Irish children twice as likely to dislike school!

bbsrs

"A study has found that Irish ten-year-olds are less happy in school and are more likely to feel that they do not "belong", compared to children in other countries.
The study compared children in fourth class in Ireland with their peers internationally."

http://m.rte.ie/news/touch/2013/0611/455987-primary-schools/

Not enough science being taught , more time spent on religon than any country except Israel , pupils twice as likely to not like school compared to their peers in 60 other countries, teacher parent communication regarding child progress worst of any country surveyed, also least ammounts of time spent on physical education of any country surveyed but the teachers report a very high level of job satisfaction!!! What are schools for ,the kids or the teachers?

bbsrs

bbsrs wrote: »

"A study has found that Irish ten-year-olds are less happy in school and are more likely to feel that they do not "belong", compared to children in other countries.
The study compared children in fourth class in Ireland with their peers internationally."

http://m.rte.ie/news/touch/2013/0611/455987-primary-schools/

Not enough science being taught , more time spent on religon than any country except Israel , pupils twice as likely to not like school compared to their peers in 60 other countries, teacher parent communication regarding child progress worst of any country surveyed, also least ammounts of time spent on physical education of any country surveyed but the teachers report a very high level of job satisfaction!!! What are schools for ,the kids or the teachers?

Just to add , I'm not having a go at the teachers but the curriculum and amount of parent / teacher interaction time.

byhookorbycrook

"It also finds Irish trainee teachers not spending enough time on science at college.
Over a three-year teacher training course it found just between 12 and 40 hours in total was spent on science.
The study found Irish ten-year-olds spend far less time studying science in school - 7%, compared to an international average of 10%.
They spend more time on religion than any other country except Israel.
Irish pupils also spend less time on physical education, just 4%, than any other country"


This of course doesn't take account of all the time spent on sport outside of school hours organised by teachers on their own time and without pay. All time allocations are DES issues ,out of control of the schools.
The initial teacher education courses are being increased from 3 to 4 years, so one would hope Science will get a better look in.

"However, Irish teachers are far less likely to collaborate than teachers elsewhere.
One quarter of pupils in Ireland are taught by teachers who say they never or almost never discuss teaching with colleagues." Yard duty and pointless Croke Park hours and paperwork tend to be some of the reasons for these. Many other countries have class release time to collaborate , with cover for their classes, Irish teachers don't. The other aspect of this is that many Irish schools only have one group of 3rd, one of 4th etc so one cannot collaborate with teachers of the same grouping for planning etc.
Don't see why having a good proportion of young teachers is a negative?

byhookorbycrook

Funny how RTE don't report table 1.2 from the full document which puts Irish children ahead of the international mean scores in reading, maths and science!! This is despite there being no science labs in primary as opposed to 100% of schools in some other countries in the study having them.

RTE neglected to mention that "Ireland is one of very few countries that mentioned enhanced parental involvement
through an initiative such as the Home/School/Community Liaison scheme as part of its
strategy to combat educational disadvantage"
Lies, damn lies and statistics, methinks...

byhookorbycrook

Table 3.10 has Ireland as having the highest proportion of all countries surveyed of children who say they were almost never bullied-even ahead of Finland. I think my message is that RTE -along with many Irish media sources prefer the glass half empty when it comes to education stories.