It might be helpful Purple if we had a clear understanding and clear definition of what you believe is a "World class education system". What does that even mean?
That’s the question I am asking.
Other posters have brought up Finland and their ranking relative to ours. I have to rely on the experts who compile these lists and work on the assumption that they are based on data rather than an arbitrary opinion. I have been told many times, often by teachers, that we have a world class education system. As a developed country with a reasonably homogeneous population and a single spoken language I don’t see why being ranked 15th for maths and science is something to shout about. I don’t think not having a single University in the top 200 in the world makes us world class.
My only experience is in engineering trades where we are very far behind the UK and the mainland in how we train apprentices and in engineering where Irish mechanical engineers would rank, in my experience, as “kind of okay” but nothing special.
You clearly believe that teachers are capable of delivering this. Educate the AAM readership. I'm excited to know what I could be doing to achieve this.
Why are you asking me? You are the teacher. Do you believe that we have a world class education system? If not, as someone with experience in the area, what would you do to improve things? Or is it okay to just being okay?
So what do you believe is wrong? What are we not doing right? Why do you believe we are not in the top 5 in The world. What do you think we as a country should be doing to achieve this?
It’s not me who doesn’t believe we are in the top 5.
It’s the OECD. Do you think they are wrong?
We have very high levels of inter-generational literacy problems with [broken link removed]. Those are the outcomes from our education system. I think we can do better. My feeling is that it’s not down to the quality of the teachers as most I encounter seem to be good at their job. I am surprised and disappointed that teachers can’t come up with any suggestions to improve things and seem to be happy with our educational outcomes and, more particularly, our educational structures. The only issue they seem to really be interested in, or at least the one that always takes precedent, is how much they get paid.
Disappointed that my honours Higher Diploma in Education is "Laughable". I was really proud of it especially since I achieved it at a time when Honours meant the top 5% and not almost everybody in the class achieving an honours accolade. But hey, I'm over it now.
I never said it was laughable. I think it’s something to be proud of. I don’t necessarily think it makes someone a better teacher though. The older I get the less link I see between the educational level of people and their skills and competence. I suppose I’m an advocate of lifelong learning.
Anyhow, looking forward to your inspired thinking on your understanding of a world class education system.
Sorry to disappoint. I was looking for suggestions from others, particularly those in the education sector, as to whether they think we can and should do better. Particularly in the context of the structure of our education system but it seems I’m not allowed to ask those questions and any questioning of our “world class” education system and those who work within it will be met with petty sarcasm.
I speak as someone who, in the early 1980’s went through primary school with undiagnosed dyslexia and dyspraxia and went to school every day full of fear, who was thrown to the ground and kicked repeatedly in the kidneys by my teacher so forcefully I urinated blood afterwards, who was so frightened of my teacher that I wet myself when I was 9 years old. That man ended up as a school principle. I can say without equivocation that despite the near death of a child, the deaths of close family members and a marriage break up nothing I have experienced since then was as bad as the two years in primary school when he was my teacher.
He was one of the “dedicated and professional” teachers. He was protected by his union and his fellow teachers. Until you and your fellow teachers actively move to remove people like him from your “profession” he is and will remain the bar at which you set your standards.
I see my two sons going through the education system now. Both have high IQ’s but some learning difficulties. Things seem to be much better now but they are still far from perfect. There is a defensive group think from teachers which brooks no criticism, a myopic view bourn of people who have spend their entire lives in schools as either pupils of teachers and have a siege mentality. In that you do yourselves and those in your care a disservice.
Doctors don't have 4 months off a year...
They earn vastly more than teachers and, as a group, deliver worse outcomes than their counterparts in education. 70% of GP’s are women and yet the majority of GP hours are worked by male GP’s. That tells us that they are so over paid that they can work a short week and still earn a very good living. Consultants spent 14 years blocking very necessary reforms to their contracts despite the impact it had in patient care. I wouldn’t hold up doctors or indeed nurses as paragons of selfless virtue.
Why is it unacceptable to question the efficiency, the value for money that we get from out state employees? This seems to be particularly the case with so called front line staff. This is a republic; we are all meant to be equal with no group seen as inherently more virtuous than another. We used to view priests that way. Have we learned nothing? Doctors and teachers and lawyers and other “professionals” are no more or less virtuous than plumbers or farmers or truck drivers or bin men/women.
