Education reform - Teach our teachers to succeed

IT is reassuring but frustrating that Education Minister Mary Coughlan has acknowledged that teachers beginning a career in the classroom do not have the “requisite skills” to reverse falling literacy and numeracy standards.

It is reassuring that she has accepted international evidence that our schools are not what we imagine — or need — but it is frustrating that this realisation could not have been reached, despite all of the domestic evidence, before now. Valuable time has been lost.

Ms Coughlan’s comments, and it must be accepted that she is a caretaker education minister, follow the 2010 OECD report which recorded falling standards in literacy and numeracy amongst 15-year-olds.