Well done to all our young people and teachers for their magnificent achievement in the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study for which data has just become available. TIMMS are taken by primary school pupils aged nine to 10. Only five of the 50 countries taking part in maths assessment outperformed Northern Ireland. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment has also been published. PISA measures the reading, maths and science ability of our 15 and 16 year olds and unlike our scores in TIMMS these scores are no better than average. Northern Ireland finished 26th in maths; 24th in reading; 23rd in science. These figures give a lie to the claim that Northern Ireland has a world-class education system.
Our education minister Peter Weir is perplexed by this dip in performance from primary to post primary. He shouldn’t be. So-called academic selection at 11, which his party fully supports, is responsible for most of the problems in post primary education. Avril Hall Callaghan, of the Ulster Teachers Union has also claimed that academic selection is to blame for this dip in performance between primary and post primary: ‘There is no mystery. The main thing that separates children in primary and secondary education here is academic selection. There in surely, lies the solution to the minister’s conundrum. It is a scandal that this legislature insists for the most disingenuous of reasons it seems to continue with the appalling education apartheid of academic selection at 11.’
Commenting on the newly published 2015 PISA results, Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, noted that the highest performing education systems shown in the PISA rankings were non-selective. He said: ‘Countries cited as performing well on PISA tests or which have shown recent improvement, including Germany and Poland, are currently moving away from selective education. Likewise Singapore, much heralded for the high achievement of its pupils in Maths, children are generally not split into different ability groups.’
JIM CURRAN
Downpatrick, Co Down
Gap in digital broadband provision is widening
The allocation of broadband is threatening the sustainability of rural communities in Northern Ireland. While Belfast and our larger population centres are rightly proud of the fastest broadband speeds in the UK, many rural communities in Northern Ireland have the slowest speeds in all of Europe.
While rural residents can understand that BT, as the owner of the broadband infrastructure, is driven by commercial considerations, we are increasingly frustrated by the use of government subsidies for broadband access which has followed a population centred model. Even the recent rural focused broadband improvement project funded by the Northern Ireland Executive, has targeted the towns with minimal benefit for communities such as my own in Co Armagh. Indeed, the gap in digital broadband provision has widened with no solution in sight.
The new draft Programme for Government has set targets and outcomes relating to tackling social exclusion, developing a more equal society and connecting people. It has a specific target to increase the proportion of houses with superfast broadband – it was 77 per cent in May 2015 as it was in 2014. The government has stated that it is now more than 80 per cent.
Should our government not set a more challenging target of providing a decent service to the forgotten 20 per cent of households who are not a priority for the commercial sector? Most of the households in my community don’t have a speed of two megabits per second – that is at least 15 times slower than the government target. When we are able to make a connection, we are limited to one supplier for broadband and asked to pay the same price, or even more in some cases, for what is an inferior service.
We do not consider ourselves a remote community – but the allocation of this utility is making us more isolated, marginalised and disadvantaged.
JAMES CORRIGAN
Chairman, Lissummon Community Association, Co Armagh
Castro was a colossus in fight against imperialism
It was with sadness that Irish republicans learned of the death of Fidel Castro, former president of the Republic of Cuba. Along with his friend and comrade Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara he led the Cuban revolution in January 1959 which removed the corrupt Batista regime and re-established the political and economic sovereignty of the Cuban people. Both came to personify a decade of revolution and their exploits inspired progressive revolutionaries throughout the world.
Fidel Castro was a colossus in the struggle against imperialism and its attendant manifestations of fascism and racism. In 1981 he was one of the very few international leaders to speak out in support of Bobby Sands and the other Irish republican hunger strikers in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. In a speech delivered at the time Castro declared: “In my opinion, Irish patriots are writing one of the most heroic chapters in human history.”
Today Irish republicans salute his memory and his unfailing support for the cause of human freedom throughout the world. Fidel Castro was a true internationalist and Cuban patriot who was resolute in his defence of oppressed peoples everywhere.
DES DALTON
President
Republican Sinn Féin
Back-hand swipe at republicans
DENISE Johnston’s letter – ‘Well done Sinn Féin your supporters must be proud of you’ (December 6) – casts her usual anti-republican swipe at republicans back-handed compliments and all. She targets two very worthwhile points. First the continued denial by unionists in power to in any way acknowledge the different narrative, ie the republican one, to their own. I’m not so sure republicans on their own can do much more than hammering the message home. There is also the matter of getting the best for those of us that are on the receiving end of British decision making in budgetary or Brexit terms.
Then there is the particular situation where we have Charter NI that is in receipt of substantial funds and the public should know that these monies are appropriately disbursed.
Therefore it is incumbent on relevant elected representatives to ensure there are watertight oversight systems in place and that there are transparent auditing arrangements whereby each shilling allocated is within explicit frameworks.
MANUS McDAID
Derry city
Cause for concern
Where is all this anti-Russian rhetoric leading too and who is the aggressor? Russia has 20 foreign military bases; the US has 700 – 400 surrounding China alone, ironically a country they owe trillions too. Hopefully Donald Trump, a shrewd business man, will steer the world towards peace. Is that why the US elite and the massive arms industry are fearful?
JOHN-PATRICK BELL
Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim
