Wednesday, Feb 8th 2012
For over two centuries, the patronage of primary education schools in Ireland has been almost exclusively the sole preserve of the Christian churches. While this may have been justified in the past as merely representative of the religious beliefs of the Irish population, this argument no longer holds true. Irish society has undergone momentous changes, [...]
Book Review: Springtime, the New Student Rebellions (Edited by Clare Solomon and Tania Palmieri. Verso, March 2011.)
The autumn and winter of 2010 saw the sudden and dramatic re-emergence of radical student movements, with mass student uprisings taking place across Europe and the United States in opposition to both the austerity measures being levelled against [...]
Ostensibly an official history, John Cunningham’s study of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI), and its relationship with the education system, also touches on four key elements of Irish society over the past 100 years: religion, class, politics and economics. It looks at the changes in Ireland since the foundation of the association [...]
As part of the ongoing relationship with Aontas. It was suggested in mid 2008 that DCTV and the Aontas – Community Education Network would be a good fit to explore a production project. This series, supported by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland sound and vision scheme is the most visible result of that partnership [...]
The first of four community stories which together provide an overview of Community Education in Dublin. Part of DCTV’s Beyond the Classroom project produced in partnership with the Aontas Community Education Network and funded by the BAI.
These four case studies span the last 30 years and provide an insight into what community education is, how [...]
Good lord - is Master Batt O’Keefe in danger of turning into a modern-day Huey Long, a radical redistributionist who wants to confiscate wealth from the rich and give it to everyone else? He seems to have recently discovered the fact that there are lots of millionaires running about the place and he is using that [...]
Just when you despair of sensible commentary in our media, along comes someone like Carl O’Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times. Writing today, he puts the educational challenges facing society into context - and not a very hopeful one considering the level of political debate surrounding the tuition fee controversy. [...]
Fidel Castro once said that in the classless society there would be no need for universities because all society would be a learning experience. I don’t think he was being literal, just posing the possibility of an educationally and democratically enriched society. It certainly makes a sharp contrast with the debate over education [...]
What a dog’s dinner. Education Minister, Batt O’Keefe, flew his ‘bring back tuition fees’ kite. It was immediately shot down by the Greens, the PDs and, even, Minister Hanafin. Then the PDs were shot down by Minister Mary Harney who thinks its a good idea to, at least, debate tuition fees. Is [...]
Retraining is all the political rage. To deal with rising unemployment and slowing job creation, the opposition parties are demanding a programme of retraining - in particular, those being laid off in the construction sector. No one, of course, is opposed to that. It makes sense. Yes, let’s retrain and retrain [...]
