And so they’ve done it. A deal has been agreed and we can relax in the knowledge that Stormont will survive at least until the elections in May. Something lost – nothing for victims of violence – and something gained – £500+ million, even though we were repeatedly told by the DUP, as though addressing a hard-of-hearing child: “THERE IS NO MORE MONEY!”
But more on that later today. The news item that caught my attention overnight was that the Education Minister John O’Dowd has decided not to go with the English change in marking of GCSE papers. So while the English move to marks running from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest), we’ll stick with G (lowest) to A* (highest).
I am pleased. For decades we’ve responded in reflex style to everything Britain does educationally (except, of course, abolition of the Eleven Plus, which we’re still trying to break free from in the face of grammar school opposition). They brought in GCSEs, we did the same; they had A Levels, we had A Levels. For once, we’ve decided to think for ourselves regarding an educational issue.
Why was the change from 1-9 made in England? To make it easier for universities, employers, jobs people in every sphere to make decisions they can stand by. “Oh, we took him over her because she had an 8 in English and he had only a 7”. No other reason. The change in England goes the Adrian-Mole’s-private-bits route of education: if you measure something in sufficient detail, it’ll get bigger and better.
Anyone who has even a basic understanding of education knows that fixation on results leads to a warping of teaching and learning, so that the aim ceases to be an understanding of or skills in a subject, but getting high marks in examinations. The 1-9 measuring stick would have refined that further, placed even greater emphasis on the tiniest differences. Fancy distinguishing a 6 answer on Yeats’s ‘Easter 1916’ from a 7?
And to those who cry “But we’ll be out of step with all the English Examination Boards!”, I say, good. The Scottish have been running a radically different examination system – Standards instead of GCSEs, Highers instead of A Levels – for years. So have the south of Ireland. It doesn’t seem to have educationally crippled their young people. It’s about time we began making some educational decisions for ourselves, now that we’re all growed up.
£500+ million, even though we were repeatedly told by the DUP, as though addressing a hard-of-hearing child: “THERE IS NO MORE MONEY!”
Out of decency and accuracy you should have stated that most of this money is going on security issues and in reality very very little on benefits.
The reality is that your party folded completely if they hadn’t flounced out of the previous agreement we would have been so much better of. Still the sheep that support SF will be happy that they support such good negotiators who got a worse deal congratulations!
Neill – try to observe normal civilities, please. You wouldn’t be too impressed if I called you an animal. Re ‘my party’ – I don’t have a party. I am not now nor was I ever a member of a political party. If I approve of most things SF do, that’s another matter. “Out of decency and accuracy” – neill, gimme a break. What has ‘decency’ to do with the issue? Come back down to Mother Earth. As to accuracy – not writing what you wanted me to doesn’t mean what I wrote was inaccurate. I should have thought that obvious. My point was that we were told again and again that there WAS NO MONEY. Now there is £500 million. If it were all spent on dolly mixtures it would still be £500 million. There WAS more money. Simple point.
Neill, less of the bitterness, the Republic are going to France and that’s that. You’ll come to terms with it buddy.
Perhaps there is an undue emphasis on education as a means to make a living instead of an emphasis on how to live. Reports indicate the level and extent of educational underachievement in this part of the world, an issue that should have high priority in the political arena. We live in a multiracial society, something we should nurture and cherish. We have much to learn about cultural diversity. Burning ambition is preferable to burning houses.
Great.story.jude.
You. Betcha.
As A retired teacher, over my career it seemed that the measurement was as much of teachers as of pupils. On the one hand HMI were saying don’t teach to the test but the government wanted to use tests as a measure of teacher performance. What is a poor teacher to do?
Apply a heavy plank to the inspector’s head?
You could have ensured that each and every pupil passed the test by hook or by crook. Unlike my old primary school teacher who reveled in publicly humiliating the pupils who failed.
As someone who works in education – I am sick to death of change! 12 years ago I started teaching and since then the pace and amount of change is unreal! I am glad John O’Dowd has stood firm on this. Surely the grading system has been about a long time now and understood by employers and wider society. Any change, surely brings confusion! I often think these changes, as will be happening in England, are made, so someone can justify their job, not for the betterment of pupils, teachers et al! On the positive side, Stormont made a decision and didn’t hand it to Westminster to decide on …
Good morning Jude, a quick response to your article on our, now, stand alone education system.
In the first instance I, and I suspect you, with thousands of others, including His Grace, Bishop McKeown, to whom I have addressed this issue, which he agreed with, have all benefited enormously from the qualifying, I know mine and other peers could never have afforded to have sent children to the more academic education which later afforded us the opportunity of third level professional education. There is certainly a substantial requirement to reform our second level education system, in the main, placing far grater kudos upon vocational subjects than exists presently, removing the senseless emphasis on ‘ologies’ which provide routes to well qualified care assistants and waiters rather than third level qualified bricklayers, welders, caterers and hairdressers. The above is possible, if we concentrate on providing vocational graduates with a little more academic qualification, as in additional numeracy skills and languages, rather than simply the practical element of their qualification. With such, they could work on a global basis, rather than simply locally.
On the grading element of the decision, in day’s of yore, when you and I were childer, we had the GCE, a genuinely highly regarded qualification, the easier route was the AEB, the English boards route, not as challenging in academic terms as the examining board sat by the majority of six county pupils. The better reception of this, harsher examining board, for Universities meant we were more welcome at these who knew our pupils ability, as students, was going to be better. It was just a simple fact, back then anyway.
On the benefit of the twenty six, as opposed to six county, education, and we know you went to third level in the capital, the benefit, again, of the six county A’ level can be described in one word, retention. For our cousins in the Saor Stat, studying eight or ten subjects at leaving can be compared to O’ levels, too much information, across too many differing subjects, occasioning forgetting of what was learned quite early on. I can remember most detail in my four A’ level subjects, my cousins cannot recall what they were being taught in the eight plus subjects they studied, in short, the six county system is not broke so, don’t fix it!
One oft mentioned system was the ‘craigavon’ model, albeit the same system exists in the St. Catherine’s secondary in Armagh, and is probably better but, this requires large numbers of children studying across a wide range of disciplines, so specialism, in proper academic subjects, is more difficult to achieve.
Certainly we all have ministers stating how great our respective education systems are, perhaps, when McGuinness or O Dowd are considering the impact of their decisions, they might spend some money on an independent analysis of the various education systems between Alba, Britain and throughout Ireland, before they grow up?
Thanks for your thoughts, Mark. I’m afraid I was even pre-GCE. I don’t think I’d fully agree with your vision. I accept that the 11+ opened doors for a lot of people, myself included. Unfortunately, it also nailed shut a few doors for 70% of youngsters. I agree that vocational education should be given proper status, but I’d resist the notion of dividing young people/the population into thinkers and doers. I don’t believe we have X amount of talent in Area A, if you follow me. I don’t think you’re born with certain abilities. Change the educational setting and mindset and you can change just about everything. For example, I was appalling at Maths and Latin. When my children went to school and had homework in these subjects, I helped them. Amazing – I could do them! Had some extra brains been injected into my head? I think not. The circumstances, my own belief in myself, emotions like fear had changed. That’s why I’d resist an ability test at 14 as well as 11. Some people might discover their talent – or have it discovered, developed, created even – at 35. It’s a very complex area, the human brain. For now, let me end with the words of that great educational philosopher, Paul Simon: “When I think back on all the crap I learnt in high school/It’s a wonder I can think at all”
Ta bron orm Jude, I should explain the rational for my thinking on vocational subjects, it goes back to a story I heard while at QUB, many, many years past.
If there were a nuclear war tomorrow and you had a nuclear bunker in your garden which, after your family, you had seven additional spaces therein, whom would you invite to survive MAD?
Obviously you may, post fall out, a doctor would be useful, if you have children a teacher would be too, in light of damage to existing buildings, an engineer, whom would be able to do the necessary work to rebuild something, you would therefore need a spark, brickie, plumber and a mechanic to get you back on the road, if you have sense a cook may need be squeezed in too.
The thing is, these are necessary, money making, occupations, with respect, more useful than journalists, lawyers or, dare I mention them in the same sentence, social workers.
For this reason alone I suggest we kick our education system in it’s backside and place the correct emphasis on these subjects rather than academicising subjects which aren’t that useful.
Well argued, Mark. But we need to look carefully at the ‘useful’ thing. I agree an awful lot of useless hoop-jumping-through characterises our education system. So I’d ditch loads of stuff – much of it mathematical. However, poetry isn’t useful in the usual sense, nor art, nor music – but a world without them would be terrible. I guess it’s looking at what we teach and why we teach it and what it gives most kids. Most of what I was taught was a total waste; some was invaluable.
Sinn Fein have gained nothing from this deal and they well know it. You only had to look at Martin McGuinness’ face to see that.
They have let the British of the hook as regards collusion, and the £500 mil will soon evaporate and Welfare Reform which SF had resolutely set its face against, will after 4 years be fully implemented.
Come 2018 the corporation tax rate will be cut and they will lose anything up to £300 mil from the block grant. However the spooks and the PSNI have done well out of it.
Sinn Fein are now part of the establishment whether they like to hear it or not and it looks as if they did a deal to hold on to their trappings of power rather than any principle.
By the way I am still awaiting their economic plan for a United Ireland.
Jude, I listened to Nolan challenge Conor Murphy on why he hadn’t kept his promise to protect the vulnerable in HIS community. Aside from the issue of what extra money was secured, it was bewildering to listen to a commentator of such gross ignorance. He couldn’t see that anything Sinn Fein did on this issue was for the benefit of the dispossessed and marginalised in both communities. He couldn’t see beyond the orange and green and it was all very sad.
It’s said that the teacher-pupil relationship is one, Esteemed Blogmeister, which is enduring and never alters.
Therefore whether you are writing on the blackboard or the blog, Sir, one’s inner pupil always sits up, shuts up, folds one’s arms and pays attention. Not least when the topic is education.
The bit about the change in the marking scheme (1 – 9) brings to mind another memorable teacher (in secondary school, in this instance) who devised a completely unique marking system.
He was (gasp) a Christian Brother from Mayo, an elderly member of that moribund order which, if one were to go by the mindscrubbed puritans of the Dubland media, were a malign version of the Taliban.
Now, his biretta and his false teeth seemed to have been inherited rather than purchased, so ill-fitting were they. They were constantly being readjusted, one by the hand , the other by the tongue, as they danced a peculiar version of the schoolroom rhumba.
(Note: despite what the classy, cut-glass Sandford Park Old Boy, Conor Cruise O’Brain-Power would have us believe – that b-word was spelled biretta, not beretta).
Nonetheless, the CB’s heart was in the right place. And this was abundantly obvious in his personalized marking system: the bottom line was (yes) 95. So, marks varied between 95 and 100, with differences being noted by decimal points: 95.7, 96.2, 96.8, 97.1, 98.4, 99.5, that sorta of progression.
While no pupil ever fell below 95.5 (!) you still realized when you hadn’t done good, but the thing was, the sting had been extracted.
Mol an oige agus tiocfaidh se / Praise the young in their blazer, pre-razor days and they’ll raise their game.
His passion was the dreaded leprechaun, but such was his aura of diffident bonhomie you felt bad if you didn’t up your game at the lingua franca of Darby O’Gill. He was also a coiner of original epigrams, most of which were thrown away when one wasn’t listening, some of which nevertheless, managed to stick. Such as:
-Always remember, a bhuachailli, if you ever organize an event, never, EVER, allow folk in free, gratis or for nothing. Always charge an admission fee, be it ever so small, even a farthing itself. Otherwise, folk will not fully appreciate the event on offer.
Speaking of leprechaun, not sure about Norneverland, but the bizarre system of teaching the l-language through the medium of (gulp) Greek is still persisted with in the Free Southern Stateen.
This was the Sisyphusian policy devised by the sophisticates of the political class in the Doll’s House on Kildare steet. It involved the rolling up to the top of the educational hill an enormous boulder-shaped swag-bag only to watch it hilariously roll back down to the bottom again.
A Groundhog Day policy devised by Gradgrinds.
One would almost suspect the sophisticates of the Doll’s House on Kildare Street didn’t actually want the policy to succeed. And that they were prepared to spend endless crocks of gold to kill the leprechaun with kindness (alleged). Apart altogether from alienating generations of open-minded Irish children with (ironically) this sealed, fact-lacking cynicism.
To conclude with another idea uttered out loud in a wistful manner by the kindly Christian Brother, even as he took down the list of names of those buachailli who wished to go to the Connemara Gaeltacht that summer: ‘ I wish I could send one of you to Israel to see how they managed to do it’.
Wonder what the Hebrew for ‘will’ is?
It doesn’t matter what system they grade kids at school it’s still a pro British education system producing more obedient subjects for a London regime. I can tell you from the experiences of my kids at their school they are being taught a load of irrelevant rubbish. Added to that they are force fed to attend religious gobblygook classes to also keep them obedient. Btw I can categorically state a lot of teachers are doctoring the results of students results ie they tell the kids the answers and even write the coursework for them. Absolute fraud and it lets everyone down especially the kids in the long run.
P.s there are a lot of new subjects that you simply can’t fail unless you were dead eg drama,l.l.w,media etc. These are there to ensure all kids ‘leave school with at least 5 g.c.s.e’s’. They are a load of crap and designed to bolster league tables.
Now that you have to pay for university tuition you can bet your last pound that this education fraud will continue. It’s a business now.
Agree with some things you say, WT, disagree completely with some others. Being of a negative mind slant, let me tell you what I disagree with: as a former teacher of drama and media, I can tell you that they are anything but crap. Media, for example – ever wondered why, after a revolution, the first place the new regime heads is the radio/TV station? Drama has to do with interacting with others and how you present yourself to the world – both vital in terms of personal fulfilment and contribution to society. Of course both subjects can be taught in such a way they become crap, but that’s not how it has to be. And there are subjects that are truly a waste of time. When did you last use sine or co-sine? The square of the whatsit? I could go on…
Jude, the subjects I have alluded to are definitely known as easy subjects at g.c.s.e level. The pupils are shoe horned into taking them as they normally accrue top marks because there are no real tests for them compared to other subjects.
Teachers are all forced to aim their pupils for subjects that can get them the top mark I.e A or A+. I once had a teacher who proposed that my daughter should elect to sit the single science rather than the double science subject because he didn’t think she would get an A etc. I suggested sure a B or C could be worth aiming for. Alas I neglected to take his advice and she got her B’s. The point I make he wanted her to take the easy option just to make his pupils grades look good. Furthermore in their quest to get A’s etc they will dumb the pupils down to ensure A’s in easy subjects eg drama.
P.s when you see youngsters running around with American accents ,when they’ve never set foot in the place, convinced they are going to be a star thanks to their drama class lessons I truly worry. The penny will drop one day that it’s fantasy land and then we will emotional problems etc to sort out for them. Albeit they would be prime fodder for reality t.v shows etc which would prove how much dumbing down is going on.
I can’t see anything worth note in these proposals that SF can point to as an achievement bar some work on the A5.
Infact, in terms of welfare, we’re worse off as tax credits now will have to be supplemented from the same pot of welfare top ups.
Education. Education. Education. I believe that was the logo of former British PM Tony Blair’s last election campaign. Education is important, there’s no doubt. We’re also told money is important, in fact money is considered overly important by society in general. The vast majority believe it is the key and essential ingredient to happiness in life. But the reality is money doesn’t give you happiness.
When it comes to education I think a lot of what is being taught to kids is, ultimately, useless to them in their lives, no use to them whatsoever. I’m not referring to any particular subject btw. There’s a number of different topics I STRONGLY believe should be taught to kids and which would serve them throughout their entire lives.
One of them is financial planning and money management (And no, that’s not the same as Maths). I believe kids should be taught how to budget, the meaning of Banking terms, how mortgages work, the dangers of debt, how interest works, what bankruptcy means, etc
Another one is Mental Health awareness. Mental Health awareness should definitely be taught in schools, especially here in the North of Ireland. Every society in the World literally has serious mental health problems. Kids should be taught how to tell if they or their friend/family might have a mental health issue, how to go about getting help for any mental health issues and, most importantly, how to PREVENT mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, etc from developing in the first place.
Both of these topics should be taught in schools at least twice a week. What’s more important to kids? knowing the date of when King Henry VIII beheaded his wife or knowing how to look after your mental health and to help others? Considering the issues with mental health here in the North of Ireland, I think mental health should be taught to adults as well.