A national forum on education to examine issues such as the future of the Leaving Cert and the new "grinds culture" is being sought by the group that represents hundreds of school principals.
The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) says an overview of Irish education is timely, given the dramatic change in Irish society since the last such forum over a decade ago.
At the opening session of the NAPD, its president, Michael Parsons, expressed concern about a number of aspects of the Leaving Cert exam. These include:
The fact that two-thirds of students are now taking grinds.
Claims that the exam is being "dumbed down".
The low take-up level of particular subjects.
The level of performance in certain subjects, notably maths and science subjects.
The "injustice" of first-time Leaving Certs competing with repeat students for higher points.
Mr Parsons said there was a need to examine the fundamental question of what is expected from our education system in terms of values, expectations of employers, performance of students and whether the present system allows us to fulfil those expectations.
The NAPD believes the forum should be established within the next six month by the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin. This would it says allow for an "open, healthy debate and reflection" among all interested groups.
Ms Hanafin, who will address the conference this morning, is likely to be cautious about a new forum. Two years ago her predecessor, Noel Dempsey, established a broadly similar initiative.
The Your Education System involved over a dozen public meetings. It was designed as a wide-ranging examination of the education system, but the meetings drew little interest from outside the education system.
The forum - proposed by the NAPD - would be modelled on the successful 1993 National Education Convention which paved the way for the White Paper on Education. Mr Parsons expressed concern about how investment in education was failing to keep pace with economic growth.
"Ireland has in recent years become a very prosperous country and one of the reasons given for this is the level of education and skills of the Irish workforce. The level of investment in percentage terms has not dramatically improved. There is a need to increase in real terms the percentage of the annual budget that we spend on education."
This would, he said, ensure equality of opportunity for students and help prevent a situation where education, like health, becomes a two-tier system.
