The minister’s [Jan Sullivan] proposals [schools would only be allowed to reserve one in 10 places for the children of past pupils] will now bite the dust as she says there won’t be time to get the proposed new law through in the lifetime of the current Dáil.
The minister said she was disappointed by the development. But her sentiments will not be shared by her Fine Gael cabinet colleagues, many of them past pupils of elite schools, who came under pressure on the issue.
There you go now.
‘Old boy network’ wins out in school place row (Irish Independent)
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I’m convinced Broadsheet are actively campaigning against FG/Lab now.
SO BLOODY WHAT.
Nearly every school was against this, not just the posh fee paying schools. Meanwhile, unreported IN THE SAME ARTICLE:
In another major announcement last night, Ms O’Sullivan said she would get rid of a 50-year-old rule that says religion must underpin the day of a primary school.
The minister said Rule 68 was “archaic” and that it would be removed in January, a step that will be welcomed by those seeking to reduce the influence of religion on Irish primary education.
Heavens forbid you actually give the woman some credit.
I’m convinced Broadsheet are actively campaigning against FG/Lab now.
SO BLOODY WHAT.
Exactly.
You’re only coming to this conclusion now?? I tried to fight the tide with reasoned debate for a while , but realised it’s pointless and way more fun to goad the AAA/SF crowd by pointing out that even with all their keyboard warrioring FG are inevitably going to be the biggest party in the next election.
5 more years baby!!
All the cool kids hate the government. The parties in government are irrelevant. Hating the government is what matters.
No matter what you do, the government always gets in. Seems very suspicious to me.
+1
Bertie, that’s exactly it. As soon as a government makes an unpopular decision, some people just put up a wall of hate to anything and everything they do, so any valid discussion of government corruption or screw ups gets lost in the ‘Joan Burton is a vile bitch traitor’ screeching.
Aw poor Rotide getting really vexed now. Aww there there rub rub. Want your ‘Rock college blanky? there there now.
She said she’d get rid of rule 68 and she said she’d reduce the amount of places saved for children of past pupils. She’s already given up on one of those, and few expect her to follow through on the other “promise”.
I’m beginning to think you’re campaigning for FG/Lab in how you’re always popping up to defend them no matter what.
Because she ran out of time. Not because she’d rather go kicking poor kiddies instead.
Fancy that.
The notion that distance to the school gate, and nothing else, should dictate who goes to what school is quite a blunt, unsophisticated, unimaginative one.
In what way?
It removes the control from the hands of the church and results in less baptisms for the sake of it.
How intellectual of you. At least you’re a chapter ahead of the minister, who has the IQ of a tadpole and the ability to miss her own deadlines with 5 years’ notice.
So why the resentment for people with a half decent education? High quality education is very rare in Ireland. We need more high quality, not more tat. Equality in the gutter is what will happen under looney lefties. Far easier to manipulate and control people who’ve been forced through a low quality education/brainwashing system that does nothing other than train plebs’ sprogs to be compliant consumers destined for a life of cheap beer, computer games and anti depressants. A rapidly expanding demographic. Don’t rule out the loonies.
“So why the resentment for people with a half decent education?”
I’ve no idea. Why don’t you tell us what you have against it?
“Far easier to manipulate and control people who’ve been forced through a low quality education/brainwashing system”
Thankfully the church has less control now so there’s a lot less brainwashing about 2000 year old fairy tales and all-seeing, all-smiting sky wizards. I will agree with you on the danger of the loonies though. For example, there still seems to be a lot of people who believe that asking their imaginary friend for help is the same thing as actually helping.
Where do I start?!
Do you think that a focus on literacy in primary school is “equality tat”? For too long, too many schools had kids getting to 6th class who were illiterate. Is that ok with you?
Private schools do not necessarily mean high quality. That Blackrock college has a highly effective old boys network that was capable of lobbying on this scale tells you is about maintaining exclusivity.
Labour has focused on literacy, high quality school buildings, reform of junior cert, school book rental schemes, affordable uniforms, has just reduced religious primacy among other education reforms. This is so that all children are raised up by the concept of equality, rather having a life chances trampled before they even start.
“Distance” is fetishised, as if it’s the best reason to send ones child to a school. It’s not.
That might be true, but proximity is a key issue, UK it is the primary determinant, and on whole this suits most people (unless they live in a socially challenged area and care about education, as uncommon as this might be)
You can chose your religion. You have to pay for your postcode.
By the time a child is old enough to question and chose their own religion (or to wake up to the reality of the fairy tales) they’ve usually gone through the school system so it’s a bit late.
I’m guessing that the people whose kids miss out because they don’t have any family ties, aren’t baptized or are the wrong religion, would disagree.
I’ve never met a post person from schools like Blackrock or Clongowes. Wealthy maybe but not posh. We don’t have posh people in Ireland. BMWs and conspicuous spending isn’t posh. It’s often crass if anything.
Agree, but thats because the posh people in Ireland don’t send their kids to school in Ireland.
Apart from a few sadists and wannabes who send their children to school in England, most Irish-born children go to school here, for better or worse.
He went to the other place, Monty.
Followed by yet another anecdote of his sensitive crimes in a punt with a chap called norman, who had red hair and a book of poetry stained with the butter drips from crumpets.
Ome thing that the anti-school selection brgade also wanted, was excluding taking into account a sibling being in the school. Hows that make any sense, so if you have more than one kid they might not go to the same school as their brother or sister, result extra cost and extra jouneys, just stupid.
I understand if you already have a kid at a school, it makes logistical sense to send others there too.
but there is no reason why someone who was there over 30 years ago to get priority over the needs of children today.
Why does someone ‘need’ to send their kids to a particular school that they have no connection with when there are other schools in their catchment area that will accept them?
Unless, of course, they buy into the elitist idea that the school you attend dictates your future chances.
I would’ve thought a more socialist approach would be to send your kids to the local state school as a matter of principle.
This whole thing was misrepresented from the start: it was billed as removing ‘priviledge’ by disallowing allocation of places to siblings of current pupils or children of past pupils.
However the school fees remained.
So the only people who were set to benefit were those who had cash but no connections – the crass wealthy referred to in a post above – who demand the right to send their children to what they regard, purely through snobbery as they have no experience of or connection with the schools in question (otherwise they’d be able to make use of allocated places), as the ‘best’ schools.
Ah here
Hould up there
There’s plenty ov’us send the next generation to different schools as blow ins
Not ’cause we’re crass
But ’cause our PP connections are in a different jurisdiction altogether
A bitta’v chip there Boba
Sure. But if a parent has no particular connections with any schools in their new locale why not send their kids to one of the perfectly good ones that will accept them?
If anything the Govt played up the ‘elite’ status of certain schools by suggesting the law needed to be changed to allow more equal access to the wonders guaranteed in store for anyone attending. They’re just schools.
The proposal to disallow the charging of non-refundable deposits would have been welcome though.
LOL
Given that when he was Minister for Education Ruari Quinn (Blackrock Boy and Smoked Salmon Socialist) was in the vanguard for retaining parental admission privilege the article is a little disingenuous
Mr. Angry of Sandymount currently sends his son to an even posher Ballsbridge school
Eh, no, he was trying to remove it.
I thought it was his bright idea to begin with?
http://www.thejournal.ie/quinn-school-enrolment-education-854621-Apr2013/
Love the tie photo….YOU CAN’T CHOP THE WOOD!!! Womba on the kick-off lads!!!