Education – Page 5 – Slugger O'Toole

Stormont’s odd debate on free school dinners. “Whatever you do, don’t mention child poverty.”

Mick Fealty on September 17, 2013, 5:01 pm

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I cannot think of another polity in which a discussion on the increase in the uptake of free school meals could almost entirely avoid any direct reference to the possible corresponding increase in child poverty. I say possible, because in yesterday’s private member’s debate on free school meals was based on barely any data concerning the drivers behind the increase beyond a ministerial o extend free meals to independent sector (affecting about 700 pupils) The debate was scheduled to start at …

Cuireann eagla agus sceon ar pholaiteoirí ná an pobal ag déanamh as dóibh féin…

Mick Fealty on August 8, 2013, 12:23 pm

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Tá muid ag obair le Pobal chun sraith beag de aistí bhlag a tharraingt le chéile, agus iad ag iarraidh athbhreithniú a dhéanamh ar staid na Gaeilge cúig bliana déag ar aghaidh ón Chomhaontú Aoine an Chéasta. Anseo thíos, cuireann Seamus ceisteanna isteach ar an Roinn Oideachais faoi na trialacha de leanaí scoile ag iarraidh fáil isteach chun an mheánscoil lán-Ghaeilge i mBéal Feirste. Le Séamus Mac Seáin. “Dear Mr Brown I can now let you know that it is the Ministry’s view that instruction given …

“In a major shift, Sinn Fein wants to offer all schools the right to be the employers…”

Mick Fealty on July 31, 2013, 5:44 pm

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Now this IS interesting, from a policy point of view at least. There’s been a bit of a power struggle going on over the precise shape of the education and schools authority (ESA) over the last couple of years between the Minister and Northern Ireland’s Grammar schools. That’s one reason the project has been long fingered for so long. A recruiting ban in the old boards – which have been left to carry the burden of the long delay – has …

A coherent if one-sided Platform for Change discussion about education

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 25, 2013, 3:15 pm

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Last night Platform for Change hosted a debate looking at the potential for Northern Ireland to have a coherent education system. Around 65 people attended the two hour event in the Ormeau Avenue Holiday Inn. Initial five minute introductions from the panel of seven were followed by questions from the audience. listen to ‘1/5 First four speakers at @platform4change #p4cedu Education event’ on Audioboo Ciaran Helferty ex-QUB SU President, now with Amnesty/BMA Liam McCusker from Spirit of Enniskillen Bronagh Heatley …

Pragmatism v Ideology: Managerialism or an excuse for doing nothing at all?

Mick Fealty on June 21, 2013, 3:17 pm

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Before I sign off for the weekend, Jude Collins has an interesting piece on the role of ideology, particularly with regard to education and even more specifically, education under three successive SF ministers. The real world demands either bits of a range of ideologies or no ideology at all. The second of those two is impossible: everyone has an ideology. It might be “Responding to events as they happen, without forethought or any system of beliefs, is best” or “I …

Platform for Change asking if NI can have a coherent education system (Mon 24 June)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 21, 2013, 8:30 am

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Back in February, Platform for Change came out of hiding and packed nine politicians onto a stage in the Belfast Holiday Inn to answer the question Can we now have a sensible conversation about flags? The Q&A format of the evening worked well, the DUP and Sinn Fein contributed (unusual for a Platform for Change event) and flag protesters along with 120 less worked up members of the public packed the room. On Monday 24 June, Platform for Change are …

President Obama in trouble at home for his remarks on the desirability of Catholic schools?

Mick Fealty on June 20, 2013, 10:45 pm

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A few people in Northern Ireland took notice of President Obama’s apparent dig at segregated education. But in the US quite a number on the right took it personally. As noted at the time here on Slugger, it may have been assumed by the President there were measures afoot to promote integrated schooling by the Catholic Education Minister, John O’Dowd. In fact the announcement of ten shared campuses last month may look to the untrained eye like a cross party …

“the current system is inefficient and we need to examine the case for reform of teacher education provision”

Pete Baker on May 21, 2013, 6:41 pm

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The BBC reports on the latest attempt by the Northern Ireland Employment and Learning Minister, the Alliance Party’s Stephen Farry, to reform the teacher training system here. It follows the publication of a report on the first stage of the Study of the Teacher Education Infrastructure in Northern Ireland. From the ministerial press release “The research concluded that Stranmillis and St. Mary’s are the only teacher training establishments in the UK which receive premia additional to their core funding. The cost …

Gove calls for a split with Wales and NI on GCSE and A Level reform…

Mick Fealty on May 21, 2013, 11:18 am

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Here’s one to put on the long term forecast. Michael Gove was over last week (not that our Education Minister was very forthcoming on what they actually talked about)… and now he has announced there is such a gap between his reforms in GCSE and the way it is done in Wales and Northern Ireland that there may have to be a split. John O’Dowd has said that he has no principled objection to the change. But that’s not been …

Only united challenges from civil society to government and grass roots campaigns will bring about a shared future

Brian Walker on April 25, 2013, 5:57 pm

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It’s amazing isn’t it, how all the parties are now singing the praise of sharing, integration and Mammy and apple pie? And yet when it comes to agreeing what that might actually mean they stay stuck in deadlock, their real comfort zone. “A shared future” risks becoming debased as a piece of Orwellian double think, our equivalent of the old Communist dictatorships’ “People’s Democracy.” Apart from wringing our hands and scratching our heads, what can we do about it? I’m sorry, …

Friday Thread: Lessons from Pakistan on building and integrating education…

Mick Fealty on April 12, 2013, 2:00 pm

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Pakistan is a country of 180 million people, that’s a 100 times the size of Northern Ireland. Unlike Ireland, north and south, its never had the infrastructure or the cultural inclination to prioritise mass education. Only half their kids actually go to school. But like Ireland, again north and south, there is a high reliance on religious schooling to deliver what education actually exists. As Anwar notes in the introduction to this video: If you walk down any street in …

Well meaning though it may be, I’m against teaching history to promote a shared identity

Brian Walker on March 7, 2013, 5:21 pm

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The historian Tristram Hunt has given a cautious welcome in the Times to Michael Gove’s controversial plans for the history curriculum in England, (£) a topic I raised last month. This is interesting because Hunt is also a Labour MP and pro-Labour reaction to the Gove proposals was generally hostile. Hunt writes: At the heart of the controversy is the question of Britishness. Critics suggest that in a modern, globalised world, dominated by China and India, it is backward and …

70% of parents want some form of integrated education> what’s the problem John?

Mick Fealty on March 1, 2013, 10:57 am

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One of things Micheal Martin picked up on in his interview with Conor Bradford yesterday morning was the rather emphatic result of Lucid Talk’s poll in favour of integrated eduction: In the latest Lucid Talk poll those in favour of children of all denominations sharing the same classroom stands at a massive 70%. Tellingly, this figure represents almost identical proportions of Catholics and Protestants. On any other issue this would be accepted as the will of the people and politicians …

Friday Thread: Nine years later you can see improvement in quality and equity

Mick Fealty on February 22, 2013, 2:39 pm

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In the week were told our education system is both inequitable and poor… Andreas Schleicher notes that equity and quality are not inimical. But the solutions he offers from Germany is a major challenge to a lot of assumptions about how education is done. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and …

What is history for again?

Brian Walker on February 17, 2013, 11:26 am

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A growing row over Michael Gove’s proposed new history curriculum for England may well spark a bout of Brit bashing in Slugger and other places. Anything that seems to encourage the “great man theory “( History p 165 et seq)” of British history will be dumped on, but not only on this side of the water. One person’s theory of responsible British citizenship is another’s indulgence of imperial nostalgia and whitewash. On the row itself, the Observer report claims that even up …

Schools Common Funding Scheme Review: “with close monitoring and intervention when outcomes are not satisfactory…”

Pete Baker on January 21, 2013, 4:15 pm

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The BBC’s Martina Purdy has a short report on the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Common Funding Scheme, as appointed by the NI Education Minister, Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd, on 12 June 2012. The ministerial welcome for the publication of the review is here. From the BBC report The panel examined the Common Funding Schemes and found that it was outdated, too complicated and failing pupils. The gap between the best and worst performing schools was wider than other …

Are our versions of history sundering or reconciling us?

Brian Walker on December 13, 2012, 2:43 pm

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Martin Kettle in the Guardian pens a lament for the ignorance of the English about their own history. The outcome, he claims is a” loss of national self respect” and the threat of a disintegrating Union. For once, the term “English” is used deliberately. It’s a long time since AJP Taylor’s superb English History 1914 -1945 simply equated “ English” with “British,” and referred mischievously to “ the Scotch.” Could the opposite apply to us non-English , that overheated versions of …

Tory research uncovers a politically ‘orphaned’ Catholic middle class?

Mick Fealty on November 28, 2012, 8:03 am

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Liam Clarke had an analysis piece in the BelTel yesterday (I still want to say last night) in which he cited some party polling by Lucid Talk for the Conservatives. [Nationalists, you may want to look away from the screen for a while, since this is what the Tories consider their best battleground territory]. It’s worth noting that this is both more and less than your average poll. Only the Tories could afford to put in the field a survey …

“I think it is somewhat contemptuous.”

Pete Baker on November 8, 2012, 8:44 pm

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It’s difficult to argue with Jeffrey Dudgeon’s comments on the Office of the Northern Ireland First and Deputy First Minister last minute compliance with an FoI request – 320 days after the application was made, and one day before a judicial review hearing into the delay was due to begin. From the BBC report Jeffrey Dudgeon had brought legal action over the delay. A judicial review hearing was due on 8 November but the outstanding material was sent to him on 7 …

Setting a gold standard in how to govern

Brian Walker on October 25, 2012, 11:17 pm

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I’d like to offer a few thoughts from the chapter How To Be a Reformer in Andrew Adonis’s new book Education, Education Education. These impressive conclusions, also culled from recent exchanges with him, are based on his career as a historian, academic, journalist, Head of Tony Blair’s Policy Unit and the Minister of State for Education for England who introduced academies to transform “ bog standard comprehensives” and remove them from local authority control. I’ll leave the CV and profile …