Education – Page 9 – Slugger O'Toole

A plan for parental choice – the route to transformation

Brian Walker on October 18, 2010, 10:40 am

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　 “This is typical Peter Robinson,” said Ms Ritchie. “On the one hand he says the most visionary thing ever said by a DUP politician about our divided society, and then he spoils it with an old-fashioned political sideswipe at Catholic schools. “He is still right that we should aim for a future where our children are increasingly educated together – but blaming Catholics for the division is shameful and totally the wrong place to start.” 　 OK, so there’s …

Is Peter’s sudden move towards integrated education the game changer?

Brian Walker on October 16, 2010, 12:28 pm

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Peter Robinson’s belief in integrated education comes out of the blue. I believe that future generations will scarcely believe that such division and separation was so common for so long. The reality is that our education system is a benign form of apartheid, which is fundamentally damaging to our society I have to point out that the real savings in terms of education will not be gained by simply creating a single educational administrative body but by creating a single …

Have we woken up to the uni revolution?

Brian Walker on October 12, 2010, 2:35 pm

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Have I missed a burning debate about university tuition fees in NI? I thought not. But better late than never. It’s surely obvious that Joanne Stuart’s recommendation to keep them at their present £3290 level is out of date – if it ever was up to date. The DEL report is understood to favour keeping the current fees and improving maintenance grants. Sir Reg has hinted that the financial crisis could affect any moves to be more generous to students. …

A tragically missed opportunity

Brian Walker on October 9, 2010, 12:24 pm

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The newly digitised public archives for the early years of the Troubles now available on a special CAIN-PRONI site are a gold mine. Straight away my heart aches at the what-might- have- been in the official papers about setting up a new university in 1964 –5. This was Derry’s great rebuff when the city lost out to a green field site on the banks of the Bann outside Coleraine. Often recalled as a unionist plot to keep down Catholics it …

“It is irresponsible to make ill-informed comments about areas which are not your responsibility.”

Pete Baker on October 5, 2010, 9:26 pm

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As DC noted in the comments zone of Brian’s post on our special little pleaders, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson made an interesting pitch during the Conservative Conference fringe event on NI today. With a number of NI Executive ministers present, Owen Paterson argued that the “British taxpayer should not continue to subsidise segregation” in NI, and he highlighted segregated education here as a particular example of “a criminal waste of public money”. Speaking to UTV in Birmingham after the event NI …

Death by a thousand cuts or education reform – the crunch at last

Brian Walker on October 1, 2010, 12:08 pm

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The paper “Developing the Case for Shared Education” by the consultancy Oxford Economics argues convincingly that the Executive should turn the ill wind of the spending cuts into an opportunity to reform education and increase opportunities for all, rather than suffer death by 1000 cuts. The paper is available from the Integrated Education Fund here. Oxford Economics are careful not simply to embrace the single solution of integration as such. Instead, they update the well known arguments for ” sharing” which …

Graduate takes QUB to court over degree

John Ó Néill on September 21, 2010, 10:24 am

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A QUB graduate is challenging his degree classification in the High Court yesterday claiming that better supervision would have helped him achieve a 2.1 rather than the 2.2 he was awarded in June 2010. Legal challenges to the actual awards given (or not given) by universities are rare enough, never mind querying the final degree classification. What makes this one to watch is that, like all other universities, QUB already has pretty lengthy and detailed regulations which govern exams, awards and appeals. This …

Ruane commissions four new Irish language schools…

Mick Fealty on July 29, 2010, 11:37 am

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The reason Caitriona Ruane has been struggling to fulfil her party brief to end selection in schools is that she lacks the power to do so. However she does have carte blanche in allocating budgets, which is one reason why she has decided (albeit conditionally) to fund four new Irish language schools in Magherafelt, Kilkeel, Limavady and Ballymena. Yet as the Belfast Telegraph noted yesterday, there is a 27% vacancy rate in that sector already. In fact there are some …

“But there is no guarantee that any will be built…”

Pete Baker on July 5, 2010, 9:21 pm

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The Northern Ireland Education Minister, Sinn Féin’s Caitriona Ruane, refused to tell the Assembly the details of the outcome of her department’s review of the schools capital build programme last week. The BBC reports today that the department has now released the list of the schools whose plans comply fully with departmental policy (34), those who might, with further work, comply with policy (24), and those whose plans do not comply (8). But as the BBC report also notes A total of …

“we are over committed to over spend and these projects will be delayed”

Pete Baker on June 29, 2010, 2:49 pm

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Unlike last week, the Northern Ireland Education Minister, Sinn Féin’s Caitriona Ruane, was on time today to make a statement to the Assembly on the review of her department’s programme of capital building schemes. But, as the BBC reports, the statement was somewhat lacking in detail The minister told the assembly that she has made decisions on which of the 69 schools are to get the go ahead for new buildings. She said most have been approved, some have been …

Friday post: Beyond the idea of free schools…

Mick Fealty on June 25, 2010, 12:15 pm

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Fascinating 4 minute Ted presentation from Dave Eggers from McSweeneys, aka the Pirate Supplies Shop, aka a tutorial centre… There’s now 826 centres across the world manned by volunteers… The nearest one we know of, is Fighting Words in Dublin… Adults just giving lots of face time to kids who need it 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 …

McCausland avoids the real debate on museum…

Belfast Gonzo on June 13, 2010, 5:05 am

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I’M not sure what to make of the Culture Minister’s latest blog entry on the Ulster Museum controversy. After waiting patiently for Nelson McCausland to address the merits of Creationism’s place in the museum, it now appears he doesn’t want to talk about the only genuine controversy in his letter to the trustees after all. This is disappointing, because the Minister freely offered his personal defence of why Ulster-Scots, the Orange Order and other fraternal organisations like the AoH, the …

NI Assembly – bak 2 skul in the form of a comic

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 11, 2010, 4:24 pm

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Snippet from NI Assembly comic

The NI Assembly’s education service has produced a comic aimed at educating school children about the local democratic institutions. As well as covering the daily/weekly life of a MLA, departments and ministers, it even gets as far as working out an example of the transferrable vote system in action! So far, none of the cartoon characters seem to resemble real elected representatives …

NI curriculum now includes lessons from ex-terrorists…

Belfast Gonzo on June 5, 2010, 8:00 am

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THE Education Minister snuck this press release out in the news graveyard of a Friday afternoon, but I think it’s worth highlighting, as it will probably provoke strong reactions one way or the other. A new resource for local schools entitled, ‘From Prison to Peace: Building on Experience’, has been launched. The resource, “which has been developed by a partnership of community and former prisoner groups from all sides of the community, provides a range of interesting, challenging and informative …

Quality of education at Gaelscoil na Daroige “inadequate”

Pete Baker on April 28, 2010, 1:50 pm

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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 …

“I believe that the Education Minister is guilty of a terminological inexactitude”

Pete Baker on April 13, 2010, 10:01 pm

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During a Northern Ireland Assembly debate in March this year – on the NI Education Minister’s decision to withdraw funding from the preparatory departments of grammar schools – the DUP’s Jonathan Bell was ordered from the chamber after he refused to withdraw his comment that the Minister, Sinn Féin’s Caitriona Ruane, was “deliberately mislead[ing] the House” by associating the NI Finance Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, with a report from the Assembly’s business consultancy service which had actually been commissioned …

“To say that publicly would be terrible politics, even if has the benefit of a certain cold logic..”

Mick Fealty on March 14, 2010, 4:59 am

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One of the many great people we’ve met on this State department sponsored trip to the US was Adrian Walker a columnist at the Boston Globe. At the Globe, they have a preference for ‘reported’ columns, like some of the best Irish columnists. I was struck by this line on the pressure Boston’s public library service is under (Belfast is under similar) significant fiscal pressures (H/T to David Gordon, who spotted Adrian’s article first). Not least because there seems to …

“only a complete recall of the affected models will restore market confidence…”

Pete Baker on March 4, 2010, 8:20 pm

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Irish University presidents have defended the standard of education in their colleges as the Dáil awaits details from the Irish Minister of Education, Batt O’Keeffe, of his department’s report on ‘grade inflation’ – as mentioned here. Interestingly the review was announced following a meeting between the Minister and representatives of a number of US multinational companies, including Google and Intel. Until the report is unveiled I’ll leave you with Frank McNally’s Irishman’s Diary It is understood the problem involves both …

On the problem of consultation as “cynical tokenism”…

Mick Fealty on March 4, 2010, 5:47 am

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Jeff Peel and Bobballs both have posts on an issue that’s perplexing both of them: the possible withdrawal of funding for places in the Preparatory Departments of 16 Grammar Schools. As BobBalls notes “the Protestant middle-classes don’t tend to be a tinderbox for revolutionary spirit.” But he also points out that the motive cannot be about saving money: “Under the Common Funding Formula (CFF), the Education Department offers primary schools £2,911 in funding per pupil. The Department offers prep school …

Education, education, education…

Pete Baker on March 3, 2010, 1:58 am

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The Catholic Church has announced it is to unilaterally review the provision of the post-primary Catholic Maintained Schools sector and, in the process, appears to be extending their previously identified ‘deadline’ of 2012 for ending [Catholic] academic selection. Recently Cardinal Sean Brady also defended “the right of children in our schools to be led and formed in authentic worship of God in the Catholic tradition”. DUP leader Peter Robinson is more exercised about the former than the latter. Meanwhile, those …