The results are in – children of the world have undergone analysis in a major international test that aims to discover what countries have the strongest educations in the likes of reading, maths and science.
The results for Irish children aren’t all bad; they ranked 10th out of 45 countries in reading. Added to this, the results for maths and science showed a similarly strong performance, with Irish children coming out 17th out of 50 countries for maths and 22nd out of 50 for science.
Regardless, the results raise necessary questions. Why is it that in a country that (was) as rich as Ireland, with so many resources, they are coming out nearly halfway through a list for science?
Only about 4 per cent of curriculum time at primary school is devoted to science, which is one of the lowest in the developed world.
These figures are simply baffling; in a country where we constantly hear about the importance of science for the future, that it is the area that will provide the most employment in coming years, there remains very little time dedicated to it in Irish primary schools.
If I am to cast my mind back to my own Irish primary education, many things stand out. For one thing, we spent about an hour a day learning Irish – and when I say learning, I mean chanting. One would think that, having devoted so much time to this language, it must be important. It must be a major language that is spoken every day in Ireland, and it is necessary for work. The opposite is true, of course. In fact, Irish is a dead language that is consistently thrust upon children of the nation in the most uncreative, boring way imaginable. The teaching of the language essentially forces children to hate the language.
Even more ridiculous, the time that was devoted to religion in my primary education was similarly ridiculous. Coming up to the infamous Confirmation, we spent up to an hour every day learning about Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Apostles, etc. I can safely say that this has been the most useless part of my education, and even far outweighs Irish in terms of uselessness. As children, a religion that none of us liked was thrust upon us. I now know several people who received similar Irish primary educations, who no longer regard themselves as Catholic. I am one of these.
While all of this time was dedicated to learning dead languages and learning what may or may not have happened in the realms of Catholicism, we never studied science. Yes, you read that correctly. We didn’t study the subject. We had a book, of course, but I can safely say I don’t remember doing one scientific experiment in the years of my primary education that I have spoken of. By the time I was marched to secondary school, my scientific knowledge was non-existant.
While I am sure that many more children received educations in science, and not all children receive the bad experience I received, I am sure of one thing: an overwhelming amount of time is still devoted to subjects like Irish and religion in primary schools. Is it a surprise, then, that Ireland ranks 22nd out of 50 countries in science, and not a lot higher? No, it is not. And until education at primary level is re-evaluated, so that it teaches children subjects that will get them jobs in the future, Ireland will remain this far down the list.
Irish children are capable of more. Let’s give them a chance to show what they know.
As some of you Twitter folk might (or might not) have noticed, Pope Benedict XVI tweeted today for the first time from his personal account. The tweet read:
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