Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the Minister to the House. In the main, I agree with many of the comments of many of the previous speakers, particularly those of Senator Barrett. My own experience of teaching has been very limited and was limited to university teaching. However, many of the difficulties one encounters at university level are the same as those one encounters at second level or at primary level. The bottom line is we live in an era of change. I do not know a single person under the age of 50 who is in the same job he or she was in 25 years ago and that is the bottom line. Consequently, when one examines an education system, one must be contemplating an education system that focuses on self-directed learning as its core.

I have a question in respect of the numeracy and literacy strategy. For the sake of argument, I note we live in an era in which technology is changing at a rapid rate and in which we are experiencing fast and rapid changes in the area of voice recognition software, for example. Consequently, why do we focus so much on having our children write reams of information when we should be asking them to embrace new technology? Another issue, to which Edward de Bono points, is that while there is literacy and numeracy, there also is operacy. In the future, operacy, that is, the ability to get things done, surely must be at the core of any curriculum. In addition, I note we place very little emphasis in our education system on verbal skills and yet, as one goes through life, qualities of leadership and the ability to verbalise ideas are critical to our system.

In respect of the junior certificate reforms, somewhat like Senator Barrett, I will end up with the university system, having started with the junior certificate. There is no question but that the reforms to the junior certificate are both timely and long overdue.

Our education system at every level has suffered significantly in the past 15-20 years. A core curricular system that requires learning off vast bodies of information, giving correct answers and repeating it is outlandish in this day and age. I congratulate the Minister. I wonder how we tolerated the current system for so long.

Our current approach to learning is inherently boring. Why do children from deprived backgrounds in particular have difficulty with the education system? Not to put too fine a point on it, but if a household recognises the long-term importance of education and is willing to inculcate in students the stamina necessary to put themselves through the grind of learning that we require of them, the system clearly rewards educational attainment depending on a student's family background. Apart from the fact that this does not get the best out of our children, it is morally unjust. This is the bottom line as far as our current system is concerned.

If the Minister is successful in changing the junior certificate, either he or a successor will have no option but to deal with the leaving certificate. Amending the junior certificate will leave us with the anomalous leaving certificate.

I will address the university sector, as we must consider the education system as a whole. I am sure that Senator Barrett has had a similar experience, but university lecturers tell me that it takes three years of a degree programme to move students from operating by rote learning to thinking for themselves. I am not even convinced that three years will achieve this.

I found a college newspaper article written by a student of a principal university that shall remain nameless, as I would not like to give myself or Senator Barrett - I am from UCD and he is from Trinity - the pleasure of knowing where the student came from. The student is on an exchange programme with another jurisdiction. For the sake of argument, I will say Australia.

According to the writer, the leaving certificate is often criticised for placing more emphasis on being able to cram information, learn off essays and parrot it off in an exam rather than trying to create students who can think critically and creatively. When students reach college, however, they learn that they are again expected to learn off notes and write down as many of them in an exam as they can if they are to succeed, with a few essays thrown in for good measure. The student had only one exam during the semester in which the article was written. It was worth 50% of one module. The other seven eighths of the course involved a range of exercises, for example, group projects, cross-disciplinary research essays, case notes, mooting, presenting in front of tutorial classes coupled with papers on the relevant topics, take-home essays and written reflective journal passages.

In the beginning, the student was overwhelmed by the amount of work and the requirement to use different skills in such exercises. The student missed the cosy days of the nameless university where he could do a little work for most of the semester, spend the last few weeks catching up and cramming and still get reasonable marks.

However, the student noticed something. He began to work hard consistently and stopped leaving everything until the last moment. Moreover, the student knew that, upon returning to Ireland, he would have learned a number of skills, including how to research properly, work in a group, speak in front of people, read psychological papers, critically assess the law, prepare for cases and give thorough legal advice. The student had only been in Australia for one semester.

Ireland does not have a single university in the world's top 100. If we are to enter those ranks, we must focus on more than just the junior certificate, numeracy and literacy. We must move on to the leaving certificate and overhaul the entire system.

I congratulate the Minister. He should keep up the good work.