Teacher’s Pet
December 7, 2010
IN CHARACTERISTIC style, Labour spokesman on education, Ruairí Quinn cut through the waffle at a sleepy meeting of the Oireachtas Education Committee last week.
Declaring that Ireland is “in receivership’’, he rolled out some of the big questions he would like to see addressed in the Irish education debate. These included:
-Why has Ireland more primary schools per capita (3,200) than any other OECD state?
-How much has been invested in the teaching of the Irish language? He called this “the single biggest policy failure’’ of the Irish system.
-How much time has been spent in faith formation in primary schools?
-Why are five teacher-training colleges controlled by religious orders?
Quinn said we cannot address the smaller issues if we refuse to tackle these and other big questions. It was a bravura performance which lifted the committee out of its slumber.
Quinn’s essential point is that the key shortcomings of the Irish education system can be traced back to the huge investment in faith formation and the Irish language across primary and second level.
By some estimates, over 30 per cent of all teaching time in primary schools is taken up by religion and Irish. OECD studies show the time spent on foreign languages, technology and physical education compares unfavourably with other states. Worse still , a range of other studies – such as computer and enterprise skills, or languages such as Chinese and German – are crowded out of the curriculum because there is simply no time.
Quinn was hinting at nothing less than a revolution in Irish classrooms which would require huge courage in confronting and facing down vested interests. But are we up for the challenge?
WHO WILL be the next Minister for Education?
The movers and shakers in education are already speculating about the post-Coughlan era. Traditionally, Labour tends to push for the education portfolio but everything will depend on the composition of the new government. Ruairí Quinn would be an outstanding education minister but he may be set for a more senior economic ministry. Róisín Shortall, who made such an impression during meetings of the Public Accounts Committee this year, has also been mentioned.
On the Fine Gael benches, Brian Hayes – such a formidable education spokesman – would make a fine education minister. But has he burned his bridges with Edna Kenny? Full disclosure: this column predicted Noel Dempsey and Mary Hanafin’s appointments to education. But it did not foresee the appointment of Batt O’Keeffe or Mary Coughlan to Marlborough Street.
Is another surprise in the offing?
THIS COLUMN WILL do all in its power to ensure that the dreaded X Factor winner will not (again) scoop the Christmas number one. How good it is to see a song recorded by a group of boys from St Michael’s College in Dublin at number 18 in the iTunes singles charts. Christmas Time is out now. Better still, all proceeds go to Crumlin Children’s Hospital.
THAT DEPARTMENT of Education decision to demand cuts in the pay of school caretakers and secretaries has sent shivers across the system.
Isn’t it simply unconscionable to target some of the lowest paid workers in the education sector? Especially when so many in the sector still earn well over EUR100,000 per year.
The Irish Times
7 Nollaig 2010
Coimisinéir imníoch faoi chumas teanga sa Roinn Oideachais
December 2, 2010
Language plans said to be the ‘most significant in 90 years’
November 22, 2010
Just 83,000 people speak Irish on a daily basis and the Government aims to increase that number to 250,000 through its 20-year language strategy, the Dáil has heard.
As calls were made for compulsory Irish to be dropped after Junior Certificate level, Minister for the Gaeltacht Pat Carey warned there is a danger that the Irish language will die unless action is taken. He described the strategy as one of the most significant steps taken on the Irish language in 90 years. Mr Carey said it was a great achievement that the language was still being spoken in Gaeltacht areas given the pressure from the level of English that is spoken. The Minister said it is the household that creates the native speaker but it is the community speaking the language that would keep it alive.
During a two-hour debate on the first official language, conducted mainly in Irish, Fine Gael Gaeltacht spokesman Frank Feighan believed that 4 per cent of Irish speakers, or roughly 72,000 people, use the language daily outside the classroom. He welcomed the strategy but said we should look at the retention of Irish as a compulsory subject from primary to Leaving Certificate level. Fergus O’Dowd (FG, Louth) was more adamant. We must get rid of our compulsory Irish after the Junior Certificate. We must offer people choice after the Junior Certificate rather than having it compulsory. Students love the subjects they want to do, not the ones they have to do.
Labour spokesman Brian O’Shea said there is a large measure of soft support for the Irish language among the public but we must convert this into something more active. He said the Gaeltacht areas could not be kept alive without employment in the area. He also believed the language should be simplified, particularly irregular verbs, a proposal sharply criticised by Sinn Féin spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh. He said: I don’t see anyone asking the French to change their irregular verbs. He also criticised the Oireachtas which refused to accept amendments to Bills in Irish and condemned the rare use of language in the chamber with usually only one debate annually on Irish, around St Patrick’s Day. Trevor Sargent (Green, Dublin North) said the language was on the edge of extinction and warned against the strategy’s changes in the role of Údarás na Gaeltachta.
The Irish Times – Marie O’Halloran
19 Samhain 2010
No more Republic of average
November 4, 2010
Raising Our Game: How Education in Ireland can be improved:
Part two: There can be no economic recovery until our education system is radically reformed to meet the needs of today’s young people. Here, Fine Gael TD Brian Hayes suggests 10 ways to break the grip of smugness I enjoyed my time over the past three years as Fine Gael’s education spokesman. Every day close to one million people in the Republic are in some way involved in education as either providers or students. From the teaching unions to parent representatives, I met great people who are committed to educational excellence. As a politician it’s one of the few areas of public policy where you can make a direct difference. Unlike being at, for example, the Department of the Environment or the Department of Transport, EU directives don’t really stand in the way of what you’d want to do if you were to arrive in Marlborough Street as minister for education.
Our economic recovery and educational reform here in Ireland go hand in hand. The current crisis provides us with a great opportunity to push through the type of reform agenda that is required. The former Intel chief, Dr Craig Barrett, was right when he said that average isn’t good enough any more. But Irish education is exactly that: average. What’s needed is a new higher standard, underpinned by radical reform. When the Finnish economy crashed after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, educational reform was seen as crucial to rebuilding Finland. Over 10 years Finland went from being a basket-case to a smart economy where new technology replaced old. What stands in our way in trying to create a world-class educational standard here? Why can’t we have the best? Clearly we don’t spend enough on education, but that’s not going to change any time soon. New funding ideas, particularly at higher level, are needed. The central command system of the Department of Education needs to be broken up. While the voice of teachers must be heard, too often their voice drowns out everyone else, especially those of students and parents. Even the slightest change in work practice takes years. In short, what stands in the way of progress is a variety of vested interests.
Brendan Behan once spoke about the Irish being popular amongst ourselves. There is a terrible smugness about the education system we have. It is largely built around ignoring obvious problems, particularly with literacy, maths, post-primary dropouts and teacher underperformance, to name but a few. Rote learning and the obsession with points does not prepare young people for the challenges they face in today’s world. A transformation is needed to confront those problems.
1 Change the points system and abolish the CAO
One measure which has the potential to transform post-primary education and remove our unhealthy obsession with the points race would be the abolition of the CAO. I’m not in favour of downgrading the Leaving Cert but why should the State remain at arm’s length from the higher education sector in providing a system to determine who goes to college?
Let universities decide their own entrance system, using maybe a combination of interview, Leaving Cert results and some form of college intelligence test. The introduction of the HPAT aptitude test for medicine has opened up an interesting debate on this subject. The problem is that the points race frames the entire context of post-primary education. Secondary school needs to be about a lot more than some gigantic entrance exam to one university rather than another.
2 Publish school reports
The school evaluation system is not working. Do parents truly get anything from reports on a school that are completed every eight years and written in language that nobody understands? Parents are more interested in how their children are doing and what can be done to help them. Send the inspectors back into the schools to work with teachers and help principals. Publish a school report every year, including results of State examinations. Take the mystery out of the school league tables published every year in our newspapers by getting schools to publish an annual report.
3 Introduce a graduate tax
The universities of this country are a bit like the Irish banks: they are broke. The international reputation and standards we aspire to simply cannot be achieved if the funding base for higher-level education is so dependent upon the State. I developed an idea for a funding system whereby graduates would make a contribution towards their education when they could afford to do so. The graduate tax, as some call it, could represent up to one-third of the unit cost of an undergraduate degree. The more expensive the course, the more a student would contribute. Those who benefit should make a contribution at a time they can afford to do so.
The priority for funding must always be primary and post-primary education. Improving standards in higher education is also essential, and that requires new money and a more rigorous approach to quality. If students have to make a contribution towards their education, instead of parents, I believe that standards will rise and the relationship between students and colleges will be transformed. Paying something back when you can afford it, as against paying it upfront when you start college, is the system of funding we should favour.
4 Abolish compulsory Irish
I passionately believe that Irish should not be a compulsory subject for the Leaving Cert. Sixteen-year-olds should make up their own mind if they want to study Irish. In my view the destruction of the language is based upon compelling every Irish student to study Irish whether they like it or not. We need to introduce other European languages at a much earlier stage. Less than 15 per cent of all primary schools provide a modern European language, excluding Irish and English. Our performance in this area is not good enough. Our future success will be based on our students having greater aptitude in all languages. The earlier we offer new languages in the primary curriculum the easier it will be to reach the European average later in a child’s development.
5 Boost teacher quality
Good teachers make all the difference. We want the best graduates in our schools, people who love their subjects, who are open to change and are prepared to be evaluated on an ongoing basis. Leaving a teacher in the classroom for 40 years is no way to run a system. Ideally teachers should be postgraduates. There needs to be flexibility on teacher contracts, and schools should be allowed to introduce specialist teachers for set periods. Teacher evaluation, mentoring and incentives for real professional development is at the core of improving teacher quality.
6 Invest in school leadership
Show me the bad school with the good principal it doesn’t exist. The leadership of good principals is essential and their role needs to be changed. They should be less the office manager with endless administration and focus instead on leading educational outcomes and knowing what’s going on in the classroom. The problem is that we have too many principals who are teaching full time due to the number of small schools.
7 Schools know best give them real power
What Irish schools need more then anything else is a devolution of power from the centre. Schools should decide how they use teaching budgets, what subjects to teach, where additional help should be aimed. The national curriculum should be used by teachers and principals to suit the needs of their students. We have had enough of edicts from the department. A major cull of educational bodies is also needed. If we liberate our schools to follow their own agenda, greater creativity and a better learning environment can be built. Stalin would be proud of the current composition of Irish education.
8 Let the money follow the student
We need to look at the disadvantaged tag that we give schools. Why is it that 50 per cent of children in disadvantaged areas do not attend disadvantaged schools? The introduction of a pupil premium could enable children from poorer backgrounds to go to any school they want and bring with them the financial support that school needs. Money should follow the student. The key to ending disadvantage is a much wider social mix in our schools. Peer-group and parental expectations are very strong factors in why some students go to college and some don’t.
9 Improve the teaching and learning of maths
We need a major improvement in maths at all levels. While the debate on bonus points is important, the teaching of the subject is the real issue. Students who fall behind in maths need help. Why not use summer courses, online technology and weekend TV tutorials to provide options other than parents paying for grinds in private colleges? Teachers also need guidance on teaching methodology.
10 Give parents a greater role on school boards
One good thing about Irish education is its variety, including religious, vocational, non-denominational, community and language schools. Choice is a good thing. But we need to give a clearer role to parents on local boards of management and to clarify questions of ownership by the various schools.
The Irish Times
3 Samhain 2010
‘Croílár straitéise’
October 13, 2010
Dúshlán scoile
October 13, 2010
Fighting for a way of life
October 12, 2010
The 170 inhabitants of the Gaeltacht island of Inis Meáin fear they will lose their primary school, but principal Orlaith Breathnach, who came to the island from Dublin with her two young children, is working hard to protect it.
WHAT’S YOUR IDEA of the perfect school? How about a pupil-teacher ratio of one to two, a 100 per cent third-level transfer rate, total immersion in a second language and a view from the classroom of ancient dry stone walls winding down to the Atlantic Ocean?
That’s what’s on offer to children on the island of Inis Meáin at its post-primary school Scoil Naomh Eoin, which has 16 pupils and eight teachers (shared with other islands). Inis Meáin national school has nine pupils and two teachers.
“We live our lives steeped in tradition and culture,” says Orlaith Breathnach, principal of the school. “We have traditions here that I don’t believe have survived anywhere else in the country. Our school curriculum is broad and colourful and always grounded in the cultural heritage of this island. The children absorb it so readily and love it. We had a Polish girl here for a year and she ended up getting a prize in the feis ceoil for her sean-nós singing. The judges didn’t even know she was Polish.”
Orlaith, from Dublin, spent 10 years of her working life teaching in a school in Ballinteer. She moved to the island in 1996. Why?
“A man, why else?” she laughs, but admits that her friends and family looked askance at her decision. Orlaith was not a passionate Gaelgeoir and although she taught the subject as part of her job, she reveals that she sometimes regarded it as “a waste of an hour”.
“I came out here without a thought – it was a big risk, I suppose. But I fell in love with the place and teaching here is completely different to my experience in Dublin. Back then I had to commit so much energy to discipline. In a large class you have to teach to the average student – you can’t give much extra time to challenge the bright ones or support the weaker ones. Here, it’s completely different. And teaching Irish is a joy – it’s relevant to the children and they walk out the door and speak it.”
Walking out the door of Inis Meáin primary school is a pleasure in itself. Small-scale farming and fishing are the main industries here and these have made little impact on the landscape apart from the animals, the dry stone walls and the little currachs on the shoreline.
There are very few cars on Inis Meáin – there is no regular car ferry – so the aural landscape is equally serene. With only 170 people living here year-round, this is a place without strangers.
However, there is growing unease among the islanders. There are only five children enrolled at the school next year. Department of Education guidelines suggest that only one teacher can be assigned to every eight primary pupils, therefore the school will probably lose its second teacher. A one-teacher school is perilously close to extinction and the loss of a school is devastating for an island.
A number of young families have come to Inis Meáin in the last five years and there are at least two new islanders on the way. However, even though five children are enrolled next year, there could be only two the year after.
“If we lose our school, then young families will not be able to stay here,” says Marie-Therese de Blacam, who recently married an islander and moved here to set up Inis Meáin Restaurant and Suites. She is expecting their first child.
“If we can’t get kids to the island, that will have a domino effect on the population here. We have 170 now, 135 is the tipping point. Below that, the island is at risk of complete depopulation.”
De Blacam and Breathnach say it would be a tragedy to lose the human culture of the smallest Aran island. They are both determined to stay, but the school is central to their ambitions. Breathnach and de Blacam have come together with the principal of the post-primary school, Mairéad Ní Fhathearta, to devise a strategy to save the school.
“There are families all over the country with a passion for the Irish language who would love to spend a year or more here, educating their children and learning the language,” says Breathneach. “We have asked the Department of Rural, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs to put in place a scholarship and resettlement scheme to attract families with young children to the island.”
A similar scheme is already running successfully in Naomh Eoin. “We have children in the post-primary school who have come here from other parts of Ireland on a scholarship that covers their living expenses with a bean an tí, transport back to the mainland every fortnight and all their books and school costs,” she explains.
Some have paid to send their children to school on the island and at just over €4,000 for a year’s tuition and board, the arrangement competes favourably with any boarding school.
This scheme has been very successful – more than half of the students in Naomh Eoin are not islanders. However, this Irish College-style arrangement is not suitable for primary school students, who could only come to the island with parents or guardians.
“We believe that there are many families in Ireland who could take a year to live here, or more, learn the language and give their children a taste of island schooling,” says Breathnach. “We are hoping that the Department will see fit to fund a scholarship and resettlement grant that would bring people here. I know there’s very little money to go around at the moment, but a handful of families would make all the difference to the future of Inis Meáin.”
Even without a scholarship, Breathnach believes that a move to the island could be a viable option for some young parents.
“We have a fantastic broadband connection here, most houses on the island are connected now. We recently had a Wall Street trader living and working on the island. There are planes to Galway every day and the boat crosses every morning and evening. Houses are available to rent at between €300 and €500 per month. Otherwise the cost of living is very low, but the standard of living is very high.”
Life on Inis Meáin is rich and rewarding, say islanders. Many artists, poets and musicians find their creative home here – a long tradition dating back to John Millington Synge, whose house you can visit.
“This island has a culture all its own. The community is very close. We have our own musical and sporting traditions and events, we even have our own feastdays – Brideoigi and Ceapairi – which are thriving and unique to Inis Meáin.”
Breathnach, de Blacam and Ní Fhathearta are genuinely worried for the future of island life, and hope that by reaching out beyond the island they might secure a lifeline for their schools.
Mairéad Ní Fhatearta describes why she wants to safeguard island life for her two-year-old daughter Chloe: “There’s a richness to my life here. My little girl has such freedom. She loves the animals, the landscape, and the community she’s an important part of already. We are not deprived, or cut off. We live on a hidden treasure. I’ve lived the urban life and our standard of living is much higher here.”
Meáin of Aran:
Where is it: Inis Meáin is the middle island of Aran, 15 miles off the Galway coast Who’s there: There are around 170 people living on the island year round, although the numbers rise in the summer.
What’s there: Inis Meáin has one main pub, a number of guesthouses and, most recently, a designer hotel and restaurant. There are two schools, a church, a medical centre and a shop. There is also a successful clothing manufacturer – Inis Meáin Knitting Company.
What’s not there: Noise, streets, crime, overcrowded classrooms.
The landscape: Inis Meáin’s terraced limestone is unique in Europe. There are hundreds of miles of dry stone walls covering the island, enclosing small green fields surrounded by beaches and cliff walks. Bicycles are the main source of transport.
Services : A daily flight to Galway, two ferry crossings, 24-hour public health nurse and doctor three days a week, broadband, one primary and one secondary school
Traditions: Farming, fishing, sport, and music. Playwright John Millington Synge lived here. Irish is the first language
The Irish Times – Louise Holden
12 Deireadh Fómhair 2010
Circular labour mobility and language skills
October 11, 2010
Two recent news items about Ireland’s low language proficiency catch the eye. They have important cultural and economic implications as we try to escape from this deep recession.
Irish primary schools have much the lowest level of foreign language tuition in the European Union, while tuition at secondary level has declined, according to a Eurostat report. In the EU, 79 per cent of pupils at primary level and 83 per cent of those in upper secondary level general programmes are studying a foreign language, overwhelmingly English. A second foreign language was studied by 10 per cent of pupils at primary level and 39 per cent at upper secondary level, with French, German and Russian the most common. In Ireland, 3 per cent of primary pupils studied a language other than Irish, while at upper secondary level the numbers were 58 per cent and 17 per cent. Research on Polish migration to Ireland by a Trinity College Dublin team shows the newcomers have upgraded levels of skills in the Irish labour force.
But Irish workers’ monolingualism means they still have a long way to go to compete with other Europeans. Everyone in Europe has English now, so it’s no advantage. Irish people are going to need another major language to compete with their European counterparts, according to lead researcher James Wickham. Their report shows a new pattern of circular labour mobility emerging from EU enlargement. Polish and other migrant workers from central and eastern Europe now have freedom to move across borders and between jobs without labour permits. While many have returned to Poland, others intend to use their skills and language competence in Canada, Australia and the United States, where they will, in due course, compete with Irish emigrants. They are also better equipped to compete throughout Europe, since many also speak German, French and Russian. The huge surge in emigration from Ireland is predominantly to the English speaking world rather than to countries where a second language would be required, even allowing for the fact that fewer jobs are available there. The Celtic Tiger boom drew us back to the Anglosphere culturally as well as ideologically.
During those years too little thought was given to the importance of developing supplementary linguistic skills, on the assumption that speaking English conveyed a straightforward economic advantage. Recognising that, other Europeans have concentrated on learning English over the last 15 years. It is by far the preferred second language at primary and secondary levels. Eurobarometer surveys in 2001 and 2006 showed those agreeing that everyone in the EU should be able to speak one of its languages in addition to their mother tongue increasing from 71 per cent to 84 per cent.
It is a very sensitive matter for the French, who have seen their language become steadily less popular than English. Despite their efforts to gather official EU support for two foreign languages, so that they could compete, most EU citizens think English is preferable as a common language and act on that belief individually and educationally. Language proficiency lags behind these aspirations, of course. Self-assessment surveys show an uneven picture, with only 13 per cent saying they can understand and produce a wide range of demanding texts and use the second language flexibly. Sixteen per cent can describe experiences and events fairly fluently and are able to produce a simple text; 30 per cent can understand and use the most common and everyday expressions about familiar things and situations, while 38 per cent say they have no such proficiency. On the assumption that people do not learn a second language unless they think they will really have to use it these figures are expected to increase within the EU over coming years.
English is fast becoming a global language as well as a second European one; estimates show it is spoken in one way or another by about a quarter of humanity. By going global it is also transformed beyond the transmission belt of Anglo-American culture and ideology critics complain about. This is not necessarily a zero-sum game in which languages are displaced, but one that enlarges horizons by creating additional means of communication, in which a second language helps the first survive. The emerging EU language regime has been described as a 2+/- system by the political scientist David Laitin, based on his research in the Baltic states. English is a second language for them, Russian often a third and German more and more a substitute. But Ireland (2-1) is stubbornly monolingual, the UK even more so.
The gap between belief and practice will give Irish people a continuing advantage while that catching up takes place throughout the EU. It is surely time to revisit the language issue here and not solely in the context of the zero-sum game between English and Irish. Studying another language with Irish at primary level might help reanimate that language, as might greater linguistic proficiency at secondary and tertiary level and in adult life. We too may find we really will have to do that in coming years for cultural as well as economic recovery.
The Irish Times – Paul Gillespie
9 Deireadh Fómhair 2010
Homework may be the bane of children’s lives but school principals are also questioning its value
October 11, 2010
In its submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education, the Irish Primary Principals’ Network said there was little evidence to suggest that homework as we currently know it has any real benefit. The network’s director Seán Cottrell said the role of homework in the education system needed serious research and analysis. He said homework caused stress between parents and children and eroded quality time in the evenings. It also had an impact on teaching time, he said, as time was lost correcting homework. There was evidence to suggest that some teachers gave homework because parents expected it, he said. Some parents believed that a teacher who gave a lot of homework must be a good teacher. However, all the evidence showed that effective teaching in the classroom was more valuable than homework.
Mr Cottrell also called for a radical review of the way Irish is taught in schools. He said any policy on the Irish language must deal with the elephant in the room the subliminal negative attitude towards the language. Mr Cottrell said one strategy could involve treating Irish culture as a separate, compulsory language which would involve the study of songs, stories and humour. The study of the language should be treated as an optional subject at second level, he said. The Irish Primary Principals’ Network said greater priority should be given to Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) and said it was completely unacceptable that more than 10 per cent of schools did not teach the Stay Safe programme.
The committee meeting had been called to discuss curricular reform at primary-school level. It heard several calls for greater parental involvement in schools and in their children’s education. National Parents’ Council (primary) chief executive Áine Lynch said parental involvement was more important than social status or parental income in determining how well a student did at school. She called for a national approach to parental involvement, led by the Department of Education. Any such strategy should also include teacher training colleges, she said.
Meanwhile, Irish National Teachers’ Organisation general secretary Sheila Nunan said the primary teaching degree should be extended to four years. She said the time allocated to teaching maths in primary school was one of the lowest allocations in Europe and must be reviewed. Ms Nunan said the Government had committed to spending EUR150 million on schools’ ICT but just EUR22 million had been allocated to date.
The Irish Times – Alison Healy
8 Deireadh Fómhair 2010
New Irish subject rejected
September 9, 2010
A chara, – Hurray for Minister for Education Mary Coughlan for ploughing ahead with 40 per cent of the marks for Irish in the Leaving Cert being awarded for the oral examination (Home News, August 31st).
I have no doubt but that teachers and students alike will rise to the challenge and that as a result Irish will become a popular subject.
Could the Minister not spare a thought, however, for the fluent speaker who will sit bored through Irish class? Is Irish doomed to become the only official EU language where its native speakers are not meaningfully exposed to its literature and challenged at second-level?
It was proposed to offer an optional subject of “Irish literature/translation studies” to challenge and round off the second-level education of fluent and native speakers, but this was rejected as giving a minority an extra subject.
We all rejoice in families who practise music at home and never grumble if their children take music as an extra Leaving Cert subject.
Neither do we grumble where students with Russian or French at home pick up extra honours in these subjects. Is the anti-Irish bias really so strong in the Department of Education to deny this educational need of Irish speaking children? – Is mise,
DÁITHÍ Mac CÁRTHAIGH BL
Gaeltacht Ráth Chairn,
Baile Átha Buí,
Co na Mí.
The Irish Times – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
09 Meán Fómhair 2010
