Minister set to outline "futuristic" vision of education

A change of direction? A 30-page document now being prepared within the Department of Education could help shape policy for a generation to come, writes Sean Flynn

Senior officials in the Department of Education and Science are finalising work on a new "vision document". It is hoped that the document will help stimulate a wide-ranging public debate about future education priorities.

The project has been driven for several months by the Minister, Noel Dempsey. The plan is that the vision document will set some parameters for a public debate on education in the New Year.

The Minister will also shortly establish a new consultative committee, which will convene a series of public meetings about education policy. Critically, this committee will be independent of the Department.

According to officials, the committee will not give a leading role to the "usual suspects" from the teaching unions and elsewhere. It is expected that the new group will include representatives from industry, the disadvantaged, from ethnic groups and from minorities, as well as educationalists and various experts.

The plan, says one education figure, is to have an "entirely new kind of debate about education".

So what will be under discussion? The review will examine a range of issues including:

How the education system and curricula could be recast to reflect the changing social and cultural values and the new ethnic mix of modern Ireland.

How to widen access and promote equality in education

How the education system might be more responsive to the needs of industry

The implications of the IT revolution and e-learning for the classroom

The future of the Leaving Cert

How students can become more independent learners

How will the school of the future look and will it work?

The vision document will outline the scale of the challenge facing Irish education in these and other areas. Dempsey has stressed that it will provide a menu of possible subject areas. Other issues can also make it onto the agenda, if they emerge strongly from the public consultation process.

Early in the New Year, the new committee will convene a series of public meetings. It is expected that Minister Dempsey will attend some, if not all, of these meetings at various regional centres.

Once these meetings are complete, the new committee will draft a report for the Minister. This report is expected to make recommendations for change in the various key areas. This is likely to be published next summer.

The new initiative builds on a commitment made by the Minister earlier this year when he spoke of framing an entirely new vision for education. He was anxious, he said, to give a much wider role not just to teachers and educationalists but also to those he termed the "consumers" of education. Earlier this year, he said: "Ask the parents if they have enough involvement in the education system?"

Minister Dempsey wants to recast the current structures where, he believes, the most powerful have the greatest clout within the system.

In spelling out his vision earlier this year, he said: "Is it not time that we targeted resources at those who need them most?"

He has also been critical of what he calls the "one-size-fits-all approach" to education when, he says, some sectors of society, especially the disadvantaged, have much greater needs.

The Minister has also said that the education system has only "scratched the surface" of the IT revolution.

An assistant secretary in the Department is now finalising the first step in this process - the vision document. It is expected to be published in mid-January.

The Department is said to be "excited" about the document. Said one source: "It is a chance to look over the hill, to frame some kind of vision. . . instead of just responding to events".