In Northern Ireland we have an education system that generally works for children from more advantaged backgrounds but mostly fails less advantaged children. According to the OECD, we have the most socially segregated education system anywhere in the developed world.
The transfer test acts as a filter for social selection – at 11, more advantaged children go on to grammar school and those children from less advantaged backgrounds go to secondary school.
This leads to high concentrations of poverty in many of our secondary schools, with all the problems that this brings for teachers and their pupils. I speak to teachers regularly and I know that the situation in many of these schools is at breaking point.
Research clearly indicates that all children perform substantially worse in high-poverty schools. Finland, often held up as a remarkable education success story, had the lowest degree of socio-economic segregation of the 57 countries participating in PISA.
This point is clearly illustrated by a piece of research from the US. Almost 20 per cent of American students attend high-poverty schools (50 per cent-plus free school meals) – about 9,000,000 students. On the PISA scores in 2009, the only country to finish below this group were Mexico. Those who attended schools where up to 24.9 per cent of the students were on the free school meals register, about 26,000,000 students, had average scores on the PISA tests exceeded by only two other developed countries.
The minimum accepted standards for post-primary schools in England are that 40 per cent of year 12 pupils should obtain five or more GCSE grades A* to C (including maths and English). Of Northern Ireland’s 142 secondary schools, 82 – or 58 per cent – performed below this 40 per cent standard and in those under-performing schools, the average proportion of year 12 pupils obtaining GCSE passes was just 28 per cent. This system of social segregation which works against disadvantaged children has the most damaging effect on young Protestant working-class children.
Professor Pete Shirlow has said: “I have taught here for a significant amount of time, but I have rarely taught Protestant males from the Shankill Road, Nelson Drive or other such communities.” (Educational Disadvantage and the Protestant Working Class).
The biggest defenders of this present system are the DUP but then that’s no surprise as they’ve never done anything to benefit working-class people, not even those who vote for them.
JIM CURRAN
Downpatrick, Co Down
We have not learnt lessons of history
The ‘Great Leap Forward’ of Mao involved radical changes to agriculture in China. New farming methods were introduced and farming land was forced to be changed to industrial purposes. Between 15 and 55 million died in the famine of 1958-62 of which a Chinese president has said 70 per cent were the result of man-made problems.
Stormont has set a goal of net zero and the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has proposed reducing livestock by a third. The Irish government is proposing to cull 200,000 cattle to reduce Co2 emissions. Similarly in the Netherlands, the world’s second biggest food exporter, the government has brought in a forced buyout and closure of 3,000 farms to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. It seems we have not learnt the lessons of history. Top-down changes to agriculture imposed by ideology, not practice, are dangerous.
The fear and guilt surrounding global warming is unwarranted. I was at Clonard Novena and the sermon focused on the danger of Samoa flooding. The ocean levels are currently rising at around 3mm per year. At that rate it will take 1,000 years to raise three metres. The sea rose roughly 2cm per year between 9,000BC and 7,000BC – a total of around 35m. Scotland and Norway were connected by a land called Doggerland before this rise. It is thought that this sea rise was behind the myth of Atlantis which Plato says flooded in 9,000BC.
The sea level rise is just one area were the claimed threat and guilt of global warming doesn’t hold up.
It is certainly not a fear worth starving ourselves over. The CCC and the CCP might share resemblance in more than one way.
DOMINIC GALLAGHER
Belfast BT9
Worrying development for those who value right to life
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has put forward regulations which the British government wants to impose in regard to the RSE curriculum in the six counties. The House of Commons has subsequently voted on regulations which will force schools to teach pupils aged 11-16 about abortion. The MPs voted 373-28 in this initial part of the process in favour. This is a worrying development for those of us who value the right to life. This is another attempt by the British government to impose their will on the people of the north, just like abortion was forced upon us without any meaningful consultation or referendum. Best practice in education policy requires consultation with parents and governors on any school policy or regulations. This is another erosion of the values many of us hold dear in regard to the protection of unborn children.
KIERAN McCAUSLAND
Aontú, Upper Bann
What right has Britain to confer titles on Irish citizens?
Being obviously an Irish citizen, I question the very notion of a British title being conferred on Professor Louise Richardson – ‘President sorry for ‘damehood’ remark’ (June 20). Assuming she was born after Ireland’s declaration of a republic in 1949 (Irish citizens born before that time were considered to be British citizens), what right had Britain to confer a British title on her and, more to the point, why did she accept it?
Of course, it is a well-known attitude of the British establishment to pretend that Irish citizens were still (after the declaration) British citizens, even up to this time, conferring titles etc, on them like confetti at a wedding. Typical examples of which were Terry Wogan and Bob Geldof. On a general point, I have no time for the very concept of ‘loyalty’ and its titles, wherever they are practised.
PETER PALLAS
Bantry, Co Cork
