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Educational Disadvantage
Read more about: Cavan-Monaghan, Education, Roscommon-South Leitrim, Sligo-North Leitrim
Looking through the local papers for the local paper section I was struck by the amount of references to the cost of going back to school. Education is to me the most important thing for a country to work on and should be the most important priority for any party. So when I see parties more interested in giving corporate welfare to Airbus then insuring that every kid gets a decent education I am not a happy bunny.
The two articles that caught my eye was from the Carlow People Counting the cost of ‘free education’ and from the Anglo-Celt High percentage of men can’t read or write in border counties.
Now the first story covers the cost of education. Now although we have free education in this country there is many costs involved such as registration fees in collage and the cost of school books. Now while the registration fees are bad and have increased under the present government the fact that it only applies to people above the grant threshold means it doesn’t hit the poorest hardest.
However with secondary school the provision of the school allowances are not as great
A family with one child going into first year secondary school faces a book bill of over e300 which to put it in context is the equivalent of two weeks food shopping for a family of four
Meanwhile a family on low pay who are not eligible for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, can face costs of over e100 per primary school child and over e150 per secondary school child for a basic uniform, shoes and jacket
——–School book rental schemes drastically reduce the cost of books to parents but currently operate on an ad hoc basis across the country.
This needs to be dealt with in a serious manner it requires proper measure being put in place. Extension of the book rental scheme to cover the entire country at a proper level and more funding for back to school allowances. There is no excuses to failing our children.
The other story from the Anglo-Celt
Two out of three men residing in rural areas of the Border Counties of Cavan, Leitrim and Fermanagh have admitted that they have problems with reading and writing.
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When asked to rate their reading skills, 45 per cent admitted to poor skills, while a further 25 per cent said that they were very poor.“We were not expecting this at all. While we were expecting it to be higher than the national average, we did not expect the difference to be this great”, said Joel Smith, Project Co-ordinator.
Of those surveyed, 60 per cent had left school by the age of 16, while 30 per cent had no formal education qualifications.
This is really shocking. I now the reason is due to years of poverty and cannot really be blamed on the present government. But if we really want to do something about the latest survey that shows the disparity between the wealth areas of Ireland. The Greater Dublin region and the Galway, North Tipperary (take that South Tipp 
) Limerick, Cork axis. There is things like this that needs to be challenged. How to challenge this is going to be difficult. It is to tempting to throw money at the problem without a real plan. Also we have to begin to realise that income disparity between regions is always going to be. Simply put the only places with the combination of services to attract significant wealth creation are the ones that are growing the area’s near cities and near airports and ports. But that being said the border regions should not be ignored and if we insure that the education services are good. We lessen the disparity.
If the parties put more time and effort into education then they do into Aer Lingus maybe we could really sort out inequality and educational disadvantage. Maybe with Aer Lingus finally being sold the money and the time it wasted on it can finally be put to better use.
Update: From Sunday Tribune (free subs reqd) State-of-the-art school for autistic kids lies empty for three years due to lack of funds says it all really.
Simon, you have some good and serious points here. Yet, they have absolutely nothing to do with Boeing and how they relate to the state selling a profit and hence revenue generating asset at a time when it will not necessarily realise its full value to the taxpayer would make people wonder which you are more concerned with.
I am concerned with the amount of effort on all sides on issues like Aer Lingus when there is more important things to worry about. Namly education.
Aer Lingus actually source their fleet from Airbus, not Boeing and have done so for quite a while.
Grand so. Changed above you learn something new everyday
pingback
i am afraid it is too easy for those who are self-starters with loads of back-up to go places educationally
but, what about the poor schmucks who have not been diagnosed as being dyslexic but are inately intelligent
Usually parents find out from outside the school system at a great financial cost to them what the solution to the problem is after years of frustration
what about those who cant access speech therapy when they are 5- 6 because of lack of state services
what about the kid whose teacher has told the mother that the kid needs a sight test and it isnt followed up and what about the other kid who hasnt been diagnosed with reading difficulties and they havent a special teacher in their school to work on this in a small group
i dont hold with the premise that if you want to learn there is very little stopping you
the system doesnt seem to cope with people who have difficulties and would be flying if they got their initial difficulty sorted
in dublin north-central in the last election a woman sinn fein candidate told us at a public meeting how she teaches parents of inner city kids to read so that they in turn can help their children
im afraid the sins of the primary school system are still with us
so many adults who have passed through the primary school system who cant read and write
what a scandal !
I myself am dyslexic if you have not noticed by now by my shocking grammer and spelling
. It was only during my leaving cert year that I was diagnosed with it. I got no help from any primary school services. Even though my primary school had a special needs teacher that was shared with the other primary school in the village (so 50% of the time a special needs teacher was in the building). I don’t know why I was not picked up when my writing and spelling would have been one of the worst in the class. Perphaps (I know I am flattering myself here but hey) it was because I was one of the best at maths and that they just conclued that I was lasy. Indeed once I was not to tell lies for saying that I had spent 2 hours learing my spellings as they thought that if I had spent 2 hours I wouldn’t have got them all wrong. However in a way they were right I had lied Even at that age (about eight) I knew telling the truth (i spent about 3-4 hours) was stretching it a bit.
Also it has effected me in many of my exams in Leaving Cert and in Collage. Where I would read or answer the wrong question. Or my answer would be totally illegiable and get marked down as such. However I made it though with a very good education in my chossen field of Physics.
Now I am not going to presume that just because I can get over my difficulties that everyone can come over their’s. I will be the first to admit my difficulties are mild in comparison to others.
But to often people are allowed to ues it as an excuse for failing. True it is a hell of alot more difficult then it is for the other children but where the will is there.
I could have easily fallen through the gaps but for every night from an early age my parents sat me down at the kitchen table and did my homework with me. And that was what saved me.
Not the state the family.
I havev been planning to right a post on disability services in the country which is an issue I have strong feelings about but I haven’t got around to it and would rather do it justice and write a well researched piece then something just typed out in front of the telly.
This really is disgraceful!!! August has no replaced December for many families as being the most expensive time of year. The Govt should hang its head in shame. Either way I can see its head getting chopped off next election.
It would be a disaster for all of Ireland if Sinn Fein pick up any moee seats in the election I would appeal to all young people to consider all/any other party or Independent first, please please lok at other options.
Regards
Wolf Tone