Teaching Entry Requirements
Published Saturday, January 28, 2006 by Kevin Breathnach | E-mail this post
Before I begin, I must apologise for this blog's seeming obsession with the education system.
Thursday's Irish Times reports, firstly, that Mary Hanafin has decided that Honours Irish will remain a requirement for those wishing to enter various primary school teacher training courses. Secondly, she has concluded that these courses should also require a better Maths result than currently required. While she admittedly says an Ordinary level C3 will be acceptable when the change is made, I think she could be missing an important point.
Like points, entry requirements are put in place to ensure that the prospective student will be able to cope with the subject - and standard of the subject - taught in the course. Therefore, if some students cannot work at the level required by the programme, they will inevitably have to drop out. Hanafin believes the level of Maths required needs to be increased, but surely if that were true, then we would see a high drop-out rate due to the poor showing in Maths taught and examined during the 3 or 4 years of training? Something similar applies to Irish - if the students can't keep-up, then they will not become teachers. Surely, therefore, there is no harm in lowering the standard of Irish required, and letting the students attempt to cope with the Irish that is taught in such courses? Of course, there exists a problem that if we do see high drop-out rates, the tax-payers money will have been wasted, but I think that is a side issue concerning the use of that money itself to subsidise the education of others. The bottom line though is that if we did lower or abolish the entry requirements, the risk that our primary schools will be flooded with incompetent and unqualified teachers would be no greater than it currently is.
This isn't just a case of lowering requirements for the sake of it. Only 4,000 males took honours Irish last year; this is not a one-off, it adheres to an on-going trend. This truth, along with some other determinants, have led to a problem - if you care to call it that. Only 18% of primary school teachers are men.
Thursday's Irish Times reports, firstly, that Mary Hanafin has decided that Honours Irish will remain a requirement for those wishing to enter various primary school teacher training courses. Secondly, she has concluded that these courses should also require a better Maths result than currently required. While she admittedly says an Ordinary level C3 will be acceptable when the change is made, I think she could be missing an important point.
Like points, entry requirements are put in place to ensure that the prospective student will be able to cope with the subject - and standard of the subject - taught in the course. Therefore, if some students cannot work at the level required by the programme, they will inevitably have to drop out. Hanafin believes the level of Maths required needs to be increased, but surely if that were true, then we would see a high drop-out rate due to the poor showing in Maths taught and examined during the 3 or 4 years of training? Something similar applies to Irish - if the students can't keep-up, then they will not become teachers. Surely, therefore, there is no harm in lowering the standard of Irish required, and letting the students attempt to cope with the Irish that is taught in such courses? Of course, there exists a problem that if we do see high drop-out rates, the tax-payers money will have been wasted, but I think that is a side issue concerning the use of that money itself to subsidise the education of others. The bottom line though is that if we did lower or abolish the entry requirements, the risk that our primary schools will be flooded with incompetent and unqualified teachers would be no greater than it currently is.
This isn't just a case of lowering requirements for the sake of it. Only 4,000 males took honours Irish last year; this is not a one-off, it adheres to an on-going trend. This truth, along with some other determinants, have led to a problem - if you care to call it that. Only 18% of primary school teachers are men.
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