I take your point and agree that some public schools are good whilst others are aweful...but the point I am making is that you can still go to a school.
The public system is not fully open to all. You can't choose which school you send your children to if you decide to go via the public system. You can only choose a school if you are within its catchment area. And if that school has poor facilities or poor teachers or other issues beyond your control, well hard luck because you don't have a choice to go to the nice well-run school in the next parish/village.
How sure are you? Have you got any figures or examples to back it up?
The article below states that almost 70% of VHI patients are treated in private hospitals. Are you trying to claim that the HSE and Health system would "improve quickly" if all those people started turning up at their A&E?
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Chris, (as always) I think this is a superb idea that should be explored.I think Sweden, yes that "socialist" heaven, introduced an extremely successful scheme of school vouchers. The very basic functioning is that every child receives a voucher annually. This voucher can then be used to go to a publicly run school or a private school. Teachers can become entrepreneurs by buying or renting adequate class room space and then advertising as a new school. These private schools can then be chosen by people of any background, as at present schools cannot accept the vouchers and charge more, but you can make a profit.
The result so far has been that the number of publicly run schools has gone down and the choice available to parents has drastically improved. There are now private schools that teach mainly in foreign languages or that focus more science, or art, or anything that may be in demand. This also weeds out the worst run schools and introduces competition into a state monopoly.
I have talked to several teachers I know, especially those that are not on permanent contracts, about what they would think of the idea of setting up their own school if they could attract the same pupils as a state run school with the same per child funding. So far not one of them thought it wasn't a good idea.
I think it is absolutely unfair and scandalous to force people to pay tax to fund a public school even if you opt to not send your child to a public school, thereby reducing the running cost to the public system. Why should someone fund 20% of government budget spending for something they do not use?
When I say improve quickly what I mean is that internally, the HSE would be under fierce pressure from local councillors etc to get thir shop in order.
The HSE is already riddled with local politics. That, in large measure, is why it has been a massive failure. There is no basis to suggest that that local councillors are sufficiently competent to monitor healthcare outcomes on any rational basis.
I take that point too. I suppose the point I am making is that if more of the "great and the good" had to go through the public system then it IMO would start to improve fairly quickly. We saw what happened when the pensioners went on strike...now imagine if all pensioners had to go via the public system and lost their cherished VHI. There would be uproar and change.
There is already widespread uproar, across all strands of society, about the poor standards of our hospitals. There has been damn all change.
Forcing everyone to use the public system will increase the uproar but it will also increase the death toll.
The public system is not fully open to all. You can't choose which school you send your children to if you decide to go via the public system. You can only choose a school if you are within its catchment area. And if that school has poor facilities or poor teachers or other issues beyond your control, well hard luck because you don't have a choice to go to the nice well-run school in the next parish/village.
I read Against the Tide years back. I certainly remember the whole Mother and Child Scheme situation, but if I recall correctly, this was really an attack by the Catholic Church on the whole community, not targeted at the Protestant community. Are you referring to something else?Well maybe you should educate yourself accordingly, if you are proposing policy changes that will impact very badly on Irish Protestant culture.
a few suggestions:
John Charles McQuaid - Ruler of Catholic Ireland by John Cooney
The Fethard-on-Sea Boycott by Tim Fanning
Against the Tide by Noel Browne
If you want to model ourselves on the best education system in Europe, go to Finland. Very, very few private schools, just well trained and well paid fully unionised teachers who are given the freedom to do what they are good at - educate.Chris, (as always) I think this is a superb idea that should be explored.
We couldn't afford Finlands education system. When we have Irish companies like Nokia, Kone, Stora Enso (biggest paper manufacturer in the world, they also have the third biggest paper manufacturer in the world) and Aker Finnyards (cruise ship builder) etc as well as massive mineral and forestry reserves then we can talk about copying their spending habits.If you want to model ourselves on the best education system in Europe, go to Finland. Very, very few private schools, just well trained and well paid teachers who are given the freedom to do what they are good at - educate.
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Not true. Schools may prioritise those in their own cachement area, but they would only turn somebody away if they were already full.
But whether they are full or not, they are not obliged to take any one student (outside catchment), in the same way that a private school is not obliged to take someone.
If you want to model ourselves on the best education system in Europe, go to Finland. Very, very few private schools, just well trained and well paid fully unionised teachers who are given the freedom to do what they are good at - educate.
Good education article here, from the Times last week:
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On Finland:
"For example, Finland, ranked as having the best school system in Europe, does not rely on passing a national Leaving Certificate equivalent. Instead, the assessment of student attainment is primarily dependent on the professional judgment of the teachers who themselves are carefully selected, nurtured, monitored, assessed and trained to perform their work."
How do they rate the schools today?How would parents be able to rate schools?
I read Against the Tide years back. I certainly remember the whole Mother and Child Scheme situation, but if I recall correctly, this was really an attack by the Catholic Church on the whole community, not targeted at the Protestant community. Are you referring to something else?
How do they rate the schools today?
The public system is not fully open to all. You can't choose which school you send your children to if you decide to go via the public system. You can only choose a school if you are within its catchment area. And if that school has poor facilities or poor teachers or other issues beyond your control, well hard luck because you don't have a choice to go to the nice well-run school in the next parish/village.
Not true. Schools may prioritise those in their own cachement area, but they would only turn somebody away if they were already full.
Any 'good' public school will be full long before they get to the 'all other children' category. There are already good public schools in Dublin where parents queue (sometimes for days!) to get their child in if they are from outside the catchment area.There is a fairly fixed procedure around refusals to take a child. They can only refuse a child if the child doesn't fit with their enrollment policy. Any enrollment policy that I've seen finishes with 'all other children' as the last on the priority list. So they cannot refuse a child, solely because they live outside the area.