Madam, - I am a student of education at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, and I am writing to express my disappointment at the Government's decision to allow a private company to offer part-time teacher training courses over the internet.
This is an insult to the 40 hours a week I spend studying the vast knowledge-base required for good teaching and it undermines all the work teachers have done over the past few years to earn degree status for the study of teaching.
Most of the work we do in St Patrick's College is through hands-on, experience-based workshops, where students have the opportunity to work with concrete materials, discuss and reflect upon ideas in a group setting, and experience practical subjects such as art, PE and drama which could not possibly be taught over the internet. Furthermore, practical work experience, which is guided and examined by supervisors to help improve our teaching skills, accounts for 16 weeks of our three-year course. This is by far the most important learning experience of the course and will not be included in the internet alternative.
This move poses a serious threat to the standard and professionalism of teaching in our schools, just at a time when it seemed education was really moving forward, with the implementation of a new curriculum in 1999 and the proposal to extend the Bachelor of Education course from three to four years.
Bizarrely, the INTO are not in opposition to the decision, despite the fact that it will threaten the status of the teaching profession in society, as it is eager to reduce the number of unqualified teachers in schools. However, with this new option available to unqualified teachers, they will remain in schools, unqualified, while taking a part-time internet course in the evenings, instead of taking three years out of employment to study education properly in a university. Even when they have completed the on-line course, can we really say that they will be qualified? With no practical experience of the activity based learning which is an underlying principle of the new curriculum they will have very limited knowledge of what the role of the teacher is in today's classrooms. - Yours, etc.,
AISLING MULLALLY,
Ashton Grove,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16.
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Madam, - I write in defence of those who will apparently "water down the qualifications of primary school teachers" by opting to study the Graduate Diploma in Primary Teaching online with the Hibernia College.
Firstly, the 195 of us who were selected (from over 1,000 applicants) are accredited with high honours degrees from Irish universities. We have accumulated further experience of life and invaluable experience in the classroom. Our decision to pursue teaching is an informed one. That is why I find it incredible that we are targeted by begrudgers wishing to deny us the chance for which we have worked so hard.
We are certainly not wet behind the ears when it comes to experience or education, unlike many of the 18-year-old students who go straight from the Leaving Cert to St Pat's. We are a group of determined and committed working, if underqualified, teachers who are so driven to fulfil our vocation that we will combine work with a demanding college programme.
In a country where there is a 10 per cent shortage of teachers, I would have expected this solution to be greeted with a little more enthusiasm and encouragement. - Yours, etc.,
EMER KINSELLA,
Lamberton Heights,
Arklow,
Co Wicklow.