Méid an Téacs

Speech by Ruairí Quinn, T.D.Minister for Education And Skills, at TUI Congress, Kilkenny

Aibreán 23, 2014

I would like to begin by thanking you for the invitation to address your Congress – my fourth opportunity to do so as Minister for Education and Skills.

In any given year, there are always many issues for discussion over Easter.

But this year, it is clear that one issue will dominate your congress.

Today, I want to take the opportunity offered by your invitation to discuss the introduction of the JCSA in some detail.

I also want to take some time to outline some of the reforms which are underway in the further and higher education sectors.

The current reforms can be summarised under three headings;

· Supporting inclusion and diversity;
· Improving quality and accountability; and
· Creating opportunities

My remarks today will focus on the idea of creating opportunities for Irish citizens – an idea which revolves around the reconfiguration of Higher Education and Further Education and Training.

But I would like to begin by spending a few moments detailing my rationale for reform of Junior Cycle.

JCSA

The most significant body of research we have on the lived experiences of post-primary students is the longitudinal study carried out by the ESRI.

Sadly, this research shows us, to quote Emer Smyth and Frances Ruane: “the current junior cycle is not providing an engaging and challenging experience for young people. Their learning is often well below its potential.”

That research tells us that many students experience fear and trepidation during their first year of post-primary education.

This perhaps, will always remain the case, as children move from ‘small school’ to ‘big school’.

Though it is a transition we could surely do more to ease.

More worryingly, the research tells us that during second year, many students – too many students – disengage from their education.

By this point, the play and imagination of primary school has been utterly disrupted by the backwash effect of the Junior Cert.

From that point, many young people will never fully re-engage with education.

They have already entered a departure lounge from education.

And some drop out as soon as they can after or even before the Junior Cert.

Moving away from centralised state certification at the end of junior cycle will certainly benefit those students.

But it will also benefit all others.

The learning approaches which post-primary students best engage with, are those which capitalise upon their natural creativity and imagination.

Participating in discussion and debate, testing themselves against those around them – these are approaches which capture the interest and imagination of our young people.

But for you, our teachers, there is little space for such approaches by the time students reach third year.

A quote by Mark Patrick Hederman, former headmaster at Glenstal Abbey, comes to mind:

“Imagination is what we should be cherishing, encouraging, cultivating. Instead of which we are systematically deleting it from the desktop of every child who wants to get enough points… to enter our third level institutes.”

We have to ask ourselves if this is what we want for our 15 year old children?

And to what end?

There are some who argue that the Junior Cert is an essential dry-run for the high-stakes Leaving Cert.

The Junior Cert serves such a purpose poorly.

The ESRI has found, and I quote, that “students report increasing demands between junior and senior cycles, with schoolwork becoming harder and more investment in homework required.

As a result, students become less confident about their capacity to cope with schoolwork and less positive about school in general.”

Again, I must stress that this ESRI study is the most significant evidence of the experiences of post-primary students available to us.

We have a responsibility to pay attention to that evidence.

These findings clearly show that students do not believe the Junior Cert is preparing them to study at Senior Cycle.

But even if the Junior Cert did serve this purpose as a dry-run, as some teachers and parents believe it should, would it really be worth the price?

Is it really acceptable to say that memorisation and rote learning, should be allowed dominate other learning in post-primary schools?

Clearly, the answer is no.

As teachers, you are more ambitious for the young people you teach than that.

You want them to develop as people, as citizens.

Not simply develop the wrong skills, for the wrong time, in this globalised world we now inhabit.

The Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and many others – countries who are achieving many of the standards we aspire to – these countries are already transitioning away from any state certification at the end of junior cycle.

Finland, until recently the poster child of the education world, utterly avoids any examinations until the point of matriculation.

We are almost unique in retaining a high-stakes terminal exam at the end of junior cycle.

And we know it doesn’t work.

That, plainly speaking, is why I made the decision to introduce the JCSA.

These issues are not new.

A century ago, Padraig Pearse wrote the Murder Machine.

In it, he argued, and I quote:

“I would urge that the Irish school system of the future should give freedom –

freedom to the individual school, freedom to the individual teacher,

freedom as far as may be to the individual pupil.

Without freedom there can be no right growth, and education is properly the fostering of the right growth of personality”.

There have been many calls since to give schools and teachers that freedom.

Almost 25 years ago, the Junior Cert replaced the Inter Cert and the Group Cert.

Acclaimed originally as a more flexible entity than its predecessors, it was hoped it would be accompanied by new modes of assessment.

But the opportunity was lost.

A generation later, the NCCA published “towards a framework for junior cycle”.

That document made a compelling argument for change, building upon the ESRI research I referred to earlier.

It is worth noting – that that NCCA document, which your union now states was welcome – was presented to me with an accompanying objection from the TUI.

So it is not accurate to suggest that TUI would have supported the proposals published by the NCCA.

I gave serious consideration to the NCCA proposals – for over a year.

But ultimately, I came to believe that we risked repeating the error we made a generation ago.

Reform that does not fundamentally alter the assessment at the end of Junior Cycle cannot deliver meaningful change.

In making my decision, I looked again to the evidence provided by the ESRI.

I was convinced that the quality of our education system would not ultimately change unless the high stakes exam was replaced.

Since I made that decision, time was lost as a result of your consideration of the Haddington Road Agreement.

That was understandable, but in retrospect I think that delays in sitting around a table to discuss JCSA were unfortunate.

But there is time.

This is a long project.

Almost a decade before full implementation.

And the first assessment event in the subject of English is almost two years away.

I encourage you to take the chance to put your mark on this significant change.

I am providing every opportunity I can for this to happen.

In January of this year, I established a National Working Group to explore issues of concern to the various education partners.

The views of stakeholders have already resulted in changes to the timing of the introduction of these reforms – giving schools more time to prepare.

Additional CPD has been sanctioned for subject teachers and school leaders, while whole school days are being provided for planning these changes at school level.

A sub-group is considering in detail the issue of quality assurance and support for teacher assessment.

As part of its remit it is addressing external supports for moderation to reassure and support teacher assessment, and to help to ensure standards.

I trust you as our teachers to act professionally and assess your own students without fear or favour to anybody.

Teachers already do that in further and higher education where the stakes are much greater.

So why this fear of change in what is essentially a low stakes exam?

It would be dishonest of me to pretend that your union has been fully engaged in the National Working Group.

All other education partners – parents, management bodies and school leaders – have made written submissions to the sub-group, which we are considering, and continuing to discuss.

Regrettably, neither TUI nor ASTI have made any such proposals so far.

Your union has refused to provide any written views on ICT, resources, supports for moderation, or other matters.

I believe we can make progress by working together.

I hope that your union will now engage more fully.

Creating Opportunities

I am conscious that the TUI also represents educators in further and higher education.

With that in mind, the theme which I want to primarily focus on today, is the idea of creating opportunities for our people – providing them with pathways to work.

This is not simply an idea that we should educate people to be economic actors alone.

We want all of our people to participate in our society, and in our culture.

And of course, to have fulfilling and rewarding lives of their own.

But central to that aim, is providing people with sustainable work in which they can take pride.

I firmly believe in the benefits and dignity of work.

Not just for individuals but for society as a whole.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has set a target of getting back to full employment by the end of this decade.

I fully agree with that.

But we must go even further.

We must strive to return to full employment by 2020, and then work to hold those gains instead of throwing them away.

This happened in the recent past.

It must not happen again.

The dignity of work must be a sustainable offer made to each of our citizens.

There are many, many areas of our society that need to be reformed.

But no single area is as important, to the very texture and fabric of our society, as ensuring that our people are able to find work and get paid a decent wage for it.

The education system at all levels has an enormous role to play in supporting these ambitions.

Further Education and Training

For many years, the further education and training sectors, have been the Cinderella of the broader education system.

I was, and remain, determined to change that.

The British academic, Guy Claxton, has often written about a need to reimagine the types of learning we value.

He tells a story of how, several years ago, there was media outrage across the UK when a young woman turned down a place at Oxford, to take up an apprenticeship as a hairdresser.

As he notes, and I quote:

“Behind the outpourings of opinion one could hear the rumblings of a very deeply entrenched set of social attitudes about the relative merits of the academic and the vocational”.

In Ireland, that set of social attitudes is arguably even more entrenched.

It is absolutely right, that as a small open economy, we continue to strive to have very high numbers of our young people studying at third level.

But that alone is not enough.

We also need a stronger further education and training sector, that provides alternatives to third level, valued routes to work, as well as a set of different routes towards third level.

And we need to persuade young people and their parents that the choice of a course in the FET sector is a rational and valuable one – not one that is lesser to the higher education options which exist.

We have introduced very significant reforms to the FET sector over the last three years.

FÁS no longer exists, having been replaced by SOLAS –

An organisation that will oversee the modernisation and reform of our Further Education and Training sector.

33 VECs have been amalgamated into 16 local Education and Training Boards –

Each with the scale and capacity to improve the opportunities offered to those out of work.

And by July 1st, the transfer of all remaining training centres to the ETBs will be complete.

These, as you know, are huge changes to the architecture of FET in Ireland.

And the changes have been achieved without any disruption to day to day operations.

I acknowledge and salute that progress.

The next step in this evolution is to match a strategy for the sector to this overhauled architecture.

SOLAS was tasked with preparing a 5 year strategy for further education and training in Ireland –

The first time that a consolidated strategy for FET has been produced.

Though only newly formed, they have achieved their first objective, and submitted that strategy to me on 31st March.

It was devised through an exemplary consultation process, which involved the views of everyone involved in the sector – from learners to Government, from employers to trade unions.

It was with great pleasure that I was able to approve that strategy unaltered.

SOLAS will formally launch the strategy over the next few weeks.

It will seek to rebuild the entire sector, brick by brick.

An enormous body of work, but one that is very timely.

As we work together to implement that strategy, choices will inevitably have to be made.

Some of them will be difficult choices.

They may involve parking the practices of the past.

To reinvent and reinvigorate further education and training in Ireland.

For today, there are a couple of elements of the strategy I wish to raise – as they will be issues that we will need to cooperate on over the coming months.

The first is the future funding policy for the FET sector.

The strategy points out that funding across further education and training has often been determined by legacy formulae.

In the reconfigured FET sector this cannot continue – we have to move towards a funding system that is centred on evidence-based needs.

To say that this is a challenge would be an understatement.

In essence, this means that we must continually look – not to preserve what exists, but at what we need next.

The other area I want to highlight today, is the need to move towards year-round provision across the FET sector.

In our training centres, year-round provision has always been the norm.

But this has not been the case in the further education sector.

If the focus of this sector is on creating the opportunities which our people need, this must change.

People cannot dictate when they will become unemployed.

Equally, we cannot dictate that education opportunities will only appear at certain times of the year.

We need to be much more flexible than that.

This Government has supported over 60,000 people back into employment over the last year.

But an unemployment rate of 11.8% still demands that we focus relentlessly on providing people with pathways back to work.

The Further Education and Training Strategy will have a strong focus on meeting the needs of the unemployed and on connecting with employers.

In addition, within the next few months, I will also be publishing an implementation plan for the reform of the apprenticeship system in Ireland.

To allow more people to access high-quality apprenticeships across a broader range of sectors.

Higher Education

I have spoken today of the need for the FET sector to provide valid alternatives to higher education.

But creating opportunities for our people also means continuing to reform the higher education sector itself.

The third-level sector has made an enormous contribution to the challenges that this country has faced in the last number of years.

Our highly skilled workforce is the key to increasing Ireland’s competitiveness for foreign investment,

As well as for the growth of indigenous industries that will lead our country out of recession.

We must continue to raise the profile and international reputation of Ireland’s higher education system;

We need to make sure that we provide appropriate, relevant and high quality learning opportunities, for all of our citizens, in all of our regions.

We need to leverage every advantage now so that we can create jobs in Ireland and keep our high quality graduates here.

In May of last year, I announced significant structural changes to the higher education landscape, in response to the advice on system configuration from the HEA.

Much needed clarity has been brought to bear on the destination towards which we are all headed –

We are developing a top quality system of higher education institutions, collaborating to achieve the outcomes required for Ireland.

When I first met with all of the Presidents of the IoTs, I reinforced with them the need to consolidate the Technological Sector.

I informed them clearly that I would not go down the Margaret Thatcher route, of renaming every Polytechnic as a University.

Allowing institutes of technology to move towards merger and designation as Technological Universities is a very significant development.

I know this is one that has been the cause of considerable interest in the institutes involved.

The creation of regional clusters will allow us to improve efficiency,

While also building stronger links between our universities and institutes of technology,

And between those institutions and the businesses in their regions.

The two sectors of third-level education in Ireland must collaborate and co-operate.

All institutions will be expected to develop structures in the coming year, that will allow regional plans to be developed and agreed by each cluster.

A new System Performance Framework is being rolled out from this year.

It is intended to build on the contribution which the third-level sector can make to the development of our country.

It has been designed to bring about a better balance in the level of accountability in the HE system, particularly given that the system is comprised of a series of autonomous institutions.

National priorities of Government, and a number of key system objectives, have now been clearly expressed for the period to 2016.

These, along with a set of system indicators, have been published and communicated to the Higher Education Institutions.

Allowing the HEA to assess the performance of the system as a whole in relation to national priorities, and report back to me on an annual basis in a system report.

I am expecting the first Annual System Performance Report from the HEA very shortly.

This overall framework will inform the first phase of strategic dialogue.

I understand that draft compacts from all HEIs have been received by the HEA and that they are now being finalised.

This will provide much greater transparency and visibility for the sector.

And will help to show the contribution being made to the national recovery effort by our third-level institutions.

Many elements of the reform agenda at third-level must be underpinned by legislation.

I am planning two very significant pieces of legislation in relation to higher education.

The Oireachtas Committee submitted their pre-legislative report to me on the Technological University Bill last Thursday.

That legislation will allow for the creation of Technological Universities, and will improve the governance of our Institutes of Technology.

I hope that TUI will continue to have the opportunity to feed into that legislation as it passes through the Oireachtas.

The process to achieve TU status has been clearly set out in the draft legislation.

A panel of international experts will be the independent adjudicator of whether applications for TU status should be approved.

This will be no political rebranding of existing institutions.

To allow that would devalue our entire third level sector.

Over the next while, I’ll also be publishing another Bill, which will improve the governance of the entire third-level sector.

Again, I hope that Bill will provide a further opportunity to enshrine the voice of educators in the governance of our institutions.

As we reform both the FET and Higher Education sectors, we must also develop the connection between the sectors.

The creation of the ETBs and the Higher Education regional clusters will greatly assist this.

As I stated at the outset, all of this – junior cycle reform, the rebuilding of a unified FET sector, and the reconfiguration of higher education – must be focussed on creating opportunities for Irish people.

Conclusion

I have only had the opportunity to touch upon some of the many issues which are of concern to your members.

I have tried to clearly outline my arguments for the necessity of introducing JCSA.

And I have outlined how I believe the reforms to higher and further education will help us to create opportunities for our citizens.

Before I conclude, I also want to underline our commitment to enhancing the infrastructure which underpins these developments.

We will spend almost €550 million on infrastructure this year, continuing the five-year building programme.

Round 1 of the Summer Works Scheme has seen funding made available to 386 schools to keep them safe and warm.

And round 2 of that scheme will be announced next week.

Meanwhile, the last batch of post-primary schools will receive a free connection to high-speed broadband by September.

There are many, many other issues which I would have liked to address today.

The development of new models of middle management in schools deserves further consideration.

You have concerns about multiple pay scales, about the future funding of our schools, about investment in technology.

I look forward to engaging with your leadership on these, and many other issues over the coming weeks and months.

Thank you once again for your invitation to be here with you today.