THE MINISTER for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn tops the list of the 50 most influential in education, published in today’s editions. Mr Quinn is certainly cutting a dash in education. In a little over six months, he has rolled out an ambitious programme of reform measures. Key reports on changes to the Junior Cert and the Leaving Cert/CAO system have already been published. Further reports are pending on patronage in primary schools, funding for higher education and admission procedures for schools. The Minister has also launched new initiatives designed to boost literacy and numeracy standards in schools. It is an impressive work programme and one which reflects a new urgency to boost performance in our schools and colleges.
In truth, the Minister has little alternative. Ireland’s ranking in both literacy and numeracy slipped dramatically in last year’s OECD survey. On literacy, Ireland dropped from 5th to 19th, the sharpest drop among developed nations. Mr Quinn has described the OECD survey as a “wake-up call’’ for Irish education which proved how we have been “codding ourselves’’ about our “world class’’ education system. He has set about improving matters.
At this stage – as one critic noted – the Minister is high on aspiration and low on actual achievement. It will be some years before his reform programme will be implemented, let alone assessed. That said, he deserves credit for his candour about the deficiencies of our education system and his determination to confront them.
It’s clear some of his predecessors were much less engaged in driving quality, pluralism and accountability in Irish education. With honourable exceptions. most were content to cast themselves as cheerleaders for Irish education in the so-called “Department of Teachers and Schools’’. Mr Quinn is working to a more ambitious agenda. In the process, he has also forced the much criticised Department of Education to raise its game and be less defensive and more assertive in its management of education; such a change is long overdue.
The Top 50 list is fascinating in other respects. Surprisingly, only five women make the list despite their dominance in the teaching profession. And there are relatively few from the chalkface of education – with only two serving teachers featured. As expected, the list includes some of the most venerable education thinkers and academics in the State (Prof John Coolahan, Prof Áine Hyland and Prof Tom Collins). But the absence of young academics from the education sphere is striking, reflecting perhaps the dearth of topical research coming from the education departments in our major universities and other colleges. The prominence given to the troika, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin and economist Colm McCarthy on the list reflects how resource issues have come to dominate the education agenda. It is also a reminder of the immense challenge facing Mr Quinn as he seeks to boost educational standards with much depleted resources. He insists the education system must “deliver more for less’’, but achieving this is no small task.