RTÉ Back to School Series

implausible

Did anyone see this? I'm highly irritated by Ruairi Quinn's demeanour. He seems determined to leave his mark on education in this country and can't see the trees for the wood.

The advisors seem smug and condescending, cocooned in the ivory tower of the Department. I wanted to deck that young fella with his comment about not knowing there were 7 schools west of Dingle...ha ha, look at the silly culchies worrying about their small schools. The whole lot of them seem to be cocooned from the reality of day-to-day education and are about as far from the chalkboard as you can imagine. A few days of 'back to the shopfloor' would do them a power of good.

Now obviously, this doc was well-edited, but it gave a decent, if infuriating insight into the running of a department which seems like an elite club. Only Quinn would have the arrogance and/or bravery to allow the cameras into his department:rolleyes:

evolving_doors

Seems like it's all about Croke Park to me..

Varadkar was on newstalk today saying that 'Cuts were necessary BECAUSE of Croke Park'

R.Q seems intent on doing the Junior Cert reform.. just consider how much time and money and training it's taking to impliment a gradual change in the Maths curriculum... now think about reforming the whole Junior Cert... The money just aint there Ruairi... Don;t get me wrong though I think teachers are happy with curriculum reform and a move away from the obsession with "the exam".. but Ruairi sure is ambitious..Maybe that's what it takes to get anything done

As regards the program, it was basically just a bunch of Advisors worrying about 'the optics' of the whole situation..

Pride Fighter

What I took out of it most was that the protesters were not the usual Joe Higgins rent a mob.

They were middle class teachers that cared for their students and schools. Fair play to them, they deserve every penny they get, I know it is very popular and easy to swipe them, but they are doing miracles with very little.

Ruairi Quinn came across as smug, but not too bad. His advisors came across as even more smug than him and extremely arrogant and cocooned. The amount of cutbacks is disgraceful and fair play to the teachers for resisting.

flatbackfour

implausible wrote: »

The advisors seem smug and condescending, cocooned in the ivory tower of the Department. I wanted to deck that young fella with his comment about not knowing there were 7 schools west of Dingle...ha ha, look at the silly culchies worrying about their small schools.:rolleyes:

Yes that struck me too, what a stupid ill-advised comment, and our minister has a guy like that advising him.

Says something

God bless the young lad, he thought he was some kind of cynical hard nosed official who was on the "inside".

flatbackfour

Pride Fighter wrote: »

What I took out of it most was that the protesters were not the usual Joe Higgins rent a mob.

They were middle class teachers that cared for their students and schools. Fair play to them, they deserve every penny they get, I know it is very popular and easy to swipe them, but they are doing miracles with very little.

Ruairi Quinn came across as smug, but not too bad. His advisors came across as even more smug than him and extremely arrogant and cocooned. The amount of cutbacks is disgraceful and fair play to the teachers for resisting.

Of course middle class protest is far more civilized and palatable.

Keep up the good fight Joe.

implausible

Actually Mods, can the title of this be changed to just "RTE Back to School series"? John Lonergan is on tonight and I'm sure there will be people interested in commenting on it.

allprops

Parts of it were straight out of The Thick Of It, especially the advisors. The animosity between RQ and the sec. gen. was dripping off the walls.

implausible

allprops wrote: »

Parts of it were straight out of The Thick Of It, especially the advisors. The animosity between RQ and the sec. gen. was dripping off the walls.

That young fella wouldn't have looked out of place in The Thick of It. It'd be gas if Brigid McManus was f-ing and blinding like Malcolm Tucker!!

The animosity is no wonder after what Ruairi said about her dept. Goes to show how what you say when in opposition can come back to bite you in the ass. have to give him credit though for acknowledging what he said and apologising.

John Lonergan's programme on now. I like him, he talks a lot of sense.

seavill

I know people talk a lot about the particular minister should or should not be from that sector.

However, the one thing that did strike me was that, 100% serious, the minister and his advisers should all have to spend 3 or 4 weeks working in a school on a full timetable, just to see what the real world is.

I don't mean this as a usual rant about politicians, but I would wonder, in all honesty how could people who have no experience working in that sector really know what can and cannot be cut.

For God sake, I couldn't go in tomorrow and tell the minister for health to cut X,Y,Z from the health budget as I really don't know the true implications of such decisions.

I'm not saying everyone in the Department of Education should be teachers, just like those programmes Undercover Boss, the people at the top in this programme really don't have a clue what their employees really do until they go undercover and experience it for themselves.

implausible

seavill wrote: »

However, the one thing that did strike me was that, 100% serious, the minister and his advisers should all have to spend 3 or 4 weeks working in a school on a full timetable, just to see what the real world is.

Definitely, especially the advisors, as the ministers are heavily reliant on them, particularly in the early days. I have to laugh at people who crib about ALL advisors, as it's very obvious to me that no minister is or can be expert in his/her area.

bdoo

I missed it last night but caught it on the player. What struck me looking at it was that an awful lot of power rests with a small few.

Ministers come and go, the civil servants call the shots.

he is a better minister than Mary hanafin and streets ahead of Dempsey. I still don't love him though!

byhookorbycrook

Had an interesting moment a few years back with a DES employee. He had a USB key but no computer in the school was up to date enough at the time to take it. He nearly threw off his underwear and danced,it was funny to see how out of touch he was with what goes on in schools.