Dr. Pauric Travers:

There is an understandable emphasis on numeracy and literacy because they are essential life skills, but there are other wider holistic skills which affect the experience of children, students and adults. A criticism sometimes made of the international studies is they measure a very narrow range of skills. They are very important skills but it is important not to neglect other things. If parents are asked what they want for their children, of course they state they want them to be successful and to be literate and numerate, but they also state they want them to be happy. In other words, there are issues about well-being and resilience.

Interesting research has been done on well-being, efficacy, how children see themselves and how self-confident they are. The Educational Research Centre is doing research on resilience. We all get knocked down and we must get back up. Those who are successful are those who keep getting back up, but others are less resilient and fall through the system. Research must focus on these issues as well. In general, Irish schools are much happier places than they were 30 years ago. There are exceptions and events take place which are not necessarily terribly positive, but in general Irish schools are very happy places.

When I went to parent-teacher meetings, very often the teachers were very keen to tell me about how the children got on in their tests but generally the first thing I wanted to know was whether they were happy, were they getting on socially and how they were functioning, because these will follow them through their lives. Research must focus on literacy, numeracy and particular targets such as the Irish language, but it should not neglect the central holistic view of education, because the well-being of the system will suffer if we do not look at the overall experience of the child or student.