Teachers, You will be told that your holidays are too long; teach anyway. You will be told that you must raise standards even though you always aim to get the best out of your kids; teach anyway. You will not be given tax-breaks, bonuses, expensed-cars or luxury Christmas gifts; teach […]
Yearly Archives: 2016
2 So I was reading this Irish Times the other day when I came across this nugget from Carl O’Brien which helps illustrate my argument below. Carl writes, “The proposal states that students could undertake an assessment task – worth 10 per cent of marks – over the coming months in […]
The ASTI Need To Get This One Thing Right For ...
1 Negotiations In any dispute between two or more parties, where they decide to engage in negotiations, there is always a portion of blame on both sides. If one side was blameless, if they had ‘clean hands’, there would be a court case, not negotiations. So in negotiations, both sides have […]
If You Take Off Your Earphones, You’ll Hear The DES ...
1 Brian Mooney was on Today with Sean O'Rourke on RTE Radio.I don't know Brian. I've never met him. I have read his column in the Irish Times in the past and on a rare occasion I might disagree with some of his advice, although I can't recall a specific time. Brian also […]
What Brian Did.
30 Let me start off by ‘making myself popular’ as my wife would say! I like Richard Bruton. I know I shouldn’t. I’m not a natural Fine Gael supporter eventhough I voted for Francis Fitzgerald in the last election. But I do like Richard. I think he is a consumate professional […]
The Minister for Education Can’t Figure Out This Sum – ...
39 I've never been one to go with the flow, to accept that just because 'everyone else' is doing something, I should also do the same. If you are part of the crowd, you might think me contrary or difficult. Of course, if you are more independent-minded, you might just think […]
You Won’t Believe What the Minister for Education Said About ...
Minster for Education Richard Bruton was on RTE’s Morning Ireland programme on Wednesday 26th October and had some interesting perspectives on the teacher strike. Some are his/DES perspective and just that. Not necessarily right, not necessarily wrong. The ASTI also have their perspective. Perspectives are only useful when trying to apportion […]
Minister for Education Says Equality is a Negotiating Point, Not ...
I am a strong believer that it takes a village to rare a child. Teachers are only part of the equation and long before I became a parent myself, I understood clearly the value of parental involvement in the education of a child. Indeed, far too many parents ignore this […]
Unequal Pay Is Wrong And The National Parents Council Should ...
So I promised a solution. And then it hit me that I promised a solution! The fact is, from where we are, I cannot see a meaningful solution. Tomorrow, there will be some sort of talks, and both sides may come out and give wildly different accounts of what was […]
The Good Wednesday Agreement?
Ah, no you may say. Surely there is no connection between these three thingymabobs. Two certainly, but not three. But as this is Maths/Numeracy Week, here goes. The fundamental problem with the Celtic Tiger was NOT the Social Partnership agreements. These agreements offered the foundation for industrial peace. However, the foundation was […]