Towards a Better Future

Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System
national curricular reforms; but not if conceived in ‘delivery’ formats that fail to engage teachers and
school leavers in sustained, constructive ways. Secondly, the four-and-a-half days in question mean
a loss of teaching time. Even if cover is provided, what students are receiving is something other than,
and normally less than, what their entitlement should be. This underlines the necessity for a more
strategic provision, as suggested below.
The provision of time for professional development would be more appropriately viewed as one
element in a larger package of measures addressing a range of issues that have caused disquiet in
recent years, or even for decades (curriculum, assessment, different pay scales for the same work,
removal of promotion posts etc.) Chapter 11 of this review provides some illuminating comparative
data on how time in school is spent in the different jurisdictions covered by OECD surveys. For
instance, a study of that data (Ch. 11, Fig.3) shows that the quantity of teaching time in lower
secondary school in Ireland is higher than the OECD average. The point is also made in that chapter
that the proportion of statutory working time spent in teaching in Ireland is by far the highest of
the OECD countries.
To conclude, the larger question of a package of measures that properly reflects the changed nature
of teaching in the 21st century needs to be properly acknowledged and tackled. Unless this happens,
professional development for Ireland’s teachers is likely to be attenuated, as distinct from progressive,
in the years ahead. Nor is it likely to receive the central importance it receives in practices like
nursing, pharmacy or medicine.
(d) The role of Education Centres
The Education Centres have a central role to play in a national framework for professional
development for teachers. They are referred to in Cosán mainly as workshop locations for gathering
feedback in consultations with teachers (pp.5, 12), though there is a reference to them as ‘learning
hubs’ in the Appendix to the draft of the Cosán document published in May 2015 (p.23). The
strategic and active role of the Education Centres needs to be fully acknowledged and promoted.
This includes not only their role as venues for providing courses under the auspices of PDST or any
of the national support services. Equally significant is their leadership and developmental role, for
instance, in designing and providing participatory seminars or programmes that cultivate professional
learning communities among teachers. The Education Centres are key players in planning and
implementing the modular, credit-bearing system mentioned under headings (a) and (b) above.
(e) The role of Professional Associations
Professional associations like IPPN and NAPD are primarily seen as support and advocacy bodies
for their own members. Of course, they are that, but their members are themselves the leaders of
professional practice in the schools. The wealth of insight and expertise accumulated by members
as practitioners of educational leadership is an invaluable resource for professional development of
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