Towards a Better Future
A Review of the Irish School System John Coolahan | Sheelagh Drudy Pádraig Hogan | Áine Hyland | Séamus McGuinness
A Review of the Irish School System
John Coolahan | Sheelagh Drudy Pádraig Hogan | Áine Hyland | Séamus McGuinness
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Chapter Twelve: Conclusion<br />
CHAPTER TWELVE<br />
Conclusion<br />
Irish schooling faces significant challenges into the future. Ireland’s is not a perfect system,<br />
no more than any other schooling system in the world. While perfection is not achievable,<br />
it is incumbent on every society to apply its best efforts to ensuring that the school system<br />
is as good as possible so that that this and future generations are assisted at achieving their<br />
potentials. The eleven chapters of this review paint a very creditable picture of how Irish<br />
schooling policy and provision has been evolving and of the manner in which this is being<br />
achieved. The various stakeholders and educational partners in this small island state have<br />
focussed constructively in establishing the present structure. Each of the headings reviewed<br />
in the chapters indicates that Ireland’s educational system is on the cusp of major attempts<br />
at reform. Building on accumulated achievements, it is poised for qualitative breakthroughs<br />
on a range of fronts.<br />
As detailed in the foregoing chapters,the agenda for necessary advances and improvements in our<br />
schooling system is clear. The crucial contemporary question is that of achieving it as the country<br />
emerges from a painful recession and as the key economic indicators improve. An underlying,<br />
dynamic pulse of Ireland’s educational system is the interest in, and concern for educational<br />
improvement by parents, teachers and policy-makers. The achievement of major educational reform,<br />
in a sustainable way, has been shown to be a demanding challenge in all societies. A number of prerequisites<br />
is needed to help promote success. These include the quality of prevailing policies and how<br />
they have been arrived at. Good communication on the proposed advantages of the proposed<br />
changes is integral to the process. A sense of engagement and ownership needs to be cultivated<br />
among key practitioners. Appropriate training and capacity development may be required for<br />
implementers of reform. The timing of reforms and the gradation span for change needs to be well<br />
planned. The administrative structures need to be such that this can be seen to facilitate<br />
implementation. Integral to the whole question of sustainable improvements is the judicious<br />
planning of policy initiatives, and the budgeting for the necessary resources, to make the right things<br />
happen, in the right ways and at the right times.<br />
It is rare to get all such pre-requisites to full satisfaction. This review nevertheless indicates that many<br />
of them are on track in Ireland. The weakest of the pre-requisites relates to the governance and<br />
administrative structure and the inadequate resources available for a strategic development<br />
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