History in schools
September 20, 2013
Sir, — Tom Collins (“Compulsory history, an anathema”, Education, September 18th) writes that “it is ironic that historians should find themselves arguing for compulsion, given the experience of compulsory Irish”.
It is not clear that Prof Collins has himself considered the experience of compulsory Irish quantitatively. The facts are that only geography and English had a higher number of students sitting higher level papers than sat the Irish paper in the Leaving Cert last June.
For a subject that is the target of all manner of negativity in this country for cultural reasons – often hidden behind the “I’d have really loved Irish if it wasn’t compulsory” argument – it is remarkable that almost 40 per cent of students sitting the exam chose higher level, when they were not compelled to do so.
Incidentally, while Irish is always the popular target when talking about compulsion, let us not forget either that 50,000 students sat maths in the Leaving Cert, while only 43,000 sat “compulsory” Irish. Compulsion ain’t what it used to be, it seems.
The relevance of history – even from a general knowledge perspective – as a central part of any educational system which purports to produce informed rounded citizens is self-evident.
It would be a shame if t he teaching of history were to fall victim to some specious political crusade to be seen to promote “choice”. In the average post-primary school, students find their choices extremely limited anyway, not least because of the constant cuts.
Had my daughter started post-primary school five years ago she could have studied two European languages but now because of cuts she can do only one in that school. In that context, talk of choice is risible.
This development is far more about creating the illusion of choice, as part of the Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn’s “reforming ” agenda, than creating actual choice, which would require more teachers teaching mo r e subjects. –
Yours, etc, Martin Ryan, Springlawn Close Blanchardstown, Dublin 15.
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Teacher concern at abolition of Junior Cert
September 12, 2013
‘We believe every student is entitled to a fair, impartial and transparent State cert’
Junior Cert exam to be replaced by school assessments on phased basis
The president of Ireland’s main second-level teachers’ union says she was “deeply concerned” about the decision by the Minister for Education to abolish the Junior Cert.
In a message of congratulations to Junior Cert students, ASTI president Sally Maguire criticised plans by Ruairí Quinn which mean that from 2014 students will no longer sit the exam.
“Under the Minister’s proposals young people wh o spend five or six years participating in second-level education will not experience State certificate examinations until they reach Leaving Certificate,” Ms Maguire said.
She said the Junior Cert exam was invaluable Leaving Cert preparation and enabled students, parents and teachers to gauge aptitude prior to maki n g choices about the Leaving Cert.
Ms Maguire also expressed concerns about the legitimacy of the school-administered exams, graded by students’ own teachers, set to replace the State exam.
“We believe that every student is entitled to a fair, impartial and transparent State certificate to record their achievement at junior cycle. A school certificate based on grades awarded by students ’ own teachers does not have t he same status or validity as an independent State certificate.”
This year’s Junior Cert results will be one of the last under the current model, in place since 1991.
The reforms announced by Minister Quinn in October 2012 will be introduced on a phased basis from 2014.
The new English curriculum will be the first to be introduced to first years in 2014, followed by Irish, science and business studies for first years in 2015.
Under the reforms, the Junior Cert exam will be replaced by school-based assessment, with an emphasis on the quality of the students’ learning experience. Ms Maguire urged students celebrating their results to act responsibly. Higher level maths The Irish Second-Level Students’ Union said it was happy with the steady rise in the number of Junior Cert students taking higher level maths. It appealed to students “to be responsible and mindful to others in their celebrations”.
Minister of St at e f or Research Sean Sherlock said the increasing number of students taking higher level maths was welcome. More students also taking science at higher level was “an important step to building Ireland’s knowledge economy”.
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Large class sizes a ‘black mark’ on Ireland’s education record – INTO
September 5, 2013
That almost a quarter of primary school children are in classes of 30 or more is a “black mark” on Ireland’s education record, according to teachers’ union, the INTO.
Departmental statistics revealed that more than 120,000 children, or 23.5 per cent, of primary school children in mainstream schools were in classes of 30 or more in the last school cycle. In certain local authority areas that percentage was closer to a third, with 31.5 per cent of primary school pupils in Wicklow and 30.6 per cent of those in the Limerick County Council area in classes of 30 or more pupils.
The largest class in the country recorded in the 2012/13 school cycle had 41 pupils in a Co Cork school. Three schools, located in Cork, Monaghan and Galway, each had one class of 40 pupils. The school that recorded the largest number of primary school children was St Mary’s parish primary school in Drogheda, Co Louth. The smallest school in the country, St Columbus National School on Inishturk off Co Mayo, recorded just three pupils.
Average class sizes
The average class size increased slightly from 24.4 in the 2011/12 school year to 24.7 in 2012/13.
The latest statistics were contained in the department’s annual census of mainstream primary schools conducted on September 30th, 2012.
Peter Mullan of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation noted that in the 2012/13 year there were more than 8,500 students in classes of 30 or more pupils than in the previous academic year.
“Class sizes have the biggest impact on children’s learning – all the evidence shows that in smaller classes of 20, which is the EU average, learning outcomes improve.
“The evidence also shows that younger children benefit from smaller classes . . . and the third piece of evidence that is very clear is that children from disadvantaged backgrounds do better in smaller classes,” he said, calling for a Government commitment to reduce class sizes.
Barometer
Larry Fleming of Ballinamere National School in Co Offaly and public relations officer with the Irish Primary Principals’ Network, said the “real barometer in any class is the quality of teacher but the simple fact of the matter is that the quality of a teacher, no matter how good, depends on the number of children they have in front of them”.
However, in a statement released yesterday evening, the Department of Education said there had been no change to the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools.
“Some 900 extra primary and secondary school teachers are being recruited this year to maintain class sizes,” a spokeswoman said.
“The pupil-teacher ratio of 28 to one in primary schools is unchanged under this Government. Class sizes are managed locally by the principal. There will inevitably be individual classes that are bigger or smaller than 28. It is also worth noting that about one-third of all classes have fewer than 25 children.”
Case study
‘In a class of 30 pupils where is the centre of the classroom anymore?’
When Mary Mother of Hope senior national school in Littlepace, Dublin 15, opened its school gates last year, 477 children poured through them.
As with any cohort in this relatively young Dublin suburb, the student population included a diverse mix of children with varying learning and language abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Almost two-thirds – some 64 per cent of pupils – ended up in classes of between 30 and 34 pupils. School principal Enda McGorman said such large classes pose a challenge for teachers trying to meet the diverse needs of all their pupils.
“The reality is the complexity of the classroom now is such that, with bigger class sizes, teachers are finding it hard to meet the huge variety of needs of children,” he said yesterday, after new figures revealed that almost a quarter of Ireland’s primary school children are in classes of 30 or more pupils.
“We have children with special education needs, children from newcomer backgrounds and you have a mix of socioeconomic circumstances as well, and you have all that in one class of 30 pupils – where is the centre of the classroom any more? Where do you teach to?
“If you focus your attention on one child, one group or cohort it is then really challenging to ensure the others are being as well attended to.
“In years past we could have pointed to the resource teacher, to English languages resource teachers, special needs assistants . . . but the supports aren’t there now and yet our class sizes are continuing to grow,” Mr McGorman said.
He said schools are using all the resources at their disposal, including the use of learning support teachers, to help ensure pupils’ needs can be more closely met.
“Smaller class sizes would give us closer proximity to the learning and needs of every child.”
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Irish education has ‘long way to go’ to be world class
September 5, 2013
Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn has said Ireland has a long way to go to have the kind of “world class education system that we need to have”. He said before this goal was achieved it had to be recognised that “the assertion that was so frequently trotted out in the past, but which blatantly wasn’t true, was that we had one of the best education systems in the world”.
Mr Quinn said this was an “assertion based on no evidence whatsoever other than something of a feelgood factor that was communicated to us at home by the greater Irish diaspora who felt, for whatever reason, that it was better than what their children were experiencing in other parts of the world.”
Mr Quinn was speaking ahead of the opening of the Fifth National Conference on Research in Mathematics in Ireland (MEI5) at St Patrick’s College Drumcondra, Dublin. The Minister also said he will respect whatever decision secondary teachers make when they are balloted next week on the Haddington Road agreement. Industrial action could be initiated in second-level schools as early as next week if teachers vote to reject the deal. Ballot papers have been issued to more than 30,000 members of the ASTI and TUI unions this week. Teachers are being asked to vote on the deal brokered in May and already backed by the primary teachers’ union the INTO and other public sector unions. “It’s a matter for themselves. They’ve had the summer to reflect on changes in the system,” Mr Quinn said. “Most other people in the public sector have responded to the Haddington Road agreement and the opportunities and the constraints that it offers at a time when everybody in our country has been affected by the disasters of the previous government. “But it’s a matter for them to make their own choice and their own decision and I will respect whatever decision they make.”
With regard to pupil/teacher ratios, Mr Quinn said there had been “no change” since he came into office in the ratio for primary school pupils. “What has been the big change is the massive increase in numbers, which we have anticipated.” He said there had been a “kind of car-crash moment” two years ago when he had seen projections of pupil numbers. There was a €2.2 billion capital building programme to increase capacity and this year marked the second in the programme to get rid of prefabs in schools, he said. These were a “temporary” solution and were “not desirable”, particularly in winter. “We have, as you saw, 22 per cent of all of the pupils in classes of over 30, which makes it very difficult for teachers to try and get around to everybody, particularly if the class is mixed in terms of background and different ability. “So I’m aware we have a massive demographic growth. We would like to have more classroom space to enable principals to redeploy the teachers that they do have and teaching assistants.”
On today’s Cabinet meeting, Mr Quinn said the Government was “looking forward to getting back to work”. But he said the forthcoming Budget would be the “hardest” of the three budgets under the troika regime, because “everybody is taking a hit”. “We’ve got still more road to travel before we get back in control of our own economy and our own economic sovereignty. The choices become more difficult with each year because the easier difficult choices are the ones that are made first so it is going to be difficult.”
Mr Quinn said the misalignment of the fiscal year and the academic year meant all figures for his department’s budgetary purposes would not be available until the end of September. “So the baseline upon which we will have to make adjustments doesn’t clarify itself until very close to budget day itself. So that’s a new kind of difficulty that we have to encounter.” The theme of the conference in St Patrick’s College today and tomorrow is Mathematics Education: Crossing Boundaries. Mr Quinn told those in attendance the Government had taken a number of initiatives in recent years to develop mathematical understanding, knowledge and skills amongst young people and this work would continue.
Project Maths, supported by a significant investment in professional development for teachers, had been the most “radical curriculum development” on the academic calendar at post primary level since its launch in 2008. The maths syllabus for junior cycle would be reviewed in the near future, he said. He also welcomed the 58 per cent increase in the number of students taking higher level maths at Leaving Cert level, attributing it to the award of 25 bonus points for the subject. He paid tribute to his predecessor, former Fianna Fáil minister Mary Coughlan, for supporting that initiative. President of St Patrick’s College, Dr Daire Keogh, said the conference was dedicated to creating a forum for sharing ideas and best practices in the field of maths teaching and exchanging the latest research results. Distinguished speakers in mathematics education would, he hoped, spark “stimulating discussion” about the teaching and learning of mathematics. Presentations by teachers and researchers will also highlight effective classroom practices.
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Cainteanna ar litríocht agus chultúr na hóige
September 4, 2013
Education groups welcome proposals
September 3, 2013
Admission Bill would transfer appeals process back to schools
School management organisations have concerns about impact on administration
Plans to eradicate school waiting lists have been welcomed by education and parents’ groups: Plans to eradicate school waiting lists and booking deposits for school places have been broadly welcomed by education and parents’ groups.
The proposed Admission To Schools Bill would also make it more difficult for schools to discriminate on the grounds of limited resources in cases where children have special learning needs.
“For too long, young people with special educational needs have been deprived of the opportunity to attend the school of their choice and the proposed legislation should eliminate this discretionary practice,” said Michael Moriarty of Education and Training Boards Ireland.
However, school management organisations have expressed concerns about how the changes might impact on administration. The draft Bill proposes to remove the current system that allows parents to make an appeal to the Department of Education where they are unhappy with a school decision on student admission, known as a section 29 appeal.
The new scheme, details of which were published by the Department of Education yesterday, would transfer the appeals process back to schools.
Religious patronage
Ferdia Kelly of the Joint Managerial Body, which represents 400 voluntary secondary schools with religious patronage across the country, says his members are not in favour of a “cumbersome” appeals process.
“We don’t want an appeals process that will bog us down in bureaucracy. The section 29 appeal process is working well. There are fewer than 300 appeals lodged each year, out of well over 100,000 admissions, and less than half are successful. This is because most schools’ admission policies, as they currently stand, are working.”
Mr Kelly said it was important not to create false expectations for parents. “In a situation where demand exceeds supply, someone will always be disappointed.”
Booking deposits
Don Myers, president of the National Parents Council – Post Primary, said he welcomed “some aspects” of the Bill.
“We get a lot of queries from parents regarding the demand for booking deposits and we feel they should not be charged.
“I understand that schools have an issue with parents putting their child’s name down on a number of lists and that may be why this practice has developed.
“However, it works both ways, and often parents don’t get that money back if a place is not offered.”
However, Mr Myers said the Bill would not do away with undersupply in a small number of key schools where problems arise.
“Where you have a number of schools in an area, one will be seen as the best. Not everyone can get in there.”
Draft Bill
Áine Lynch of the National Parents Council – Primary, said yesterday’s draft Bill had “moved the discussion on”.
“Booking deposits were never an issue at primary level, but recently they have become a major feature. This bill, if enacted, would do away with that problem.
“The inability of some students to access certain schools may be a problem for a minority, but for those it affects it is very significant.
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Overhauling school admission
September 3, 2013
A commitment to introduce a fair and transparent admission system for primary and secondary schools represents a small advance.
The draft legislation from Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn is likely to be regarded in some quarters as an attack on the autonomy of fee-paying schools. But it will have wider implications in promoting greater diversity and transparency in the way in which all State-funded and fee-paying schools operate their intake policies.
The Bill will go to an Oireachtas committee for consideration and Mr Quinn has signalled his willingness to respond to “reasonable suggestions for improvement”.
In view of the critical surveys and consultation processes that underpin these proposals further changes are likely to be small. The measures will apply to all 4,000 primary and post-primary schools and are designed to remove discriminatory practices against the admission of children with disabilities, from poor backgrounds or from immigrant and ethnic groups. Legislation will also provide for a parent-friendly appeals system.
The Bill goes further than addressing the elitist practices of most fee-paying schools. It identifies various forms of discrimination, exclusion and preferment that have operated right across the education system.
Specifically, it states that schools may not refuse admittance because of special education needs, sexual orientation, family status, race, faith or religious tradition. In addition, schools will not be allowed to charge application fees; operate waiting lists or interview parents or their children for school places. Fee-paying schools, in particular, have been accused of operating “soft barriers” to exclude children with special educational needs; of maintaining long waiting lists and of operating enrolment policies that are not transparent.
While not wishing to “overly intrude” in the day-to-day operation of schools, Mr Quinn has made it clear institutions receiving State funds will have to introduce fair and transparent admission policies.
Schools will be required to publish enrolment criteria and, where waiting lists exist, they will be asked to phase them out within five years. It sounds like a tough approach and, considering the disjointed system that exists, it is. However, schools that consciously discriminate through intake practices are unlikely to come out with their hands up.
At primary school level, once enrolment priorities have been published, such as living near the school, having a sibling as a former pupil or ensuring the characteristic spirit of the school, old systems may continue. Religious ethos can be used to prioritise membership of a particular church as a condition for enrolment. That is likely to cause social friction because of a rising birth rate and Catholic Church control of 90 per cent of primary schools.
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Devil in the detail of Quinn’s new admissions
September 3, 2013
Bill Legislation could cause headaches for boards of management
Booking deposits are unpopular but serve a function: to discourage multiple applications to different schools
There was a measured response to yesterday’s draft proposals for a Bill to bring transparency to schools’ admissions policies. While no one could publicly argue with the Bill’s intent to make our schools more egalitarian, there is plenty in the draft that could cause headaches for boards of management when the legislation is finally enacted.
Much like the Education Act it seeks to alter, this is a Bill that will translate into more paperwork for schools and some knotty problems for smaller schools and those in the fee-paying sector.
It’s a lengthy document that will have i mplications not just for those 300-odd students and their parents who challenge the system through the section 29 appeal process each year, but for every oversubscribed school in the country that has managed their problems using waiting lists.
Waiting lists
The Minister has suggested that students on waiting lists may be allowed to work their way through the system before the lists are closed down, up to a period of five years. How these schools will manage demand when the first-come-first serve system is dismantled is not clear.
The suggestion that boards of management handle their own problems when it comes to parental challenges on admission could cause some discomfort in small communities where parents and boards of management members live in close quarters.
The practice of schools taking booking deposits from would-be applicants used to be the preserve of secondary schools but more recently primary schools have got in on the game. They are unpopular but serve a function: to discourage multiple applications to different schools. Once this deterrent is removed, how will schools manage numbers in the closing weeks of the summer as they wait to find out who will actually turn up at the school gate?
Management headaches notwithstanding, would this Bill, if enacted as it stands, actually make our schools more democratic places?
Special needs
For students with special education needs, the prospects are good. Any school with available places will, under this proposal, have to take all-comers. That should eradicate the practice of sending children down the road to the school “with more appropriate resources”.
Patron bodies and management groups say this practice is exaggerated, but parenting and disability groups claim otherwise.
Schools that are oversubscribed will not be allowed to discriminate on the grounds of “the student having a disability or special educational need”, so where parents feel they have been turned away on those grounds, the rules will be clear.
For groups other than those with special needs, however, there is less to applaud. While everything from sexual orientation to religious belief is listed among the grounds upon which schools cannot discriminate, there remains in place an exemption for religious-run organisations from basic equality criteria, if they can demonstrate a threat to their ethos. As long as that remains in place in our Equal Status Act (2000), it undermines the spirit of yesterday’s draft scheme
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Schools plan adds 7,500 places
August 30, 2013
Unions say 15 new schools, 3 extensions are barely adequate to meet demand
INTO says 10,000 pupils starting school will add to overcrowding at primary level
Fifteen new schools will open across the State this autumn and three more have undergone extensions, together providing almost 7,500 permanent school places. But this is barely enough to keep up with growing demand, according to a teachers’ union.
The 18 new and extended schools were built under the “rapid delivery programme”, a fast-track scheme launched in 2007 to deliver schools quickly in areas experiencing rapid growth, where there is no existing school or the existing provision is unable to meet demand.
Together, the 14 primary and four postprimary schools will provide 7,488 permanent places, the Department of Education said. The pupils would benefit from “modern, energy-efficient buildings and improved learning environments”, a spokeswoman said.
Overcrowding
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation argues, however, that the extra 10,000 new pupils starting school this year would cause more overcrowding in primary schools.
A record 70,000 new pupils will enter the system in 2013, said INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan. Irish primary classes were already the second-most crowded in the EU, with an average of 24.5 pupils, she said. The EU average is 20, and Luxembourg is the country with the lowest at 15.
The Irish figure was an average, and at the most crowded end of the scale Ireland had more than 100,000 children in classes of 30 pupils, she said.
The largest class sizes were found in counties Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. Other schools with large class sizes were found in urban centres in Limerick, Cork and Waterford.
Growing population
While the new school places were very welcome, they are barely able to keep up with the rise in pupil numbers, said Peter Mullan of the INTO. “That is just keeping pace with the demand for more spaces in a growing population,” he said.
All but six of the new schools are ready for use, but of these six, four are only days away from completion, the department said. Another, in Navan, is due for completion later this month and another, in Carlow, by late October. Nine of the new schools are in constituencies where a Government Minister holds a seat.
The department uses a geographical information system to assess the likely changes to the schoolgoing population in those areas, the spokeswoman said.
New Schools
Primary Schools
Carlow Educate Together NS Co Carlow
Gaelscoil Mhichíl Uí Choileáin, Clonakilty Co Cork
Carrigaline Educate Together NS Co Cork
Scoil Phádraig Naofa, Rochestown Co Cork
Portlaoise Educate Together NS Co Laois
Gaelscoil Phortlaoise Co Laois
Maryborough NS, Portlaoise Co Laois
St Francis NS, Blackrock Co Louth
St Stephen’s NS, c/o St Martha’s College, Johnstown Co Meath
Gaelscoil Inis Córthaidh, Enniscorthy Co Wexford
Greystones Educate Together NS Co Wicklow
Postprimary Schools
Luttrellstown Community College, Blanchardstown Dublin 15
Lusk Community College, Lusk Co Dublin
Coláiste Bhaile Chláir, Claregalway Co Galway
Coláiste na Mí, Navan Co Meath
Extensions
Gaelscoil Moshíólóg, Bóthar Charn an Bhua, Guaire Co Wexford
Scoil Choilm, Porterstown Rd, Clonsilla Dublin 15
Skerries Educate Together NS, Barnageeragh Cove, Skerries Co Dublin
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After 19 years on road Gaelscoil gets €3.15m home
August 29, 2013
A Gaelscoil that started out in a dancehall 19 years ago moved to a permanent home in a ¤3.147 million purpose-built school in Clonakilty, Co Cork, yesterday.
There were high-fives from local priest Fr Eddie Collins as the children of Gaelscoil Mhichíl Uí Choileáin climbed the steps to the new building.
Principal Carmel Nic Airt, who started out with 17 students on September 1st, 1994, has overseen classes in a former Church of Ireland teacher’s residence, a mobile home, a holiday home and a bank.
“This is the culmination of 19 years’ effort. It’s what I’ve worked for, and what I’ve wanted, and to think it’s happened is so gratifying.”
Ms Nic Airt, who collected the keys to the new school on Fernhill Road just 24 hours previously, praised the co-operation and leadership of the Department of Education.
“They are a much maligned body who really have stood behind us right from the very beginning,” she said.
‘Tabtop’ facilities
The Gaelscoil is home to a gateway technology project which has equipped 40 students in fifth and sixth class with interactive “tabtops” linked to a TV screen that replaces the traditional whiteboard.
Part-sponsored by Intel and German electronics company Grundig, the tabtops are a cross between laptops and tablets and will phase out the need for heavy schoolbags.
“The teachers need never raise their voice again; just send a message to a particular child that might not be co-operating, with no need to disturb the class,” Ms Nic Airt said.
Some 200 students took part in a march from the school’s former rented premises at Clarke Street through the town centre to arrive at their new school for a formal flag-raising ceremony yesterday.
The 265 pupils and 25 staff will have the use of 12 classrooms, three autistic spectrum disorder rooms including an early intervention unit, four support rooms and a general hall as well as playground areas.
Wish list
“If somebody told you ‘sit down and write a wish list for a school with everything you could want’, this is that and more, because there are things here that I would never have dreamed of,” Ms Nic Airt said.
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