Madam, – Perhaps Edward Walsh and Kevin O’Brien, who were so critical of Irish teachers (Education Today, October 20th), can explain why the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report ranks the quality of primary education in Ireland at ninth in the world, compared to 28th for the UK. In maths and science, teaching in Ireland is ranked 24th in the world, compared to 52nd for the UK.
They might also admit that, considering Irish education expenditure is only ranked 35th in the world, Irish teachers are highly productive and effective with less than adequate resources.
Given these facts, most readers will be puzzled why anyone in their right mind would seek to introduce anything like the UK’s teacher contract and salary system to Ireland? I’ve heard of the race to the bottom but is this really the one the Government wants to win?
Thankfully teachers in Ireland concentrate on quality teaching and learning, while Mr O’Brien and his colleagues in the UK spend a great deal of time indeed in illusory administrative bureaucracy in the name of accountability. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I read with interest the response of John White and Gemma Tuffy of the ASTI to Kevin O’Brien and Dr Edward Walsh, who they characterised as “attacking teachers” with their criticisms of the present arrangements governing the teaching profession in Ireland.
I was especially astonished by the use of statistics from the OECD by Mr White and Ms Tuffy to support their contention that Irish teachers outperform their counterparts in the UK across a whole range of subjects. It is, of course, thanks to the OECD that we know that one in five Irish people are “functionally illiterate” upon leaving a school system that your correspondents from the ASTI praise so highly.
No doubt that particular statistic from the much-cited OECD didn’t suit the purpose of the ASTI, and so was conveniently discarded.
However, it is not so easy to discard that fifth of the population whose lives have been permanently handicapped by the failure of many teachers to do the most basic thing we ask of them: teaching children to read and write. – Yours, etc,