Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Byrne came to it at the end and it is the question of teacher training. There is an emphasis around managing the classroom sometimes. I was in a school that had just become co-educational and I was one of six or seven girls in a class of 35. I am very pushy though. There is the question of not just simply managing the classroom but having the responsibility to elicit and support all the voices in the classroom. It is a very important message because the single argument I am told all the time is that girls will not be heard in a mixed classroom. That is why it is a fundamental matter.

I do not believe this to be automatically true and this is not about a skill that must be managed. It is the same for the workplace and we are told that women need to be more confident. Instead, workplaces must value everybody's input in a very thoughtful way.