Teacher's pet

Has there ever been a Minister for Education like Ruairí Quinn?

After only a month in his brief, the swashbuckling new minister has already generated more controversy than most of his predecessors managed during a full term in Marlborough St.

Here’s a reminder of how he has shaken things up.

- He has demanded that no less than 50 per cent of Catholic primary schools should be transferred to new patrons in a process which should begin in January 2012.

- He has questioned the amount of time spent on religious instruction and preparation for the sacraments in schools.

- He has described the recent OECD rankings as a wake-up call for Irish education. We have been “codding” ourselves in believing we have one of the best education systems in the world, he says.

- He has said the Leaving and Junior Cert exams are no longer fit for purpose. Junior Cert students he says, “go through this chicane, a kind of shrinking thing . . .where you are really relying on what you can remember rather than what you think.”

- He has told school managers and other vested interests to forget about the customary special pleading for more resources. The country, as he has pointed out a dozen times, is in receivership.

Phew! That’s a lot of plain speaking!

Quinn’s scattergun approach has not been universally admired.

And some of those close to him are advising a more measured approach.

Our advice? The Minister is right to call it as he sees it. For years Irish education has been far too self-regarding, far too deferential toward the Catholic church and far too defensive.

Traditionally, education ministers have cast themselves as nothing more than cheerleaders for teachers and for the sector.

Quinn is a breath of fresh air.

And his timing – after those dismal OECD results – could scarcely be better. There is a once-in-a- generation opportunity to achieve real transformative change in Irish education .

Quinn should grab it with both hands.

Our plea last week for a philanthropist to rescue Ireland’s participation in the World University Games in China appears to have gone unheeded.

For the first time, Ireland’s soccer team will not be represented at the games, which seems a shame.

Maybe one of those high earning 80k per week Irish premiership stars – or even our €2 million per year Irish manager Giovanni Trapattoni (left) – will launch an 11th hour rescue mission?

The views of venerable commentator Simon Jenkins in The Guardian on the crisis facing British universities are well worth reading. He writes:

“Universities have spent 30 years selling their souls to the state in return for money.

Faust’s retribution is at hand. There is no respect for academic or institutional autonomy; merely a Stalinist obsession with control. But there is an escape.

Universities could organise and fund their own scholarships, sell their research in the marketplace, and base their appeal on the quality of their work.

Nothing but their addiction to government money is forcing them to toe the line.’’

Is there a message here for universities in Ireland?

Fr Michael Drumm (right), head of the new Catholic Schools Partnership made quite an impression at last week’s launch of the group’s position paper.

Here’s a prediction.

Drumm – brother of former HSE chief Brendan Drumm – will become one of the best known figures in Irish education over the next year as the debate on school patronage rages on.

Got any education gossip?

E-mail in confidence teacherspet@irishtimes.com