merrion street

Thank you for your invitation to join you today and make my first address as Minister for Education and Skills at an Annual Conference of NAPD.

When I was assigned the Education brief I came to it from a position of advantage because as opposition spokesperson I got to know the general landscape and the key part played by the various partners in the education system.

So today I want to begin by putting on record my appreciation of the significant contribution made by NAPD since its foundation.

First and foremost I want to acknowledge the service NAPD provides throughout the year to individual principals and deputy principals across the country by supporting them in various ways in carrying out their invaluable work in our schools.

This annual conference provides an opportunity for networking and exploring issues of concern to you. It is also an important reflective space where you can engage with the current and emerging issues in second level education.

You have also created an important reflective space not just for your own members but also for others within the education sector and those with an interest in education.

I refer, of course, to your annual symposium where you provide an opportunity for a collaborative questioning and examination of important aspects of our education system.

Indeed the theme for this conference is itself challenging by linking the values that we may espouse to any vision we hold for the future direction of Irish education.

The purpose of any vision is to help chart future direction. Almost by definition it involves some change from the status quo. To deliver on a vision therefore requires leadership in encouraging and supporting people through a change process.

I want to talk to you about the journey we will collectively have to take if we are to bring about change in one particular aspect of our education system – namely what will happen in our Junior Cycle classrooms in the years ahead.  It is a journey in which you can play a key leadership role.

Before doing so I want to briefly talk to you about the leadership the Government will have to exercise in the upcoming budget in order to mend our country’s finances and regain our economic sovereignty.

My speech today therefore will not be wide ranging and will focus on just those two specific areas of the public finances and curricular reform.

The Public Finances, Budget 2012 and beyond

You will be well aware that I have spoken at the annual conferences of the management bodies and unions about our loss of economic sovereignty. I have been anxious to impress upon each new audience the significance of our relationship with the Troika and the challenging and difficult road that lies ahead.

I continue to do so because I am concerned that there is a view that education can be spared while the Government reduces overall public expenditure in the next and subsequent budgets.

The reality is that the Republic of Ireland lost its economic sovereignty when the Fianna Fail/Green government signed up to the IMF/EU/ECB programme.

We no longer control our own finances. We are in an economic recovery programme to achieve a 3% GDP budget deficit by 2015. We are still spending much more than we are raising by way of taxes. The international money markets are effectively closed to Ireland. At present, the only money that we can borrow to fund our current and capital programmes comes from the European Central Bank.

I have repeatedly made the point that the priority task for this Government is to regain our economic sovereignty.

However it is by meeting the financial targets set by the EU/IMF that we can convince financial markets to lend to us again and thereby restore our sovereignty. Taking the necessary decisions to meet those targets is therefore a vital and fundamental step towards winning back full control over our own affairs.

There are some encouraging indications that internationally our efforts at fiscal adjustment are being recognised.

Irish bond yields have fallen from their previous heights in recent months to a more sustainable level.

Last month the influential Financial Times had a positive editorial. It acknowledged that by honouring our commitments to the EU and IMF to cut our budget deficit we are regaining the confidence of global investors.

More recently Jean Claude Trichet said that Ireland has been doing a “very good job” and that its credibility is visibly improving month after month.

Such positive sentiment is indeed welcome but it must not lull us into any sense of complacency. Rather it must strengthen our resolve to press on and continue to make the necessary budgetary decisions. There is more heavy lifting to be done.

Today I want to set out plainly and simply what I expect to be the general position about funding for education and training. 

 I am conscious of calls from within the education sector and elsewhere for education to be spared further cuts. Such calls fail to appreciate the scale of the challenge before us. Social Protection, Health and Education are the largest areas of expenditure and the scale of reductions we must achieve are such that cuts in those areas are unavoidable.

We have a specific further challenge in relation to the education budget because rising demographics place an added pressure.

Put simply that means I will have less money in my budget in the coming years but at the same time I will have to provide for increased numbers in our schools and colleges.  

In my submission under the Comprehensive Expenditure Review initiated by my colleague Brendan Howlin, I have put forward a range of measures, each one of which involves a difficult decision.

In deference to the decision making process at Government in relation to the Expenditure review and the budget process generally I cannot at this point share any detail with you.

However I do want to level with you about the broad thrust of what is involved. No area of education spending has been spared from scrutiny in the Review.

While protecting frontline services is a key consideration the reality is that the bulk of the education budget goes on funding for those who work in our classrooms and lecture theatres.

Cutting the resources available whether to schools and colleges, or to third level and student support, or the funding for further education and training, school transport or across the various schemes and programmes operated by my Department is not a space any of us want to be in. 

I subscribe as much as any of you do to the ideal of increasing our investment in education. Having to make cuts to education expenditure is anathema to my personal philosophy as much as it is to yours.

I know however that the day when an Irish Government can again make decisions to improve education funding can come about only if we take the difficult and painful decisions needed over the next few years.

I fully appreciate that this is a painful message for you as you try to deliver for your students and as you strive to do your best by them.

I am particularly conscious of how the moratorium on new appointments has impacted on each of you in a very direct way through the loss of middle management posts that could support you in your important role in schools. 

However I am asking you and others tasked with delivery to press on to do the level best you can with the resources that will be made available. 

While we work through the difficult fiscal situation we must not lose sight of other changes that we need to make and that cannot wait for better times.  We cannot put the education system into a bunker and wait until the economic storm blows over.  Curricular reform is one area where we need to focus on what we can do in pursuit of better outcomes. 

Systemic reform takes time to work its way through the system and we need to plan for it now.

Let me take a moment to step back and question what it is we as a society want for our children as learners and as citizens.

I think that we can agree that learning is a process of growth which should encourage students’ natural instincts of engagement and exploration and equip them to adapt to the needs of a changing world.

We need to ask ourselves how well the present system is providing those learning opportunities and serving the needs of our students. I believe that, despite the excellent work done by principals and teachers, the answer is ‘could do better’.

This was shown in the ESRI longitudinal study of 900 students which highlighted concerns about students being overstressed, taking 10 to 15 subjects in the Junior Cert. The same report also revealed worrying evidence of significant numbers of students becoming ‘disengaged’ in second year.

We got further evidence of that disengagement when the PISA results were published last year. They were a ‘wake-up’ call to Irish education. They showed that many students are not developing the skills they need to learn, to live and to work.

Change is needed if our society is to meet the challenges which lie ahead, and if we are to trade up the value chain which is essential for future competitiveness and social cohesion.

We need a greater focus on literacy and numeracy, maths, technology, and science. We need an increased capacity for creativity and innovation. We need to devote greater attention to addressing curriculum overload and rote learning. We need to develop more active learning approaches.

We have begun this process. The Literacy and Numeracy policy I launched in July is already under way and changes are happening now. I am confident that the reforms being implemented there will bring about some of the desired change. But we need to go further.

I have just received the NCCA proposals for curriculum reform at Junior Cycle. They were drawn up after detailed discussions with the partners through the NCCA structures.  They set out a pathway for reform to try to achieve the changes we know are needed.

There is no need to remind you that Junior Certificate is not a terminal examination. However, it needs to become more flexible and to reclaim its own identity as a critical stage in the learning process for adolescents.

The NCCA proposals represent a radical departure in the way we teach, the way students learn and the way in which they are assessed. I welcome the emphasis on the dialogue between student and teacher in the learning process. I welcome the focus on assessment that is more holistic, more designed to capture the students’ individual strengths and to allow those strengths to be built upon. I welcome the focus on active learning and embedding of key skills which will equip our students to cope with a rapidly changing environment. I welcome also the focus on school-led change, a new departure for our system which has traditionally ‘delivered’ change to schools.

The demand for change was admirably summed up by your national director Clive Byrne in the current issue of the NAPD executive newsletter. He wrote that the NCCA proposals provide a valuable opportunity for significant change in our system to harness the talents and creativity not only of our students but also of our teachers.

And those students themselves clearly want change. This was shown in the consultation process organised by the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, the NCCA and the Dáil na nÓg Council. The comment of one Junior Cycle exam student was telling – it read ‘You can’t put 3 years’ work into a few hours.’

The NCCA proposes that students enrolling in first year in 2014 will be the first to engage with the new framework for junior cycle.

The Junior Certificate qualification will be awarded on the basis of a maximum of eight subjects, although, of course, students can engage more widely than that with other subjects during their three year junior cycle programme.

I believe firmly that unless the examination changes, nothing else will. That is why I am determined that assessment reform must be an integral part of that process, if we are to make real change in teaching and learning and in the student experience.  Ì fully intend that the changes will be introduced on a phased basis, with full professional development for teachers. The NCCA envisages rollout commencing for the student cohort enrolling in first year in 2014 and being examined in 2017.

I will formally respond to the NCCA proposals when I address its next Council meeting on November the third.  But my Department, the State Examinations Commission and the NCCA are already involved with the partners on how best the revised Framework can be put in place.

We must make progress as quickly as we can, at a pace which the system can cope with, and with the necessary investment in planning and resources, and professional development.

However, I am aware that many of you have also highlighted concerns about introducing a limit on subjects too early before other elements of the new Framework are in place. I have listened to those concerns. As the caption on the cover of your executive’s newsletter said “Tá sé ag éisteacht”.  I therefore welcome this opportunity to address those concerns.

Let me preface my response by stating that the limit was proposed for good reasons.  It will deal with the problem of curriculum overload and will make time and space for embedding of key skills and active learning. It will also allow more time for literacy and numeracy which are the two most important key skills. My officials are currently finalising a circular on literacy and numeracy which will issue shortly.

As already stated, the maximum of eight subject areas in the exam will be a requirement as part of the rollout of junior cert reform, for those enrolling in 2014.

But there is nothing to stop any school moving to reduce the number of subjects for exam purposes in the run-up to the reformed Junior Cycle. Statistics show that some schools already have such an arrangement in place. The figures from the State Examinations Commission show that about 2,000 students take eight subjects in the Junior Cert exam annually and a further 3,500 take seven or fewer. 

At the other end of the scale, 2,000 students take 12 subjects or more and 21,000 take 11 subjects which, I believe, is far too many for most students.

If schools wish to begin the process of reducing the number of exam subjects over the next two years then I would encourage them to do so.  This can be done in conjunction with the literacy and numeracy strategy and will also assist schools in planning for the changes that are coming anyway in 2014.

I stress, however, that there is no obligation on them to limit the number of exam subjects for new entrants next year or the year after.

I trust this clarification will remove any unnecessary anxieties and allow schools to prepare for the changes in a planned fashion.

On the wider issue of assessment in general which Patricia raised in her speech, I want to make clear that the Literacy and Numeracy policy seeks to encourage the use of a balanced blend of assessment for learning and assessment of learning. We know that the use of assessment is one of the weakest areas of practice in Irish schools and the actions concerning assessment in the Strategy are designed to address this issue. Standardised tests have a part to play – with a broad range of other assessment approaches – in helping schools to monitor and improve the learning of students. As I said at the launch of the Strategy, I am not interested in testing for the sake of uninformative and misleading league tables. But neither am I satisfied with the current situation, where parents and the educational system are largely uninformed about children’s progress.

I believe that the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy sets out sensible and responsible arrangements that will provide Ireland with a balanced and sound arrangement for the assessment of students’ progress in literacy and numeracy, while at the same time, ensuring a rounded education for students.

We live in the most challenging of times, but we are meeting those challenges head on.  The Government will do so in taking the tough but necessary decisions.

We also face enormous challenges in bringing about the sort of change that we need in our educational system, be it in literacy and numeracy or in the reform of curriculum and assessment. I will not be able to make these changes alone. I will need the help of leaders in the system like yourselves, and all the other stakeholders.

I thank you again for the invitation to address your conference. And I thank you in particular for the fine job that you do in schools every day.

I wish you well with the rest of your conference.

 ENDS