There should be no particular mystery about why it is, this year, that the number of leaving cert students who achieved maximum points absolutely skyrocketed: Here is the share of Leaving Certificate candidates with maximum CAO points since 1995. In that year, 31 candidates (0.05%) had maximum points. In 2020, 577 candidates (1.0%) had maximum […]
No mention of reporting sexual assault.
Some of the books and films on the prescribed list for the English curriculum in secondary schools contain “explicit graphic sexual content including sex between older adults and minors, bestiality and violence including torture.” That’s according to former Minister of State in the Department of Education, Willie O’Dea who has submitted a question to the Minister […]
RTÉ is reporting that the government has agreed to give Leaving Certificate students the option of a calculated grade or written exam in each subject. Minister for Education Norma Foley is set to announce a two-track Leaving Certificate exam process that will see students choose to receive a calculated grade or to do a written […]
“Some of you are waiting with baited breath, for that favourite media phrase, the u-turn”, drawled Margaret Thatcher to the Tory party conference, at the height of her first-term unpopularity. “Well, you turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning”. The most prominent lady in the Irish Government, however, very much is for […]
At approximately this time yesterday morning, the question of “what to do about the schools” was remarkably uncontroversial, as these things go. In the face of an explosion in the number of cases, hospital admissions, and ICU admissions on foot of covid, the country had basically made peace with the fact that schools would not […]
These figures are just for those who missed out because their results were wrongly downgraded. They’re by no means the only students who were completely screwed by the Government’s incompetence, as we’ll explain in a moment: Yesterday it emerged that about 7,200 Leaving Cert grades were affected by errors in the calculated grades system. It […]
The irony is that the illusory quest for total equality has thrown up all sorts of discrimination.
“So will they be sent home if they refuse to wear the mask?”, asked Richard Downes on Prime Time last night. “Yes absolutely, everybody is expected to wear the mask” replied the Minister for Education, Norma Foley. Good news, if, like me, you are the husband of a teacher, or indeed if you are a […]
The plan to re-open schools was released yesterday to great fanfare, and contains lots of big announcements, which are neatly summarised here, courtesy of the journal.ie: 1,080 extra teachers will be added to post-primary schools at a cost of €53 million to help reduce class sizes. Additional substitution, supervision, guidance counsellors and psychologists will also […]
What fresh nonsense is this? Ms Foley said all individual grades will have to be checked and reviewed using different demographic characteristics – including gender and socio-economic status – to ensure they are as fair and equitable as possible. “I want to make sure that this work is done rigorously – so that the results […]
The Minister for Education, Norma Foley, was the subject of an interview/profile in yesterday’s Sunday Independent, written by Hugh O’Connell, which was notable for several reasons. Perhaps the most glaring thing to note is that in a 25 minute interview with the new Minister for Education, the subject of how schools might safely and promptly […]