Teachers failing to make the grade

IF ONE feeds chaff and low-quality grain into a flour mill, one cannot expect it to be able to produce top-quality flour.

For many years, various types of business people have remarked on their difficulty in acquiring decent quality graduates to fill vacancies, but no one took heed and we continued to make it easier for low-quality applicants to enter university.

University teaching is a business and needs a very high percentage of occupancy to cover its costs. It is wrong to lower the standards required to enter as this can unbalance the diversity of those graduating, 99% of soft-subjects and 1% maths and science.

Why is the quality of these entrants so poor? Is not the proof of the poor quality of the pudding to be found at the door of the secondary and primary system? It seems that their curriculum is arranged to accommodate the low level of ability of a lot of teachers. It is widely known that a high number of unqualified teachers are trying to teach maths and science.

Universities, which were once the top ranked shining beacons of knowledge, have now sunk into the also-rans, yet professors and tutors are still amongst the highest paid academics in the world. They offer to defend the deteriorating situation by quoting the lack of finance which causes a decreasing staff and student ratio.

Our country is in dire straits with a ravaged economy, savaged by greedy unions, some of which reinstated those overpaid academics.

In my younger days, one looked up to a teacher or professor and regarded him or her as a fountain of knowledge and a leader, an example of what one should aspire to be. What a load of parasites we have today. If there is a shortage of funds and a necessity to increase staff numbers, couldn’t each of those 100 or more overpaid staff take a voluntary 20% cut? They would have enough money to hire another 15-20 staff.

Richard Prendergast

Mondaniel

Rathcormac

Co Cork