THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
The exceptionally high level of engagement in the national Primary School Survey, with more than 200,000 parents and guardians submitting responses, alongside strong participation from school staff and boards of management, surprised even Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton.
This significant response marks an important step in ensuring that parents and school communities are central to shaping the future direction of primary education.
As children head back to class after the Easter break, the department will be continuing detailed analysis of the survey data and preparing finalised, school-specific results for each of the more than 3,200 primary schools that took part.
Preliminary findings indicate that 60% of parents in denominational schools wish to retain that ethos, while 73% of parents in the 276 singlesex primary schools favour a move to coeducation. And 87% of parents in English-medium schools support maintaining English as the primary language of teaching.
While these figures provide a national overview, it is the preferences within each school community that will determine future direction. Demand for change, or continuity, will, naturally, vary from school to school. For example, that 40% want no religious involvement – no surprise here, given our growing secularisation – could be challenging going forward, given that not every town or county has, for example, an Educate Together school. Few, in fact.
Also, taking religion out of primary schools is moving at “nought miles an hour”, as only one school has removed Catholic patronage in two years. Children are sitting at the back of the classroom as their fellow pupils prepare for Communion and Confirmation due to the “fundamentally flawed” official process, according to Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins.
For the last two years, the number of schools switching to a multi-denominational ethos has stagnated as the Government slows down its response to taking religion out of schools, focusing on other important matters like the shortage of teachers and SNAs and dilapidated rural classrooms.
We must bear in mind that, in some communities, there is a strong desire to maintain existing traditions and ethos. In others, there is a clear desire for change, whether in relation to school type or structure. And these choices must be accommodated.
Meanwhile, shorter school days and more breaks for students are being recommended by a Dáil committee, which has looked to move the our education system towards a model more akin to Finland.
Members of the Dáil Education Committee say Irish curriculums are “overloaded” and must be reduced, with schools “encouraged to focus on nature and outdoor activities”. A report was compiled after committee members recently visited Finland for a study of its education system, with further suggested reforms around school meals, food education and language teaching.
The report notes Finland’s curriculum has fewer subjects, allows for shorter days and breaks of 15 minutes between lessons. “It allows students to learn –holistically within shorter spaces of time. It values their recreational time too and the need to reflect and recharge at regular periods during the day,” the report says.
Primary pupils typically spend four to five hours in school in Finland and, while the Dáil committee stops short of calling for a similar school day here, it recommends “serious consideration is given to reducing the overload in the primary and post-primary curriculum”.
The committee’s report also says there needs to be significant reforms around the availability of counselling and therapeutic supports in schools. It calls for a pilot scheme currently offering counselling services to a limited number of schools to be expanded nationwide.
There has been talk and debate the past 40 years about shaking up our school and exam systems. What lessons there might be, are yet to be learnt.
That said, a good education is much broader than mere schooling. As Mark Twain put it: “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
But here’s something to bear in mind, as you have watched your children in relative carefree mode over Easter: in the developing world a staggering 130 million children — one in 15 — are not in school, with 70% of these being girls, according to Unicef.
This is shocking, given that education improves lives, strengthens families and helps break the cycle of poverty in even the world’s most impoverished communities.
As Nelson Mandela once noted: “Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.”
