Teachers in conference - A chance to inspire or divide

EDUCATION Minister Ruairí Quinn addressed the national teachers’ union annual conference in Sligo last night and later this week he will speak to delegates at the ASTI and TUI conferences in Cork and Tralee.

He will reiterate his determination to reverse declines in numeracy and literacy levels revealed in the recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment which dealt with educational achievement amongst 15-year-olds.

This survey infamously shattered long-held, and too often self-serving, beliefs that we had a world class education system. It recorded that one-in-four boys in that age bracket are illiterate. This is not only an indictment of our educational system but of our society as a whole.