Education – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

St Mary’s: Accommodation or Integration?

SituationNI on January 27, 2015, 4:20 pm

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At the heart of the debate on the future of St Mary’s College is a wider one about the future of education in Northern Ireland. How do we want our children to be educated? Do we want a system that prioritises parental choice between different sectors or one that maximises opportunities for children from different backgrounds to learn together? A number of recent developments highlight a lack of unified education planning by the Executive. Last Friday the DUP launched its …

The public importance of Sinn Fein’s closure of the Collegiate and Portora

Richard Cairns on January 20, 2015, 10:33 am

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Education Minister John O’Dowd’s unilateral decision to close Enniskillen Collegiate and Portora Royal School, both state Grammar schools, has left the people of Enniskillen questioning the motivations of all involved. This follows closely the decision to close Lisnaskea High, where again people were left scratching their heads at the decision. Both the Collegiate and Portora are popular with parents and pupils, academically successful and operating well within their means. In addition to the excellent academic reputation of the Collegiate it …

The casino budget – a triumph of hope over experience

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on January 19, 2015, 9:58 pm

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Well, it’s finally here. After what seemed like an interminable period of consultations, talks, talks about talks, and talks about curried yoghurt, we finally have some numbers. The fact that the Budget is not quite as gruesome as might originally been feared is being spun as some sort of victory. It is still deeply grim reading. First, the good news. Current spending (non-ringfenced DEL) will be £156.6m higher than was originally proposed under the Draft Budget. The £158.9m of extra …

Spreading the word in the Irish language requires a new beginning

Brian Walker on January 18, 2015, 12:57 pm

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I thought I’d tiptoe into the minefield of the “Irish Language Act”, an area where the massed ranks of persuadables risk getting wasted by the zealots, but here goes. Concubhar is right, there should be a mature discussion. I’m one of those who shrugged off Gregory Campbell’s leaden humour and hoped that most language supporters felt secure enough to do likewise. I can be as mildly irritated by Sinn Fein’s little chants of Irish phrases as I am at one with …

Time to embrace true integrated education?

Dave Thompson on December 14, 2014, 5:43 pm

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Dave Thompson has been a teacher in Forge Integrated Primary School for over 18 years. Here are two facts about myself. I firmly believe in the importance of Integrated education. I also like irony; I frequently have a wry smile on my face. Sometimes these facts merge. For example, when local opinion polls show overwhelming support for Integrated education, yet, even when an Integrated option is available, most people don’t choose Integrated schools first. This is a little unfair, I …

Department for Employment & Learning publishes draft Departmental Savings Plan

W[r]ite Noise on December 8, 2014, 12:43 pm

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Mr Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Well in the upcoming Assembly budgets, nothing can be said to be certain except cuts, cuts and yet more cuts. The Department for Employment and Learning has published its draft Departmental Savings Plan in relation to the 2015/16 budget. Personally, I have been working in education for the last seven years, at Higher Education level, in the community, with adults and …

Despite a [slightly] increased Catholic population, parents are walking away from segregated ed…

Mick Fealty on November 5, 2014, 11:53 am

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So, is this the real problem underlying the CCMS’s recent broadside against integrated education… In 1981, there were 28 pupils in integrated education. By 2000/2001, that figure had rocketed to 13,847. A decade later, integrated schools were home to 20,535 pupils. In the 2013/2014 school year, there were 21,206 pupils in integrated schools. That means, between the turn of the millennium and June this year, integrated education increased its pupil numbers by 53%. In comparison: In 2000/2001, the Catholic maintained …

O’Dowd invite to prize giving rescinded

David McCann on October 28, 2014, 3:34 pm

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Simon Doyle has an interesting story in today’s Irish News. The Education Minister, John O’Dowd was invited to be the guest of honour at Parkhall Integrated College at their annual prize giving ceremony. I remember when I was in first year, my school scoring David Trimble as First Minister to come in and chat to us and it really is a real coup when any minister comes into recognise the work being done by students and teachers. Back to the …

How do we unlock Northern Ireland’s tremendous potential?

Shane Greer on October 21, 2014, 8:00 am

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I still remember the spring of 2001. The palpable excitement I felt about something I’d dreamed of since my adolescence and, with sixth form drawing to a close, was finally in a position to realise: leaving Northern Ireland. I was one of the almost 18,000 who emigrated that year, a number that rose to just over 25,000 in 2012-13. And whereas net migration in Northern Ireland was positive the year I left, it has since turned negative (and skews even …

Bytes Project open Flax Foyer project, offering training and prospect of employment to NEETs

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 15, 2014, 9:33 pm

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A good news story via a friend who works with Bytes Project which opened a new centre in Flax Foyer, Ardoyne this afternoon. The charity aims to remove “barriers faced in accessing training or employment training and employment by assisting young people to overcome extreme social and educational disadvantage” enabling “young people to make a difference in their own lives, allowing them to become economically active and make a positive impact in their communities”. Bytes Project started back in June …

O’Dowd banking on Donegal students to keep tiny border secondary off ‘the green mile…’?

Mick Fealty on June 27, 2014, 5:18 pm

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So good news for the people of Belleek. St Mary’s High School in Brollagh, near the village on the Fermanagh border have a reprieve from closure. The tiny secondary school has just 121 students, and attracts about half the pupils transferring from nearby primary schools. From the BBC report: Simon Bradley, the acting principal of the school, said the news it would not be closed came as a shock. “I think, like most people within the education community, were quite stunned …

All early redundancies are cancelled until SF Education Minister regains control of its budget

Mick Fealty on June 24, 2014, 1:38 pmComments Off | Readers 1959

So, here’s a little detail that seems to have slipped off the agenda of the Minister for Education in the Assembly yesterday… Maggie Taggart reports… One hundred and twenty school staff, including teachers, who thought they were getting redundancy deals have now been told they must stay on next term. Schools had applied for a total of 167 redundancies. However, the only ones approved by the department are those in schools that are closing or amalgamating. Even 28 redundancies which met …

Wales gets its Barnett boost as O’Dowd’s decision on common funding formula is ‘reversed’…

Mick Fealty on February 17, 2014, 4:41 pm

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So, here’s John O’Dowd trying to explain why the money he threatened to take away from schools will no longer be taken away. He explains that he knew all along that he had an extra set of contingency cash of up to £15.8 million to fill the hole his proposals make. There were 15,000 responses to the proposed changes. Afterwards Sheila Davidson called it political playacting: The fact remains that an awful lot of school resources went into responding. It seems to …

NSMC: “Ministers re-affirmed that a final report on the results from the survey and proposals on the way forward will be available for consideration no later than their first NSMC Education meeting of 2013”

Pete Baker on December 11, 2013, 5:19 pm

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As the BBC reports, the Chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly Education Committee, the DUP’s Mervyn Storey, wants the NI Education Minister, Sinn Fein’s John O’Dowd, to publish the findings of a “joint attitudinal survey to inform cross-border pupil movement and school planning”, which was conducted a year ago for the North South Ministerial Council. From the BBC report The Stormont minister for education has been challenged to publish the findings of a survey of attitudes to schooling in the border counties. …

Local authority control of schools: not such a bad idea?

Turgon on November 23, 2013, 8:39 pm

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We are used to rows about education in Northern Ireland. England, however, has been having its own rows over Michael Gove’s Free Schools. Free schools are free to attend and also free from the control of the local authority. This is presented as a good idea freeing schools from political control – usually the implication being of control from “loony left” councils (if there are any of them left). Gove’s plans recently suffered a minor set back when a Muslim …

Record numbers take entrance exams to Catholic Grammar schools…

Mick Fealty on November 16, 2013, 8:32 pm

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Simon Doyle in the Irish News today notes two interesting facts regarding selective education in Northern Ireland. One is that five years after a state run and funded 11+ the number of entrants is rising annually; by ten per cent since they were first introduced. And the other is a recognition by the current Education Minister, John O’Dowd, that he does not have “the power to bring it to an end..” He called instead for more lobbying, “those opposed must …

Grammar schools not singled out for funding cuts but state (mainly Protestant) schools are hit hardest

Brian Walker on November 2, 2013, 7:58 pm

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I hope that I’m not the only one who’s finding it difficult to follow how schools will be affected by Sir Robert Salisbury’s the review of common funding for schools. On Thursday the Irish News reported: The Irish News this week revealed that 60 of the north’s 68 grammar schools would receive extra cash under the plan – some almost £100,000 a year. I’d thought that funding reallocations were being strongly favoured for schools with high numbers of pupils on …

Soapbox: A conflict of interest in CCEA’s dual role in education?

Soapbox on October 31, 2013, 12:08 pm

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By Niall Boyd and Chris Colvin Intentionally or by accident of history, England’s secondary-level education examination system operates as a quasi-market. Ofqual, the government’s regulator, sets down a national curriculum. A host of competing examination boards then set tests that examine this curriculum in subtly different ways. While universities do not tend to differentiate between school-leavers with different boards’ examinations behind them, some boards are nevertheless perceived by teachers to be easier for certain subjects than others, or at least more appropriate for the type of student they teach. Schools choose …

So where did this Free School Dinners controversy blow up from?

Mick Fealty on September 23, 2013, 1:06 pm

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Before we leave the subject of free school meals to its fate, it’s worth highlighting the fact the Minister of Education, Sinn Fein’s John O’Dowd, made a useful contribution to the discussion on this site at the end of last week (though his remarks seemed to go over the heads of some of our commenters). A key reason for the rise in those entitled is down to the extension in the eligibility criteria implemented by my predecessor, Caitríona Ruane. In …

Stormont’s odd debate on free school dinners. “Whatever you do, don’t mention child poverty.”

Mick Fealty on September 17, 2013, 5:01 pm

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I cannot think of another polity in which a discussion on the increase in the uptake of free school meals could almost entirely avoid any direct reference to the possible corresponding increase in child poverty. I say possible, because in yesterday’s private member’s debate on free school meals was based on barely any data concerning the drivers behind the increase beyond a ministerial o extend free meals to independent sector (affecting about 700 pupils) The debate was scheduled to start at …