Valuable lessons for us

LIFE as a student in Ireland is really is a test of speed and memory.

The government has made many changes to the various syllabuses and I suppose the biggest change I’ve seen is the introduction of project maths.

If I become a journalist or TV presenter, will I ever use the various formulae to find the slope/midpoint of a line?

So why am I in higher maths, wracking my brains finding solutions for X? For the 25 bonus points of course.! Is it working? Well maybe if the Government woke up and realised how many large companies are complaining about the standard of grammar and simple tasks in English, such as the placing of an apostrophe, well then it’s obvious where the changes should have been made.

The stress now added to students is a system that really just judges you on the day.

If a student is going through various problems, according to the points system, leave it at the door. But let’s take a look at Scandinavian countries. Finland has the best schooling system in the world. The Finnish philosophy with education is that everyone has something to contribute and those who struggle in certain subjects should not be left behind. And yet Finnish children spend the fewest number of hours in the classroom in the developed world.

Primary and secondary schooling is combined, to avoid a potentially disruptive jump, from one school to another. There is a culture of parents reading with the kids at home and families have regular contact with their children’s teachers.

The system’s success is built on the idea that less is more. There is an emphasis on relaxed schools, free from political prescriptions.

This combination, they believe, means that no child is left behind. As it should be.