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New convention to provide ‘once-in-a-generation' chance to shape Irish education, says Minister
New convention to provide ‘once-in-a-generation' chance to shape Irish education, says Minister

Irish Times

time23-07-2025

  • Politics
  • Irish Times

New convention to provide ‘once-in-a-generation' chance to shape Irish education, says Minister

A new convention that will be the 'largest-ever conversation on education' since the foundation of the State is to be established, the Minister for Education has announced. Helen McEntee said the convention will provide a 'once-in-a-generation opportunity' for children, young people, parents, educators and wider society to help shape Ireland's education system for decades to come. The convention's work will inform a new long-term strategy for education in Ireland. It is more than 30 years since the last national education convention issued its report in 1994, which led to the landmark Education Act and an overhaul of the administrative structures of primary and second-level education. READ MORE Prof Anne Looney, the executive dean of the Institute of Education at Dublin City University (DCU), has been appointed as chair of the convention. The convention will focus mainly on primary and post-primary education but will include the transitions children make from early childhood education to primary and later from post-primary to further and higher education. The various engagements are also due to facilitate discussions on the learners' experiences, including those of education in early childhood and primary and post-primary education. The convention's agenda will be approved by Government next year following a national conversation and consultation involving the public, early childhood education and school communities and other stakeholders, the Department of Education said. 'This conversation will encompass comprehensive engagement with the public at school community and at regional level and will feed into the agenda for the convention,' it said. [ A national convention more than 30 years ago changed Irish education. What lessons are there for today? Opens in new window ] Ms McEntee said the education system has been the driving force of Ireland's social and economic success and, to 'continue to thrive in a changing environment, it is essential that our education system is set up to enable everyone to realise their potential'. The Fine Gael TD added that Ireland has achieved 'considerable academic success', in particular in relation to reading, 'where we are ranked as the best in the world'. 'I want to ensure that we can deliver a world-class education system which breaks down barriers and ensures every child can achieve their full potential,' she said. 'In particular, supporting children with special educational needs, tackling educational disadvantage, reducing unacceptably high levels of absenteeism, supporting our teachers and school communities, and reforming our curriculum is central to delivering this vision.'

Abolition of pre-teen pupil selection will not solve North's school-leaver problem, says leading academic
Abolition of pre-teen pupil selection will not solve North's school-leaver problem, says leading academic

Irish Times

time28-04-2025

  • Politics
  • Irish Times

Abolition of pre-teen pupil selection will not solve North's school-leaver problem, says leading academic

Northern Ireland 's problems with high numbers of children leaving school early and low education standards will not be solved by the abolition of pupils' selection examinations at 12 years of age, a leading academic has said. However, Professor Anne Looney, the executive dean of the Institute of Education at Dublin City University , said the Republic's system should 'not be too smug' because it streams children, too, but at 18, not at 12. 'They both effectively put children into a sorting hat and pull them out again – largely based on where they started off from socioeconomically. But the longer you can defer that the better it is for equality in all,' she said. Educationalists in the Republic can be 'a bit smug in Dublin' looking at Northern Ireland's decision to put children through important examinations so early in their lives, but, in truth, the systems in both jurisdictions want to put children into boxes, she said. READ MORE Education systems 'love sorting systems', she said, 'because the people who come out on the right side of that sorting process end up supporting the education system and keeping that lovely legacy of inertia' because they have benefited from it. The Republic's 'Deis' disadvantaged schools are now international leaders, leaving academics here 'plagued by international visitors' coming to learn how Ireland closed the gap between rich and poor students in little more than a decade. 'It's not a complete success, and there's more to be done, but I think we have to recognise that it has been a very successful intervention,' Prof Looney told a conference hosted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) on Monday. An ESRI report said the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland had tended to lag behind their European counterparts in providing and investing in early years childcare, though there have been recent improvements. 'Inequalities in cognitive outcomes are found at an early age. At age five, children from lower income households and those whose mothers have lower education have poorer vocabulary skills,' the report says. However, there are gaps in the longitudinal research tracking people over years, a problem that has been worsened by the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union, which took it out of a number of data-sharing agreements. 'Children's literacy and numeracy skills are high in both jurisdictions,' said the report, though it noted teachers in the Republic were more likely to rate their pupils highly for language, while their Northern counterparts did so for numeracy. There are marked differences in education standards in both jurisdictions, with a far greater percentage of young people in Northern Ireland leaving school early – twice as many, per head of population. Both education systems have an inbuilt bias towards directing second-level students towards colleges and university degrees, with options such as apprenticeships seen as 'second best', the report says. Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's 'brain drain' of young talent is illustrated by the numbers who go to Britain to study, with around a quarter never coming back. The cap on places in universities in Northern Ireland for local students has caused stiffer competition, though the ESRI report cites research suggesting that the existence of the cap to boost the number of places available for NI students, but also those from the Republic.

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