What's the talk of education?

Quinn’s budget dilemma

There are interesting times ahead in Education. Quinn and the mandarins want to get rid of supervision and substitution (SS), which costs about €200 million annually. And two things arise.

The first is that the only money left available for SS has been left allocated by the previous government until December 31st, 2011. That means no money from 2012 onwards has been allocated. The teachers are watching Quinn and they know what he’s going to do . . . stop the payment altogether. He will blackmail the teachers with an extra rise in the pupil-teacher ratio or SS. Will the unions see this as contradicting the terms of the CPA? If they do, there may be strikes – which would be a dreadful embarassment for the Labour Party, barely a year in government. The second is that, this year, the SS fee will be paid in one full lump sum to teachers . . . to recoup more of it back in tax. – RobertW, politics.ie

How about the Government decides not to give €3.5 billion to the unsecured bondholders in Anglo Irish over the next nine months! That way they wouldn’t have to implement any cuts in the upcoming budget and could also avoid paying out another €200 million a year in interest on this money. – makingwaves, politics.ie

Such a decision would mean that the bondholders would take their business to another country. That would decrease investment in Irish banks, thus making the economic situation even worse. Unpleasant as it is, that’s how capitalism works. Would you prefer to have a Soviet-style government? – davidcameron, politics.ie

Response to the TUI’s assertion that Junior Cert reform plans would do more damage than good

Some people are just allergic to change . . . I don’t see any helpful alternatives put forward by the teachers! Just moaning – eimsley, thejournal.ie

Doing more than 8 subjects is counter-productive and you can relieve exam stress with two words: continuous assessment. Our education system is stuck in the dark ages. – Stephen G, thejournal.ie

I think reducing the amount of subjects is ridiculous. Children will end up knowing a lot about a select few subjects and nothing about anything else.

For example: surprisingly enough, I regularly use things I learned in Junior Cert science. We need education, not training! – Sean Claffey, thejournal.ie

It should be five subjects max, do they think people work three or more different types of jobs at once? I wasted half my school life struggling with subjects I had no aptitude for – Waffler, thejournal.ie

Unrealistic to assume 12-15 year olds are going to be able to make a choice of what career they are going to spend their lives in and be tied to only a few subjects as a result . . . What happens if they change their minds at 17 or 18? What do they do then, go back and redo their Junior Cert? It’s not training, it’s education as someone posted earlier –John, thejournal.ie

Using iPads in schools

Introduction of iPads (or netbooks) to classroom is massive change. Media cannot be cheerleaders. Must question. – irish_eagle, Twitter

How do schools distribute apps to ipads? – sally07, Twitter