“Now is not the time for a radical overhaul of the Junior Certificate, teachers said yesterday. They were responding to Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s plans to introduce continuous assessment to the system in what teachers said amounted to ‘sweeping educational reform’ …” (more)
[Fergus Black and Breda Heffernan, Independent, 27 August]
“In the US, we have the phrase ‘waving a flag and kissing a baby’ for somebody who plays to the gallery. And this is exactly what George Monbiot has done in his Guardian rant against academic publishing houses …” (more)
[Steve Fuller, The Sociological Imagination, 30 August]
“… By 2005, the administrator-to-student ratio had dropped to one administrator for every sixty-eight students while the ratio of professional staffers had dropped to one for every twenty-one students.Apparently, as colleges and universities have had more money to spend, they have not chosen to spend it on expanding their instructional resources – that is, on paying faculty …” (more)
[HT: Steve Schwartz]
[Benjamin Ginsberg, Washington Monthly, Sept/Oct issue]
“The number of students accepting a place in college has hit record levels. Three in four of the CAO applicants who received a Round One offer last week are taking it up …” (more)
[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 30 August]
“Sir, – Seán Flynn (Front page, August 26th) draws attention to proposals being prepared for the Minister for Education by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. The focus of the article – the ‘radical overhaul’ of assessment procedures at Junior Cert level and the likely reaction of the ASTI to this – masks some disturbing aspects of these same proposals …” (more)
[Maureen Cooney, Irish Times, 30 August]
“Staff at University College Cork will be test-driving Toyota’s new hybrid electric car this week before it hits production lines next year. Members of staff will have the use of the plug-in hybrid for a four-month trial phase and will report back on its performance …” (more)
[Louise Roseingrave, Irish Times, 30 August]
“College admissions offices all over the country are busy today, as admissions officers reconcile their CAO round one acceptances with the number of places they have on each course …” (more)
[Independent, 30 August]
“Figures released last week on GCSE examination results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland show a continuing decline in the popularity of languages in schools. For the past few years the number of students taking French and German has been in steep decline, and this trend has now also affected Spanish …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 30 August]
“The squeeze for places in college looks set to be extremely tight later this week as the numbers already taking up offers is almost 800 more than a year ago …” (more)
[Niall Murray, Irish Examiner, 30 August]
“School book publishers have snubbed Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, saying they will not make any ‘rash’ decisions on reducing prices. Mr Quinn said he wants to see a reduction in the cover price of the most popular textbooks as part of a range of proposals to bring down costs for parents …” (more)
[Breda Heffernan, Independent, 30 August]
“Students at a Dublin school were issued with iPads instead of books at the start of term today. Parents pay for the tablets over the child’s time at school – €150 each year – and they come with online material for all subjects studied by the first-year students …” (more)
[Niamh Griffin, Irish Times, 29 August]
“Everyone claims to agree that people should be encouraged to understand science and other academic research. Without current knowledge, we cannot make coherent democratic decisions. But the publishers have slapped a padlock and a ‘keep out’ sign on the gates …” (more)
[George Monbiot, Guardian, 29 August]
“… Why do it? At least 50% of people in the room are angry. They are angry at the cliché logos you have at the corner, at the bullet points, and at the enshrined spelling mistakes (aagghh)… Why not just talk to us/them, rather than fire the bullet points (and all the simplistic stuff that goes with them)? …” (more)
[Mary Beard, A Don's Life, 29 August]
“So here I am again, surrounded by notes and papers and books littered with colorful sticky tabs. I have more than enough material and yet I find myself making a list of other things I should look up …” (more)
[Juliana Adelman, Pue's Occurrences, 29 August]
Shamrock Rovers 2 UCD 2 Four days after their heroics in Belgrade, Shamrock Rovers appeared to lose a little focus at home to UCD in the FAI Cup and conceded two second half goals as the Students deservedly snaffled a replay at Tallaght Stadium …” (more)
[Irish Times, 29 August]
“Only four objections have been lodged to the €2 billion redevelopment of Grangegorman as a new site for the Dublin Institute of Technology campus. The Grangegorman Development Agency (GDA)was informed of the objections by An Bord Pleanála (ABP) last Friday, and will have one month to submit observations on them …” (more)
[Nicola Cooke, Sunday Business Post, 28 August]
“Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has called on publishers to slash the price of school books. Mr Quinn said the cover price of the most popular textbooks – for English, Irish, mathematics and other popular subjects – needed to be reduced …” (more)
[Independent, 29 August]
“An additional 2,000 university places could be made available in Northern Ireland – but only if the Executive agrees to fund the recurring shortfall in the Department of Employment and Learning’s (DEL) budget …” (more)
[Belfast Telegraph, 29 August]
“Vacancies in the IT sector have jumped 45% in the last year, while average salaries have risen 7% to €51,500. This is in contrast to salaries across Ireland falling by 1.3% on average in the first quarter of 2011 …” (more)
[Niamh Hennessy, Irish Examiner, 29 August]
“Delivering courses in cyberclassrooms has gained broad acceptance among top college leaders, but the general public is far less convinced of online education’s quality, according to new survey data released this week by the Pew Research Center …” (more)
[Jeffrey R Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 August]
