Wish list for the new minister

mtoutlemonde

So we will have a new Minister of Education this evening. Knowing that the TDs read Boards for ideas - what will we have on our wish list?

Equal pay for equal work?
Reform of the dumbing down the the Junior Cert?
JCT in services. The Greens might like us to do something about deforestation as a result of the post-its they use.
Reform of the Leaving certificate.
Equal funding to all schools.
Tuition time.
Teacher student ratio.
Teaching as a part time career.
Principal power - they can do as they like.

I'll open it to the floor now.

Icsics

Norma Foley, FF and body know anything about her?

lulublue22

mtoutlemonde wrote: »

So we will have a new Minister of Education this evening. Knowing that the TDs read Boards for ideas - what will we have on our wish list?

Equal pay for equal work?
Reform of the dumbing down the the Junior Cert?
JCT in services. The Greens might like us to do something about deforestation as a result of the post-its they use.
Reform of the Leaving certificate.
Equal funding to all schools.
Tuition time.
Teacher student ratio.
Teaching as a part time career.
Principal power - they can do as they like.

I'll open it to the floor now.

Teacher pupil ratio

overhaul of access to mental health supports for children and teenagers.

oversight for principals

tweaking of CP hours to make it relevant and worth while for staff - ie being allowed time to plan fir teaching and learning, getting rid of the notion that CP is only valid if every single teacher in the school is doing the same course/ work at the exact same time.

increase in posts

adequate ICT provision.

reduce pointless paperwork

killbillvol2

Icsics wrote: »

Norma Foley, FF and body know anything about her?

She's a teacher. Could be a good or a bad thing.

km79

killbillvol2 wrote: »

She's a teacher. Could be a good or a bad thing.

She is an extremely inexperienced TD
Education as always is an after thought
Could have been worse
They split the education portfolio and Simon Harris got Higher Education

heldel00

Reduce the pointless paperwork and let us give more focus to the core subjects (primary).

mtoutlemonde

Icsics wrote: »

Norma Foley, FF and body know anything about her?

Just read the Wikipedia page. She is/was a teacher so that might be a positive. My only concern is, although she has been in politics for a while, this is her first time serving as a TD. It’s a bit strange to put a ‘wet behind the ears’ person in that position. I was sure it would be Thomas Byrne with all his shouting for predictive grading. I suppose it doesn’t really matter because education is the poor relation anyway.

kala85

Equal pay for all teachers....

Dream on with this one...

mtoutlemonde

heldel00 wrote: »

Reduce the pointless paperwork and let us give more focus to the core subjects (primary).

Agree on both counts. I doubt our paperwork will be reducing though. We will have to do our blended learning/contingency for school closure plan come September.

yabadabado

killbillvol2 wrote: »

She's a teacher. Could be a good or a bad thing.

So was Joe McHugh ...

TheValeyard

As a matter of curiosity, anyone know what her subjects were?

Millem

TheValeyard wrote: »

As a matter of curiosity, anyone know what her subjects were?

No but apparently her husband is a teacher too.

r93kaey5p2izun

She was an English teacher afaik.

acequion

She's highly regarded at local level here in Kerry. She's also an ASTI member and was always a staunch defender of teacher working conditions. She was also very supportive recently in our worries about the JC and the calculated grades.

No idea how it will pan out now she's in with the big guns but I'd be very confident that we might at last have the kind of person we want in that job.

am_zarathustra

She's very well respected within the party too. She has 26 years experience on the Kerry CC so certainly not a novice.

Rosita

mtoutlemonde wrote: »

Reform of the dumbing down the the Junior Cert?


Reform of the Leaving certificate.

/quote]

Unsure about the compatibility of these two. It's fairly obvious from the JC that any reform of the LC will be a woolly 'let's all get into groups and make posters about a whole range of learning outcomes which sound the same' shambles. Would be slow to encourage it after what has happened with the JC.

Rosita

am_zarathustra wrote: »

She's very well respected within the party too. She has 26 years experience on the Kerry CC so certainly not a novice.

I am encouraged that even though she's new she's of the age that she's had actual life experience.

joebloggs32

Title of the thread needs changing.....we now have two ministers for education with Harrius taking over Higher Education.

I cant wait for the next TUI congress to sit through two ministerial speeches!

mtoutlemonde

Rosita wrote: »

mtoutlemonde wrote: »

Reform of the dumbing down the the Junior Cert?


Reform of the Leaving certificate.

/quote]

Unsure about the compatibility of these two. It's fairly obvious from the JC that any reform of the LC will be a woolly 'let's all get into groups and make posters about a whole range of learning outcomes which sound the same' shambles. Would be slow to encourage it after what has happened with the JC.

What I mean is reform some of the madness that is our new junior cycle programme and that is done before any changes to the leaving cert. Just as an aside, I am happy with the way the leaving cert works but put it on the list because it is happening some subjects already and more to come.

No posters at JCT training days - it's in the programme for government - The Greens fought hard and won I dare say, it's been a while since Eamon made a poster

Rosita wrote: »

I am encouraged that even though she's new she of the age that she's had actual life experience.

Yes that's what we need. Mary Hanafin was a good minister of education (or appeared to be) because she had her background there. Mary O'Rourke similarly was sympathetic to teachers and the struggles of the job. We had a big disappointment with Joe McHugh, although he was a teacher, I think he only had a few years experience if any. Down through the years we've had people who hadn't a clue namely Ruairi Quinn, Michael Woods and you could probably throw in Jan O'Sullivan in that mix as well. Time will tell.

Coneygree

km79 wrote: »

Maybe not enough
http://twitter.com/OrlaGleans/status/1276952921805029382

She's the head off of an Alive-O era Religion inspector.

Rosita

km79 wrote: »

Maybe not enough
http://twitter.com/OrlaGleans/status/1276952921805029382

I really don't get the relevance of this to be honest. People have abortion now. Why the need to fight old battles?

spurious

We are better (well, we would hope we are better) than some of the personal remarks here regarding the new Minister.

Remarks regarding educational past/attitudes/experience etc. are alright, but remarks on personal appearance are not.

Thank you.

Treppen

Rosita wrote: »

I really don't get the relevance of this to be honest. People have abortion now. Why the need to fight old battles?

Oh great, are we all pro-abortion now Ted?

Rosita

Treppen wrote: »

Oh great, are we all pro-abortion now Ted?

Well apparently if we're not we should be.........

Again, as I said, not sure why it should be relevant to the new Minister.

km79

Yikes just checking back in !
Apologies for completely sidetracking the thread.
I was coming at it from the angle of the parochial politics the Healy Raes are reknowned for and that we need a more experienced TD for the situation we will be facing into !
I will delete that post as I did not intend to start a completely different debate

acequion

km79 wrote: »

Yikes just checking back in !
Apologies for completely sidetracking the thread.
I was coming at it from the angle of the parochial politics the Healy Raes are reknowned for and that we need a more experienced TD for the situation we will be facing into !
I will delete that post as I did not intend to start a completely different debate

Ah now leave the Healy Raes alone.:pac::pac:

But rest assured she's nothing like them. She's very sound, very much on the side of the teacher. My worry is how much she'll be corrupted by power. No recent minister has done teachers any favours so you'd have to be wary. But no worries over her personal pedigree.

Treppen

Rosita wrote: »

Well apparently if we're not we should be.........

Apparently

Rosita wrote: »

Again, as I said, not sure why it should be relevant to the new Minister.

Agreed

mtoutlemonde

acequion wrote: »

Ah now leave the Healy Raes alone.:pac::pac:

But rest assured she's nothing like them. She's very sound, very much on the side of the teacher. My worry is how much she'll be corrupted by power. No recent minister has done teachers any favours so you'd have to be wary. But no worries over her personal pedigree.

They're part of the Healy-Rae party now Where can we join I wonder?

We must remain positive that our new minister will bring some changes to our education system. We have a better chance now that someone who is an experienced teacher will be able to plug a few holes. Two I can think of - maybe an Dublin allowance, grants for certain subjects where difficulty arises filling vacancies.

The major one and it has been mentioned previously, why not hire an IT company that will roll out nationwide IT support to schools. Followed by major investment in PCs etc. A lot of the new schools have the facilities - bring every school to the same standard.

byhookorbycrook

No more “ Friday circulars “- those ones released after 4.55 on a Friday or the day of the holidays .

Let teachers know about various matters before we hear it through the media .

Meaningful support for children with additional needs , both in staffing and resourcing . Writing to schools when they are closed ordering them to open a special class with no funding , space and specialist staff training means that those students get a “ place,” but not what they need .

Recognition that disadvantaged students exist outside of DEIS schools and need the many supports their DEIS counterparts receive .

Reduce class sizes in the early primary years at the very least , infants should not be in classes of more than 15 .

TheDriver

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Recognition that disadvantaged students exist outside of DEIS schools and need the many supports their DEIS counterparts receive .
.

THe whole DEIS vs non DEIS status does need to be looked at. It's as if there's no DEIS qualifying students in non DEIS schools. Sometimes these students have no choice on where they go to school.

A good number of the points above are civil service adjustments that could be made through union representation e.g. Fri circulars.

Treppen

Do away with teaching council. The only way the TC can justify their existence is by flooding prospective teachers with paperwork and ridiculous assessments on your degree (and often refusing to do so until you've completed your PME). How they treat prospective teachers from abroad leaves a lot to be desired too.

Droichead - reduce the hoops teachers have to go through after qualifying (namely onsite dronefests).

Treat subs with fairness, stop using S&S to cover hours which are actually funded by the department!

CBA sucking up teaching and learning time, this was due to come to a head this year but will probably drag on for another few years.

Reform of NCCA and publication of report into the allegations of bullying which magically went away. This was a key player in the Junior Cycle we have to work with now.

Stop copying UK.
Copy Finland ...but pay for it.

Ramp up interest in Green/Active schools by giving grants dependant on meeting milestones. Bike sheds, cycle to work, reducing plastic, being able to resell books without tying then into book companies digital codes.

Include Learning Support coordinator as post of responsibility above certain student population.

Remove remarks on students leaving cert document which shows they had a reasonable accommodation. RACE doesn't give them an unfair advantage, it just provides equality of opportunity to show the same learning as other students.

Croke Park - Kill it