solve the problems
Parents and students are at the receiving end of the education system but their views on the services provided are only infrequently requested. So it is interesting that their views are so well represented in the chief inspector’s report on the quality and standards in teaching and learning in our primary and post-primary sectors. Previously the results of school inspection visits were kept within the Department of Education and Skills and were not issued as public documents. It was decided to revamp the inspection procedures for this latest report, changing them in the knowledge that at the end there would be a report for publication.
There was a considerable effort made to sample sentiment, given that 132,000 questionnaires were issued to parents and students at primary and post-primary level, and the results add significantly to the value of the report. It will be reassuring for the department to see relatively high percentages of “satisfactory” and “better than satisfactory” assessments across the full range of subjects. The report looked at both the teaching approaches taken but also the learning outcomes in the students. Lower performance levels were seen in maths and Irish however, evidence that our educational system needs to improve in these subject areas. The chief inspector Harold Hislop said that these results could not inform on whether the revised maths syllabus, Project Maths ,was having any impact in the classroom. There was confidence, however, that this would make a difference when the syllabus was fully implemented.
There are embedded shortcomings in the system, however, such as the fact that many teachers teaching maths are graduates of subjects other than maths or a science. This does not help when it comes to helping students with this sometimes difficult subject. Preparation It is difficult to know what to do with Irish. The report showed that far too often there was a low level of preparation for the classroom. The inspector speculated on whether having better in-class teaching materials might help bring improvements, although it is clear there are problems when almost a third of lessons at post-primary were considered unsatisfactory. The parent survey proved interesting because it revealed a communications gap between school management and parents, a point highlighted by Ruairí Quinn. At primary level only 70 per cent said their views were sought on school matters, and only 65 per cent knew about the work of the school board of management.
The gap apparently widens at post-primary where just 44 per cent of parents agreed their views were sought, with 32 per cent disagreeing and 24 per cent saying they don’t know. And the schools’ parents’ association does not seem to link with parents given only 51 per cent of parents said they were being informed, while 28 per cent disagreed and 20 per cent didn’t know.
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Extra marks for Civil Service exams in Irish abolished
November 1, 2013
A system whereby those completing Civil Service entrance exams in Irish got an extra 6 per cent added to their marks has been abolished by the Government.
At the weekly Cabinet meeting, Ministers accepted a recommendation by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin to discontinue the bonus points system on the basis that it is an anomaly and its intention of promoting Irish speakers within the Civil Service has not worked.
The Cabinet accepted the argument that there are better means of ensuring there are civil servants and public servants with a proficiency in Irish to serve Gaeltacht areas or to work in specific areas where a good standard of Irish is necessary.
However, Mr Howlin’s department has yet to devise a specific plan to achieve this aim. It has indicated panels will be set aside for those who are fluent or proficient in Irish.
Decision criticised Conradh na Gaeilge was critical of the decision. Its president Donnchadh Ó hAodha said the abolished system had not been replaced by a satisfactory alternative.
“The new proposed system to set aside 6 per cent of recruitment panels in the Civil Service for new employees with Irish is not adequate.
“Instead of being ambitious, brave and doing the right thing, the Government is going to further weaken the service provided by the State in Irish for the Gaeltacht and Irish language speaking community.”
He questioned how the policy decision tallied with the Government’s 20-year strategy for the Irish language.
Julian de Spáinn, general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge was also critical of the change.
“There is no doubt but that every government since the 1970s has made a mess of encouraging the Irish language in the Civil Service and providing a service of a high standard in Irish to the Gaeltacht and Irish language speaking community.”
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Speaking with one voice
November 1, 2013
A chara, –
It was great to read about “One Voice”, various language teaching professionals co-operating toward the vision of a multilingual Irish population (Education, October 29th).
The strategy of an integrated language curriculum with Irish and English at its core and involving teaching through the medium of second and third languages as a matter of course has long been championed by Prof David Little of TCD and is certainly an idea whose time has come.
The Finnish education system is often held out as an ideal by Irish commentators a nd rightly so. The Finnish system has multilingualism at its core, rooted in early acquisition of the country’s two national languages: Finnish and Swedish.
Teacher training is key. High standards must be expected in order to be achieved. Investment is needed but even more important is the understanding that the acquisition of languages to a very high standard by teachers of those languages is a condition precedent.
We are the most gregarious people in the world. We are natural linguistics , we just don’ t know it yet.
– Is mise,
DÁITHÍ Mac CÁRTHAIGH BL,
An Leabharlann Dlí, Baile Átha Cliath 7.
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Molann Doherty do McGinley ‘cúlú ón bhuille’
October 30, 2013
Tensions increase between Quinn and teachers over Junior Cert reforms
October 29, 2013
Tensions are increasing between Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn and secondary teachers over the implementation of proposed Junior Cert reforms.
Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) general secretary Pat King said yesterday the abolition of the Junior Cert would leave students with no State examination before the Leaving Cert. While teachers liked some of the proposed changes, they were concerned that “the motivation for students will deteriorate and … that what is being proposed will change the relationship between students and teachers”.
The changes, first announced two years ago, are scheduled to begin on a phased basis next year for first examination in 2017. A single, terminal exam will be replaced by courses in areas such as computer design and physical education. Mr King said on RTÉ’s Drivetime that teachers wanted to be advocates for students, not their judges, and believed in an external, independent, objective evaluation of work. Mr Quinn said he was asking teachers to get involved in an assessment for learning and of learning. “Teachers are doing this in other countries around the world and it is having satisfactory results.” Earlier on RTÉ’s News at One, Mr Quinn insisted current resources were sufficient for the phasing in of the new structures. However, he added, “we can make more resources available should that prove to be necessary”.
ASTI sources said there was “very substantial” concern among teachers about the availability of adequate resources and training. The ASTI said the one-day training course for English teachers was “totally inadequate”. Fianna Fáil education spokesman Charlie McConalogue said it was crucial that independent assessment remained a core part of a reformed Junior Cert. “I have said previously that I am concerned about the eight-year roll out of the reform agenda and that issues around funding, teacher-training and assessment need to be clarified by Minister Quinn.”
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Speaking with one voice
October 29, 2013
Why do we have such a problem with modern languages?
The European Council warned: ‘The main challenge for Ireland is to move away from an official but lame bilingualism’ Next month the Long Room at Trinity College Dublin will be home to a Babel of tongues as the many language-interest groups in Ireland come together to form a new advocacy movement for language learning.
Ireland is well behind other nations when it comes to languages, and we have no official language policy, beyond Irish, around which a movement for progress could coalesce. Modern languages are not compulsory at any stage of Irish schooling. Last year’s budget saw the abolition of the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative (MLPSI); our first foray into early-language learning never made it past the pilot stage. Hence the One Voice for Languages movement. “We have seen what can happen when there is State support for a subject,” says Kristin Brogan, a founder of One Voice and a lecturer in German, intercultural communication and EU projects at the Institute of Technology Tralee. “There has been a huge emphasis on science and technology over the past few years, and it has paid off in terms of uptake at postprimary and third level.”
Brogan and the One Voice group want to light a similar fire under language learning, but, she admits, there are obstacles unique to Ireland. “There is a tendency to assume English is enough, that we don’t need other languages. However, in Europe, the English language is like the European Computer Driving Licence. Everyone has it. Irish people competing for jobs in Europe are up against applicants with English, their own native language and often a third language as well.”
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is moving towards an integrated language curriculum at primary level, but the focus will be on English and Irish, with some element of language-skill learning. This, the NCCA hopes, will “establish a sound foundation for the learning of a foreign language in postprimary school. An integrated language curriculum would enable teachers to achieve learning efficiencies by explicitly drawing children’s attention to similarities and differences between their languages”.
But any hope that French, Spanish or German might find its way back into primary schools, where children are at the optimum age for new language acquisition, has been definitively extinguished. “The decision to end the MLPSI was made in the context of a very challenging budgetary environment, where difficult decisions had to be taken,” a spokesperson for the Department of Education told the Irish Times. “The programme ended in June 2012, and there are no plans to revisit this decision.” Irish-language lobby Irish is the second challenge to modern-language learning in Ireland. Irish-language groups will form part of One Voice, but the native tongue occupies a unique position that sets it apart from other languages in the Irish context. “We don’t want to put down Irish,” says Brogan. “It’s a can of worms nobody wants to open.”
In theory, the learning of Irish should complement further language acquisition, but in reality, for Ireland, it doesn’t. Before the abolition of the MLPSI, just 3 per cent of Irish primary-school children were learning a modern language, compared to an EU average of 79 per cent. Roughly two-thirds of Irish postprimary students take a modern language. In the UK it is compulsory until the age of 16. By third level, uptake here has dropped again, to around 3 per cent. A 2012 European Commission report revealed that only in Britain, Portugal, Italy and Hungary can fewer adults hold a conversation in an additional language. In Ireland, 40 per cent have a second language, but that includes those who can speak Irish. This compares with a 54 per cent EU average, but the figure is more than 90 per cent in the Netherlands and Sweden.
Brogan admits educationalists will not be able to force the Government’s hand on a modern-languages policy. The language of money is the only one that’s ever heard, and there is no shortage of companies highlighting the language deficit here. Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Oracle, PayPal and Dropbox have their Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters here, and are all recruiting outside Ireland to fill their language needs. Amazon, IBM and Twitter have headquartered their European operations here. Currently, there are 2,000 vacancies for speakers of German in Dublin, and companies are starting to move some of their departments to eastern Europe, where they can find appropriate language skills.
This is a measurable loss to the Irish economy. What is harder to quantify is the potential growth Ireland is missing out on. Tony Donoghue of Ibec believes that Irish SMEs, particularly export companies, are the biggest losers. “The tendency among many Irish exporters is to avoid markets where language is a barrier. If we had more speakers of German, French and Spanish working in our SMEs it could open up so many doors. Over 75 per cent of the world’s population do not speak English, and only 9 per cent speak English as their first language. If we neglect to ensure adequate availability of foreign language skills in Ireland, the opportunities of this global market for our indigenous exporting companies will not be realised.”
Six year years ago the European Council’s language-policy division warned: “The main challenge for Ireland is to move away from ‘an official but lame bilingualism’ to become a truly multilingual society, where the ability to learn and use two and more languages is taken for granted and fostered at every stage of the education system and through lifelong education.” Mickael Lenglet of the Alliance Française says that although there is more to gain from language learning than boosted job prospects, the Irish will not be at the races at all if we don’t catch up in this area. “Ireland is the only European country not to have compulsory teaching of a foreign language in primary school. Being bilingual in business is normal; a third language will soon be unavoidable. How can Irish people meet the expectations abroad, or in the Irish market, if their knowledge of foreign languages is behind the rest of Europe?”
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Pinocchio: a rebel icon that appeals to real boys and girls in any language
October 15, 2013
When Mairéad and Ionia Ní Chróinín were small, their father, Dáibhí, would read them the tale of Pinocchio, which had been translated into Irish directly from Italian by Pádraig Ó Buachalla in the early 1930s.
Eachtra Phinocchio was, as Carlo Collodi’s original story had been, somewhat darker and deeper than the fantasy created for cinema by Walt Disney. Later on, their father was instrumental in bringing out a new edition in Irish, with illustrations. What struck his older daughter Mairéad was the appeal the story had for teenagers. Here was a marionette with an overwhelming urge to rebel, and a character who was “far more interesting for all that”. And so, decades later, she and one of her younger siblings fashioned a bilingual version for stage, which has won critical acclaim, received a Stewart Parker award for Irish- language drama, and which enjoys its final outing this week, at the Baboró International Arts Festival for Children in Galway. “Well, we think it’s final, but you never know.” Mairéad and Ionia, co-directors of Moonfish Theatre, laugh.
O’Connor adaptation
They have good reason to feel cheerful. Just hours before this interview, they were informed that An Taibhdhearc theatre would stage their new production, based on Joseph O’Connor’s novel, Star of the Sea, at next year’s Galways Arts Festival. As with Tromluí Phinocchio (Pinocchio: A Nightmare), their approach to this new project involves a number of developmental stages. And so, during the final weekend of this month’s Galway Theatre Festival, they invited a small audience to an upstairs Taibhdhearc studio to view their “work in progress” on interpreting aspects of O’Connor’s text. Sample scenes were rehearsed – such as The Monster, The Victim, Captain’s Log – and the single-sheet programme came with a series of questions formulated by the ensemble. “We really do like to work with an audience early on. There’s a model for theatre, but it was one that we didn’t feel very fulfilled by,” they say, acknowledging that their method can be a painstaking way of working. The pair set up their company after an impromptu production at the Project 06 alternative arts festival in Galway seven years ago, when Ionia, a puppeteer and musician, had returned from studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now known as the Royal Conservatoire) in Glasgow. Mairéad, who studied politics at the University of Glasgow, was also back west with experience in stage management gained in Dublin. Ionia, who is also involved with the Branar theatre company in Galway, spent a period with Danish practitioners who would take more than a year to develop a show.
Walking away
“It was a series of blocks, if you like, where walking away for a time in between each segment was just as important … a bit like leaving an instrument down after labouring over a tune, and picking it up again days later to find you can play it so much better,” she says. “It’s not a way of working that suits some actors, but it was one that we developed quite consciously with The Secret Garden in 2009.”
That adaptation of the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett was first staged at the Galway Theatre Festival in 2009, and the entire ensemble was involved in production, direction, costume choice, set design, construction, music and lighting. “It’s very loose, no one is telling anyone what to do, everyone is encouraged to make suggestions, and so it can feel quite unsafe. Even with our morning warm-up, everyone takes turns, and we don’t hold auditions. Discarding ideas is as important as creating them, as those ideas that are strong enough tend to return.” The Ní Chróiníns grew up in a creative and bilingual household. Their father, Daibhí, is professor of medieval history at NUI Galway and their mother, Maura, is the main mover behind the Galway Early Music Festival.
Music and language
Their approach in Moonfish extends to music – everyone seems to be able to sing or play an instrument or both – and the Irish language, which they prefer to see as limitless, rather than limiting, in terms of communication. Foras na Gaeilge, their main funder, clearly has no problem with that. “We were involved in a co-production of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People (Namhaid don Phobal) in the Taibhdhearc in 2009, where we used surtitles for those with little or no Irish,” they recall. “We got a mixed response to that, because there is a view that one should not be doing this. But there are so many people with such goodwill to the language, who are so stressed about their perceived inability to use it, that we wanted to reach out to them.” Motion, image and expression are employed to transcend linguistic boundaries, and in Tromluí Phinocchio, the puppet’s insistence on speaking English is integral to his teenage revolt. Branar and other Galway Gaeltacht-based companies such as Fibín also use that kind of physical imagery successfully, relying on the intuitive sense that younger audiences have about a storyline in any language. Baboró artistic director Lali Morris says current issues for young people, such as bullying and taking responsibility for choices and actions as they affect other people, are themes skilfully addressed by Moonfish in Tromluí Phinocchio. “This is a group that is not just doing children’s theatre for a while, but really wants to challenge their audiences of any age,” she says. “What is striking about their work is their extraordinary energy, range of talents and, ultimately, their respect for the intellect of the child.”
Highlights: Baboró children’s festival
Baboró is the Galway-based international arts festival for children. Along with Moonfish’s production of Tromluí Phinocchio, highlights of the festival include Collapsing Horse Theatre Company’s Human Child, inspired by WB Yeats’s poem The Stolen Child, and an Abbey Theatre production of Me, Mollser , the story of a young Dubliner (played by Mary-Louise McCarthy) who is struck by consumption during the 1913 Lockout. Other shows include two by La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi, the Italian children’s theatre group from Bologna, and one by the Dutch puppet company Theatre Lejo, while American singer Tom Chapin, a periodic Baboró visitor, returns. Also returning is the Catherine Wheels Theatre Company of Scotland’s Lifeboat, which first came to Galway in 2003. A number of free events running during the week including creative activities in the Exploratorium – a temporary activity centre that will focus on arts, technology and science. The festival is introducing a “relaxed programme” for parents or teachers who may have concerns about bringing children with specific needs to public venues. Pictiúr, the work of 21 leading children’s book illustrators, will also be exhibited at the Galway Arts Centre, while author and illustrator Oisín McGann visits on Saturday.
Baboró runs until Sunday. baboro.ie
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Naíonra ar tí druidim
October 11, 2013
Government failing children as schools ‘starved of resources’
September 25, 2013
The government is starving schools of resources, implementing cuts “by stealth” and depriving this generation of “cutback kids” of an adequate education, the organisation representing managers of almost 400 secondary schools said today.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn and the government are failing to prioritise the young, the vulnerable and the nation’s future in their allocation of resources, it added.
In a pre-budget submission, the Joint Managerial Body representing managers of Catholic and Protestant secondary schools said hard-pressed schools are “at breaking point” and can take no more cuts to frontline services.
“The Budget must prioritise and protect frontline services,” JMB General Secretary Ferdia Kelly said, urging the government to recapture the vision of Donogh O’Malley, the Minister for Education who announced free post-primary education in 1967.
Mr Kelly said schools have lost guidance counsellors and suffered cuts in the numbers of language and special needs teachers as well as year heads and other supports.
The 2011 programme for government declared education was at the heart of sustainable economic growth and said it would prioritise frontline services but that hadn’t happened, he said.
“The government is spinning to the public that things are still the same but they are not,” he said. There had been a decrease “by stealth” of almost one percent in the pupil teacher ratio, class sizes were at a maximum and subjects were being dropped from senior cycle.
Michael Redmond, JMB research and development officer, said this generation has suffered education cuts worse than any in the State’s history. Every other generation had a better education experience than their parents but not this generation who will be known as the “cutback kids”, he said.
The submissions said services to students in need including travellers were being eroded, capitation grants had been cut by 11 per cent and the moratorium on appointment of posts of responsibility in schools was forcing principals to take on the tasks of key posts such as year heads and special needs organisers with consequent impact on the principals’ ability to fulfil their own responsibilities.
The “catastrophic” cuts in guidance counselling particularly exposed the lack of vision as a lot of counselling work was about stopping problems at source, it said.
Immediate restoration of guidance provision was a “no brainer”as the axing of this service affected the most vulnerable and it made no sense to have government educational policy add to the problem of high youth unemployment.
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How do you divide 37 pupils into an official average of 28?
September 24, 2013
Years ago in Ireland the classroom was organised along military lines: children in tight rows facing the blackboard with little scope for movement or interaction. It was a mixture of educational philosophy and practical necessity, as classrooms of 40 or more could hardly be organised any other way.
Since then, educational philosophy has changed and the importance of good teacher-child ratios is seen as crucial to the quality of education. The Irish primary curriculum emphasises group work, circle time, movement, experimentation and learning-by-doing. Shortly before the economic collapse and the first austerity budgets, the then education minister Batt O’Keeffe pronounced the ideal class size as 20 or less. At that time, between 20 per cent and a quarter of Irish classrooms had 30 students or more.
The official figure is now 28 to one, up from 27 since the last budget. Ireland currently has the second-highest pupil-teacher ratio in the EU. To establish the ratio of 28 to one, the overall number of pupils is divided by the overall number of staff, principal included. Many schools, however, have classes with significantly more than 30 pupils.Urban and commuter-belt schools are having particular difficulty making the ratios work.
This year, at Scoil Naomh Feichín in Co Louth, one classroom has 37 pupils. Four out of eight classes in the school are topping 30 pupils, including the junior infants class, which this year has 32 pupils aged between four and six.
Margaret Hurley teaches the new junior infants alone, with no SNA or classroom assistant to support her. She says having such a large class has had a huge effect on the way she teaches.
“With such large numbers you have to revert to a more traditional style of teaching, standing at the front of the class and engaging in whole-class teaching. The activity-based methods of the revised curriculum are just not possible with such a large number of young children. Even something as simple as a painting lesson is a mammoth task. Small-group work is virtually impossible,” she says.
Junior infants usually come from preschool environments, where the ratios are far lower. Something as simple as helping pupils open new lunchboxes or fasten new coats can be very time consuming in a class of 32, says Hurley.
“The Department of Education and Science has introduced Aistear, which is a new framework for the infant classroom. It involves the children learning through guided play in different activity areas in the classroom. I don’t have any space to set up these areas in my classroom as I’m tripping over someone every time I turn around.
“The area of the curriculum that will suffer most is literacy. I simply won’t have the time to check that the children are mastering their letter sounds and to hear them read. I’m sure this will result in less successful outcomes for the children,” she says.
Bryan Collins is principal of Scoil Naomh Feichín. Officially, he is an administrative principal but he has gone back to teaching smaller groups to try and offset the overcrowding issue.
“It’s very difficult. If I miss a call from one of the State bodies relating to a pupil, I may not be able to get hold of that official again for days or weeks. The paperwork is piling up.”
His greatest concern, though, is for the pupils. He believes the entire spirit of the primary curriculum is being undermined as schools are forced to return to the old chalk-and-talk method of teaching large groups.
“Scoil Naomh Feichín is just one of many schools that have to deal with the problem of large class size. Many primary schools in the Louth and east Meath area are in exactly the same position. I would say from my discussion with other principals in the area that we are looking at about half of all schools dealing with classes of more than 30 this year. This area of the country has a young population and it’s in the commuter belt. If houses start to sellagain, pupil numbers will go up even more.
“The main reason our school is coping at the moment, despite the cuts to date, is due to the dedication and hard work of the teaching and ancillary staff. We are fortunate to have a young, energetic staff who do a tremendous job.”
The problem is that while headline figures of 28 to one may not sound extreme, in reality it means that if a school is shy even one pupil it can lose an entire teacher. This leaves schools with full classes that have to be redistributed throughout the school. If the number of pupils at any particular level is higher than 28, the principal is left in a tough position. There is little flexibility in a system that is supposed to be designed around human beings.
According to the INTO, the actual average, nationwide, is 26. This reflects extremes within the system that mean some small rural schools may have fewer than 10 children in a class, with mixed age groups taught together, while urban and commuter-belt schools such as Scoil Naomh Feichín are handling much larger numbers.
Collins is afraid of what might happen in next month’s budget. He says that any more increases in the staffing schedule will be extremely difficult to manage, dedicated staff notwithstanding.
Sinéad Maguire is teaching 37 third-class pupils at Scoil Naomh Feichín this year. She says that she is just about managing because there are no significant behavioural or learning difficulties in the mix; a highly unusual scenario. Nonetheless, she feels the students are being shortchanged.
“This is the biggest class I’ve ever had to teach. In a smaller class, I would use constructivist approaches, emphasising the importance of using ‘hands-on’ activities and peer learning. Now whole-class teaching is the main approach used in many subject areas because of the constraints of the classroom size and pupil numbers.”
At a practical level, 37 pupils in a prefab is problematic, she says.
“The noise level is an issue, especially in the prefab where every noise is amplified. I would usually have groups of four children at a desk but due to the large numbers this year I’ve had to change the classroom desk arrangement into rows to make cooperative work easier and to reduce the noise level. I hand out books and other materials during my break now when the classroom is empty, because it’s too noisy and disruptive to do it during class time.”
Collins is chilled to hear growing media speculation about further increases in class size coming down the line.
“Within the four walls of the classroom the best teacher in the world cannot give adequate attention to these kinds of numbers,” he says. “There are rules about ratios of adults to children every time a group leaves the school, but when it comes to the classroom those rules go out the window. We can’t take any more increases; it just won’t work.”
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