Quality of education at Gaelscoil na Daroige “inadequate”
The Irish News education correspondent, Simon Doyle, notes that a Northern Ireland Education and Training Inspectorate report has stated that the “quality of provision in Irish and English was inadequate” at a Londonderry Irish-medium primary school which the NI Education Minister, Sinn Féin’s Caitriona Ruane, has twice awarded funding to against the advice of her departmental officials. From the Irish News
Ms Ruane approved the first proposal in 2007, but the school never met the necessary intake numbers and was forced to re-apply. The second proposal was approved late last year.
The second approval is being seen as more contentious than the first, as the advice the minister received from officials was largely the same as it was previously.
The Irish News report adds
Documents released under freedom of information (FOI) legislation reveal Ms Ruane was told backing Gaelscoil na Daroige would fragment provision – there are almost 80 surplus places in the city’s two established Irish primaries.
Inspectors also said they could not agree with it and reminded the minister that the school had previously failed to meet the criteria for funding.
They added that Irish-medium provision in Derry had reached “saturation point”.
Additional documents obtained under FOI reveal that since becoming minister Ms Ruane has only twice ignored advice when making decisions on school proposals.
On both occasions, the school in question was Gaelscoil na Daroige.
I can’t find the report online but the Irish News quotes from it
The quality of leadership was inadequate, it said. While the principal was “hard-working and dedicated” to the work of the school, “to date his focus has been on satisfying the DE criteria for funding”.
The school’s approach to assessment was “inconsistent and lacks rigour; the link between assessment, teachers’ planning and classroom practice is not strong enough”.
The quality of teaching in lessons observed during the inspection “ranged from good to inadequate with a majority being satisfactory or better”.
“Too often, lessons were over-directed by teachers; whole-class work predominated; and there was an over-reliance on worksheets. The school’s provision for play-based learning is inadequate and needs to be reviewed to ensure it builds effectively on the children’s pre-school experiences,” the report said.
Under the heading ‘achievements and standards’ the report said “the provision in Irish and English was inadequate” although the children’s level of spoken Irish was very good.
“In key stage 1 and year 5 the children have opportunities to use a range of writing forms and the children have planned, drafted and edited some of their own work.
“However, the standards of the children’s written work by year 5 is inadequate. Written activities in their books are incomplete, inaccurate, lacking in basic writing conventions, and presentation is poor.”
Topic: Government, Society and Culture
Region: Northern Ireland
I know standard have dropped everywhere. Education has been ‘dumbed down’, sure we would not want anyone to think they were top or bottom of the class would we.
The principal was on the radio pointing out the report was of an inspection carried out on the school last november BEFORE it had received any funding from the Department of Education and is not a reflection therefore of the school as it stands today having benefited from funding that has transformed the school since December.
He’s complaining that inspecting a school before it has got on his feet made no sense
I was around for the first GCSEs. “Striving for mediocrity” is how it was described by a learned English teacher of mine.
Well done for getting information through FOI, sadly the people trying to get Whitehouse Primary built have been denied the same right.
If you think of the teachers we had when we were young (those of us who have reached a certain age that is) they would be spinning in their graves at the leniency of today and the mediocrity paraded as excellence.
Guys
For the record, although this will obviously not matter to those who have already stated their own assumptions, the Irish-medium aspect to this story is entirely irrelevant to me.
What is relevant is the inspector’s report in light of the Minister’s disregard of all advice and required intake numbers for funding.
Don’t worry – I think when anybody here sees a post from yourelf regarding education the sole intention is to take a swipe at Ruane/Sinn Fein because they don’t hold academic selection in such a high regard as yourself.
Minor point for the smug, but Gaelscoil na Daróige principal Oisín MacEo doesn’t fit the usual stereotypes. He’s a socialist and formerly stood in council elections here under McCann’s Socialist Environmental Alliance banner (the pre-PB4PA incarnation). I don’t imagine he’d be any sort of fan of the boul Catriona. Her and the Shinners obviously think that slavishly following the same kind of cac employed by the Free State since its inception will somehow deliver a different outcome for Gaelic. Government legislation is and always will be the banshee of Gaelic.
Did someone say the Irish News was the SDLP paper?
A clear electioneering stunt designed to bolster Margaret Ritchies flailig election campaign in South Down.
Pete,
If your intention was to highlight Ruane’s inappropriate bias, then perhaps your title should have alluded to this rather than referring simply to the quality of education at the school in question. You can understand that based on the title and the quote that makes up the second half of the post, that people might get the impression you were having a go at Irish-medium education.
I agree with that. Apart from the smug part – it’s difficult to know whether to laugh or to cry, sure, but smug?
Enrolments at Irish primaries in Belfast is falling as well, down from 1015 in 2007/08 to 987 in 2009/10. Not as much as for Catholic schools but it doesn’t suggest an overwhelming demand for Irish education.
Northern Ireland is one big piece of funding gluttony and one big pander. 70p out of every pound here comes from the government. As far as I am aware it costs the same to educate a child through Irish or English.
If as you and mr Hutz say the issue is the over funding of an intrest group may I suggest that there is more low hanging fruit than this. There are many interest groups here from farming and fishing to sports fans. There are many more incidents of far more money being thrown away to much narrower interest groups. It is you who are blinkered if you honestly accept that there would be as much fuss over this if it was not Ruanne going against advice to fund a Gaelscoil.
An interesting article. I would also draw your attention to the recent inspection of Lisneal College in Londonderry. This secondary school serves 800, mainly Protestant, pupils in the Waterside. Inspectors saw fit to grade Lisneal College as inadequate despite a prestigious new site and complete re-brand. A mere 21.7% of pupils gain 5 A-C at GCSE including English and Maths. This is a sad case of a school failing its pupils and reinforcing the disadvantage of a minority community.
This sloppy piece of journalism by Simon Doyle was badly researched and short on the truth. If this Journalist had taken the time to discover the facts regarding Gaelscoil an Daróige, he might have discovered that the school had NOT received any funding from the D.E. before the Inspection.
After the inspection the School finally was able to access funding in December 2009, and since then the school has received several visits from the inspectors and they are happy with the process of the school.
The question must be asked who is directing this attack on a small Gaelscoil in Derry, and why, given this is the third time that this Journalist has written hatchet jobs on this school. Who is behind this campaign?
It is also interesting that one of the inspectors who visited the school and written to the Minister of Education objecting to the school getting funding. Its like asking the Nazis to give Auschwitz a clean bill of health. Listen to BBC Radio Foyle One o’clock news programme on Wednesday for the school response.
the people of derry have more sence.sending their kids to these so called schools to be taught bigotry