Chalktalk: News and view in education

Voting for no school

Another election, another day lost in education.

So, this year’s local and European elections will probably see well over a thousand schools shutting so they can be used as voting centres. To get an idea of the scale of the closures, 1,162 primary and 67 post-primary schools were polling stations for the 2012 Stability Treaty referendum. The DES doesn’t have figures for last year’s referendum, or for next week, as, interestingly, schools don’t have to notify the DES about closures for polling (the Department of the Environment deals with polling in schools). Primary schools have a minimum of 183 days a year, and 167 in post-primary – but schools do not have to make up for a day lost due to polling.

We seem to have an unending stream of opportunities to vote, between elections and referenda, and each one means no school for thousands of children, teenagers, teachers and parents, in a school year that is already very short.

Apparently before last October’s referendum, and again recently, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn proposed to Cabinet that voting be held on a weekend to avoid the loss of a school day, but a majority of ministers didn’t bite. Principals are within their rights to say no to the request for the use of premises, and it’s disappointing that more schools – in urban areas at least, where there are many other options for voting venues – don’t resist the habit.

Breathing fire into education

The RTÉ series ‘Dragon’s Den’ has seen some recent investment in education innovations.

UrAbility, a new company doing face-to-face training via assistive technology summer camps, school training and assistive technology assessments got a €25,000 investment from Barry O’Sullivan on the reality show this month.

Assistive technology, intuitive tools and apps can be very helpful for learning disabilities such as dyslexia and dyspraxia. UrAbility founder James Northridge from Co Cork struggled with dyslexia through school, but later completed a degree and master's. UrAbility's summer camps in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Sligo, Limerick and Waterford run from July. See UrAbility.com

O’Sullivan also invested €40,000 in UniWink.com, a social e-learning platform for third-level students across Ireland which promotes peer-to-peer collaboration.

UniWink.com is the brainchild of

Sarah Dineen

(22) and the site allows third-level students to access and share lecture notes and course material, star-rated and approved by UniWink. The initiative by students, for students, sounds similar to the free Leaving Cert peer sharing site StudyNotes.ie, which featured here recently. For those still looking for Leaving Cert help, check out our own study guides at irishtimes.com/examtimes.

The Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) has

moved from TCD to the School of Education Studies at DCU, and has broadened its scope. "In addition to maintaining a focus on traditional forms of bullying," says ABC director Dr James O'Higgins Norman, "researchers will now focus on three key work streams: cyberbullying, workplace bullying and social exclusion and bullying." The new centre will be opened today.
Deirdre Falvey