Quinn: Education standards slipped

WE have been engaged in self-delusion and “codding ourselves” for years, believing our education system was among the best in the world, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said yesterday.

He was speaking at the launch at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick of the National Centre for Excellence for Mathematics and Science Teaching and Learning (NCE-MSTL).

Other countries in the OECD had passed us out in education, he said, and the global economy was aware of this.