Winners and Losers: Education Review 2013

Winners

Irish schoolchildren: Ireland is Europe's best-educated country, according to a study released by the EU statistical agency Eurostat in April. This month's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results also show Ireland performing well in maths, reading and science, although we lag far behind the Asian countries that topped the table. Last month, the School Inspector's Report found a high quality of teaching in most subject areas, besides Irish and maths.

Classrooms: The Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has largely protected the sector from budget cuts this year. Class sizes were not increased, while more than 1,250 classroom and resource teachers are to be recruited.

Overseas colleges: As Ireland's third-level sector languishes and future increases in registration charges are expected, as well as despair about getting a job in Ireland, a growing number are looking at courses in the UK and, increasingly, Europe. The Netherlands is emerging as a popular option. Paul Rowe: Just one in nine new post-primary schools announced this year will be under Catholic patronage, with multi-denominational patron Educate Together, with Rowe at the helm, running five, including one which will be jointly run with the Education and Training Board. It's a major breakthrough for the patron, which has long harboured ambitions of breaking into the post-primary sector.

Tom Collins: It's been a good year for the Dublin Institute of Technology which, with the appointment as chairman of Dr Tom Collins, a key figure in Irish education, cemented its status as front-runner for the status of technological university.

Losers

Third-level colleges: The clear and uncontested loser in education this year was the entire third-level sector. A €25 million cut is to continue. Student numbers are expected to rise by more than 40,000 to around 208,000 by 2026, but the number of academic staff being appointed is in freefall. The Higher Education Authority admits the sector is struggling. The Defend the University campaign has got off to a strong start in response to the crisis. To hammer the point home, earlier this year, leading materials scientist Dr Jean-Pierre Colinge left not just UCC's Tyndall Institute, but Ireland, over pay and conditions.

Fee-paying schools: In April, The Irish Times revealed that a so-called "independent" report commissioned by 27 fee-paying schools from PricewaterhouseCoopers into the relative costs to the State of fee-paying and non-fee paying schools, was based on distorted figures that lumped in the cost of further education with the post-primary sector. Meanwhile, around a dozen unidentified fee-paying schools entered into negotiations with the Department of Education and Skills about moving into the State sector. This is a sector marked by uncertainty.

The Irish language: How to solve the Irish question is proving an increasing conundrum. In November, the Chief Inspector's Report for 2010-2012 showed that a quarter of Irish lessons at primary level were unsatisfactory, while a third of those at post-primary also failed to make the grade. The 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language, launched to great fanfare in 2010, has had several key sections shelved.

Bullies: It's a bad year for bullies, as new guidelines mean all schools will have to have anti-bullying procedures in place by Easter 2014; the crackdown on homophobic bullying was particularly welcomed by teachers.

Traveller children, again: The 86 per cent cutbacks to Traveller education in 2010 have not been reversed, and a lack of public concern and political focus suggest they may never be. A lack of data makes it difficult to quantify, but anecdotal reports suggest that the impact of cutbacks are beginning to be felt, with fewer Traveller children progressing to secondary education.