What’s the talk of education?

WHAT EDUCATION REFORMS/IMPROVEMENTS WOULD YOU RECOMMEND?

I want to see a proper debate about how the Irish language is taught, starting with primary school. Either we equip teachers with a proper standard in the language to start with, and get them to teach it better and more, or we stop the farce that is the current system. Also, I want to see national tests for primary school students at sixth class instated asap and to assess teachers' performances based on that also. Higher standards, basically. cuiseogach, politics.ie

Cut all salaries across the board by 10 per cent. Invest savings in actual education, not salaries. Extend school term by 10 per cent. We're paying for it anyway. Problem solved. drummed, politics.ie

Why does there have to be a race to the bottom on this? Teachers' wages aren't exorbitant. Teachers put up with a lot of stress, and I really think that until one has experienced it they cannot comment on it with true understanding. And why shouldn't teachers be allowed to want a good wage? Its ridiculous to think that the only reason a person should go into teaching should be for the joy of the job. They're not committing themselves to a vocation like a nun or a priest. Teachers are people too. Could we be at least in some way realistic or reasonable? dambarude, boards.ie

The only reforms needed are that useless teachers should be fired, teachers should work a full day like everyone else, teachers should get four weeks holidays like everyone else and strikes should be banned for teachers. Everything else is fine. Oh, I would immediately scrap Irish – its not even worth talking about how useless it is. 100% right, politics.ie

You cannot necessarily base teachers performance on grades alone. I had a fantastic teacher for my Junior Cert Irish, really excellent guy and he managed to somehow get me from failing my pre to getting a C in higher level. On the other hand, I had a fairly awful English teacher and my C in that subject was in spite of her more than anything else. Anyways, my own suggestion . . . I think we should redo the LC points system so that each LC subject has weighted points values depending on the college course you apply to. As it stands someone can get A1 in music and it is worth 100 points, compared to someone who studies maths and gets a B1 (80 points?), and the Music one is considered more valuable for applications for engineering degrees.This only encourages students to game the system and skip important but difficult courses in the name of points that are meaningless after the course offers go out. DanMurphy, politics.ie

With my parental hat on, my biggest gripe is the generic nature of the education system. It would be pretty simple to wrap up the current syllabus into four days and leave one day free for other activities. My kids have about nine hours of non-school-related activities per week, which can be quite tiring for them.

At the same time they have to sit though useless religious education classes, where all they do is drawing, apparently, and even junior refers to it as "childcare". And don't get me started on mid-term breaks: another useless waste of time. Dylan 2010, politics.ie