End of year report shows need to try harder

All levels of the education sector have felt the chill of recession this year as things have gone from bad to worse. Fasten your seatbelt for a bumpy ride back through 2009, writes SEÁN FLYNN, Education Editor

WHO HAD THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON EDUCATION THIS YEAR?

The Budget may have failed to implement many of his proposals, but Colm McCarthy and his report from An Bord Snip Nua continues to set the agenda in education.

McCarthy delivered an excoriating report on many aspects of our supposedly “world class” education system. He portrayed a flabby and unaccountable system firmly in the grip of the teacher unions. It was a system where academic staff (especially in the institutes of technology) enjoyed long, long holidays and little management control.

He was also scathing about the myriad allowances paid to teachers, the huge number of quangos within education, and the huge cost (close to €1 billion) of the vocational education sector.

McCarthy’s implicit message was a challenging one. The public can not expect a better education service while pay and pensions for the 90,000 staff across the entire sector continue to absorb 80 per cent of the €9 billion education budget.

The report is the elephant in the room when Department of Education officials sit down with teacher unions these days. It is shaping the education agenda, raising awkward questions along the way.

WHAT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT EDUCATION SPEECH IN 2009?

Step forward Craig Barrett, the former head of Intel, who delivered a wake-up call to the Irish education sector at Farmleigh.

Barrett challenged the complacency that has settled on our education system.

One of those present said it was a “wake up and smell the coffee” moment for the Irish education sector. Barrett said Ireland needed to “raise its game” significantly in producing top-class science graduates. His basic message? The Irish education system is not what it’s cracked up to be. Competitor countries are moving forward; we are regressing.

The most dispiriting aspect of the Barrett speech was that it had all been said many times before – but no one had listened.

Former DCU boss Danny O’Hare made the same case in the report of the Task Force on Science a decade ago. In 2002, Richard Bruton – then Fine Gael spokesman on education – said something similar in a terrific report for the Oireachtas Education Committee.

This time round, Barrett made everyone sit up and take notice. But will there be anything meaningful by way of response?

WHAT WAS THE BEST MOVIE FOR EDUCATION TYPES THIS YEAR?

Little argument here. An Education, starring Carey Mulligan, is even better than the Oscar-winning 2008 French movie The Class (Entre les murs).

Set in suburban London in the 1960s, An Educationis a classic coming-of-age tale about a teenage girl and her stormy relationship with an older, oily playboy. But it raises challenging questions about the role and benefits of education.

The movie has a limited cinema release, but don’t miss Carey Mulligan’s wonderful portrayal of the teenage pupil on DVD.

WHAT WAS ESSENTIAL READING FOR EDUCATIONALISTS IN 2009?

Not exactly bedtime reading, but the documents prepared for the McCarthy report by the Department of Finance and the Department of Education are must-reads for anyone with the slightest interest in education policy.

See finance.gov.ie – click on policy areas and publications. Click reports and scroll down to Report of Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes. Click link to background documents.

WHAT ARTICLE ON THESE PAGES PROMPTED THE BIGGEST RESPONSE IN 2009?

In October, London-based, Irish-born teacher Kevin O’Brien compared pay and working conditions for second-level teachers in Britain and Ireland.

O’Brien’s message that Irish teachers have it relatively easy unleashed both a storm of protest and a flood of congratulations.

The Department of Education tended to agree with O’Brien. In a submission to McCarthy, the Department said second-level teachers in Ireland spend much less time in their schools than their counterparts in virtually every other OECD state.

The Department says the “contracted working time required at school” for teachers in the Republic is “one of the lowest in the OECD at primary and secondary level”. Second-level teachers in Ireland also have one of the shortest school years in the OECD – 167 days per year, compared with the OECD average of 185 days per year.

The Department wants to pursue some of these issues in 2010. But it may have enough on its plate, putting out fires over those cuts in teachers’ pay.

IS BATT O’KEEFFE A DEAD MAN WALKING?

In October, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe almost made history.

He was within days of putting a student contribution (aka fees) to third-level back on the Cabinet agenda – before the Green Party intervened.

Batt was ready to roll out his memo to Cabinet on the issue on Tuesday October 13th. But the prize was snatched from his grasp when the Greens made the continued absence of tuition charges the price of their continued support in Government.

O’Keeffe can count himself very unlucky. In re-opening the debate on student fees/loans, he did the right thing for the country and for the higher education sector.

Batt O’Keeffe has been portrayed in some quarters as a dead man walking after the October debacle. But that is over the top. After years on the backbenches, he has proved himself to be an able and effective Minister. His genial style also makes him very popular with the public and with party backbenchers.

What he needs now is an issue he can make his own. Pushing through reform of our tired second-level curriculum could be the answer.

WHAT STORY TOOK THE BISCUIT IN 2009?

Project Maths, the new user-friendly maths course, was hyped as the panacea for our woeful performance in the subject.

But guess what? The roll-out of the pilot scheme had to be curtailed in some schools because of the dearth of computer technology.

You couldn’t make it up.

WHAT WAS THE SCHOOL OF THE YEAR IN 2009 ACCORDING TO THE LATEST LEAGUE TABLES?

Four Dublin schools topped The Irish TimesFeeder School List for entries to high-points courses. They were Holy Child, Killiney; Gonzaga; Mount Anville; and Coláiste Eoin.

But some of these schools were less impressive when it come to provision for special-needs pupils.

Top marks here to schools such as Newpark Comprehensive in Blackrock, Co Dublin, Holy Child, Sallynoggin and Rosmini, Drumcondra, for their fully-inclusive admissions policies.

WHOSE INTERVENTION MADE A REAL DIFFERENCE IN 2009?

Step forward the Green Party, which managed, over that fateful weekend in October, to scupper plans for student loans while preserving class size at current levels.

The Green’s success on class size was stunning. It left the Government with little choice but to recruit more than 1,000 new teachers – at a time when McCarthy and other key figures demanded cuts.

Hero of the hour? Green Party education spokesman and Dáil bad boy Paul Gogarty, who helped to deliver the deal.

WHO WAS THE EDUCATION PERSON OF THE YEAR IN 2009?

Joint winners here: Trinity College Dublin provost John Hegarty and UCD president Hugh Brady.

Despite the appalling underfunding in the sector, both men managed to push their respective colleges up the world rankings. Trinity has climbed six places to 43; it also ranked as Europe’s 13th-best university.

UCD is up 19 – to 89 – its first appearance in the top 100. Four years ago it languished in 221st place in the world.

These are remarkable achievements given the scale of underinvestment. Both universities survive on about 50 per cent of the funding available to comparable colleges in Britain and Scandinavia.

But can they continue to punch above their weight as funding is even more tightly squeezed next year?

EDUCATION: What to expect in 2010

- Fine Gael’s education spokesman Brian Hayes to set new records for the number of press releases issued in a single year – unless the party is back in government.

- A Labour minister to be the next Minister for Education – if there is a change of government.

- More concern to be raised about dumbing down at second level and fresh demands for changes to the Leaving Cert.

- Students to desert all courses linked to property and construction in their CAO choices. Broad-based arts and business degrees leading to jobs in the much maligned public sector will be de rigueur.

- The militant wing of the ASTI to demand strike action over pay cuts; they could even target the Leaving and Junior Cert exams next summer.

- More task force reports and much trumpeted initiatives on the “Smart Economy” . . . and a continuing lack of computer technology for schools.

- Endless consultation about changes to the Junior Cert exam but no change in the classrooms.

- Deeper co-operation between UCD and Trinity as the controversial Innovation Alliance takes root.

- Ireland to underperform (again) when it comes to the recruitment of foreign students.

- More speculation about the next TCD provost as John Hegarty prepares to step down in 2011.