Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education

The School Completion Programme is a scheme to prevent children from leaving school early. Up until recently, it was preventative in nature, but since Tusla have taken over it, you've guessed it, it's a mess. I have renamed it the Form Completion Programme.  I also answer the question of which teacher influenced my life the most, a question I really don't like. I wonder if she'll be listening! Thi...

This is one of the shorter episodes of If I were the Minister for Education so I also take time to review the INTO Congress in 2019.  News: 0:40  Minor Works Grant: 12:26 Congress 2019 Review: 22:57 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonmlewis.substack.com/subscribe

I’m not sure when school uniforms became a thing in Irish primary schools but they’re certainly a thing now. There are very few schools (outside the Educate Together and CoI system) that don’t do uniforms but are they fit for purpose anymore? Parents tend to argue that they reduce bullying or they make everyone equal but both of these arguments don’t stand up to scrutiny. To me uniforms create mor...

Hangovers are never a positive experience and some are harder to shake than others, especially when it comes to education. We have so many bad (pedagogically speaking) ideas that seem to persist in the system. The crowning glory, of course, is the Leaving Cert, which is a terrible way to judge someone’s educational attainment, yet it persists and, worse, it is staunchly defended as being “fair” an...

Choice. This is the word most used to combat my argument that we should scrap the patronage model. When it comes to education, it seems that almost everyone thinks they should have a choice of the flavour of school their child should go to. I honestly can’t understand why this would be. I don’t get to choose which fire service comes to put out the fire in my house according to my beliefs. I don’t...

The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) is probably one of the most paradoxical. It is completely undervalued and under-resourced by the Department of Education but it provides one of the most important services for schools lucky enough to be able to get a hold of them. The interesting thing is that NEPS, if it was better resourced, could effectively take over a number of agencies th...

When one looks at the number of agencies involved in education, one has to ask why there are so many and what do they actually do. The NCSE is the National Council for Special Education. Back when they started in 2003, there was very little work done in the area of special needs in education. It had a range of functions which were very necessary, and over the years, it was able to establish lots o...

Let’s call a spade a spade. As much as Gaelscoileanna don’t encourage it, they have become an unofficial “private school” for Middle Ireland. Everybody knows it but saying it out loud attracts vitriol like no other. So, I’m saying it. I can only go on my own experiences but if you go to almost any area where there is a Gaelscoil built next to a non-Gaelscoil, it won’t be too long before you’ll see...

We’re well used to cuts in primary school. Over the last decade or so, funding to primary schools has been chopped at every angle, sometimes very obviously and sometimes in a kind of invisible way. The Minor Works Grant is paid to schools for minor repair work that needs to be done. This has been the case for a long time. However, the Minor Works Grant is now issued to include the purchase and mai...

Joe McHugh used to be famous for being the Minister for the Gaeltacht despite not speaking Irish. He then became famous for re-learning the Irish language to fluency. Now he just can’t stop talking Irish, so it’s no surprise that the latest Action Plan for Education has an Irish name, Cumasú, which sounds a lot more interesting than its English translation. Thankfully, McHugh has kept his big prom...

In some ways, everyone probably already knows that secondary schools are funded better than primary schools. However, to what extent is this true? In this episode, I explore the different areas where primary schools are left behind and I argue that in most cases there is no good reason. Before that, we look at any relevant news that hit the newspapers this week including: why we aren't teaching Ir...

For our first episode I thought we'd start with a light, unemotive topic! In 2019, 97.5% of Irish primary schools have a religious patron body, with all but 3 of these schools under a Christian patronage. However, with Ireland already a diverse country, with 20% not falling under the Christian umbrella, and many people turning away from traditional Christian values, how is this still happening, an...