You may turn your education system upside down now.

An actually-radical government-commissioned report out today by Dr Áine Hyland (above) begins a process that should end the ‘Points Race’ forever. Under the proposals, reported in the Irish Times, the CAO admissions policy (a brutal numerical slug out every August) will be replaced by a system where students are matched and given preferential entry to the courses that best reflect their academic strengths.

The report [by Dr Hyland, a founder of the Dalkey School project] says the points race is damaging second level education. A less restrictive college admissions system would help deliver a more holistic education at second level. It could also end a practice whereby CAO points are determined by the popularity of the course rather than its academic standard.

The report admits some Leaving Cert subjects – notably higher-level maths – are more difficult than others. It says students opt for subjects that are seen as “easier” to amass the points they need for college instead of taking those that best match their skills set.

The report also helps to unravel a lingering mystery, namely why our ‘elders’ have made such a comprehensive balls of every single thing in every area of Irish public life since their ‘elders’ did the same thing before them and so on and so forth? Turns out – wait for it – the people who get on in Ireland are people who can retain knowledge but are all too often not very knowledgeable.

The new report is highly critical of the distorting or “backwash” effect of the Leaving Cert on third-level colleges. It acknowledges how many students – weaned on rote learning in the Leaving Cert – come to college without a strong capacity for critical thinking or independent learning.

Who would have thunk it?

Radical Overhaul Of Third-Level Admissions Proposed (Sean Flynn, Irish Times)

Dr Aine Hyland (Wikpedia)

(Pic: UCC)

So young.

Today he would be emigrating to Canada or writing for a satirical news and popculture website. Then he was killing his own brother and fighting off the advances of the parish priest. A striking Civil War image (Dublin Possibly Cork, circa 1922) released today by the National Library of Ireland on to its regularly-updated, lovingly-curated flicker stream.

Sez the archivist: “Unsure whether this bread van was being guarded or raided, or whether the boy with the rifle was just passing by...”

Previously: Jobbridge Bakery Placements

Richard Dunne’s determination dragged his team-mates along, never more so than when he was rewarded with a booking and a gash to the head on 72 minutes after clattering into Zhirkov before landing face down on the running track at the side of the pitch.

Following lengthy treatment, Dunne returned to the pitch, only to be ludicrously sent back to the sidelines by German referee Felix Brych for donning a ‘blood shirt’ without a number.

The Aston Villa defender finished the game wearing a makeshift number five shirt, with staff having to draw the number on a blank one using a marker pen.

Russia 0 Ireland 0 (Telegraph)

Dunne’s A Bloody Marvel (Mirror)

Richard Dunne screengrab: Jezz Shepherd

 

Alexander Kerzhakov and Keith Andrews

90+3 min: “A bout of head tennis in the penalty area has Irish hearts in mouths again, but Ireland eventually hack clear and the referee blows for full time. That’s a heroic moral victory for Ireland – they could easily have lost that match by five or six goals.”

90 min: “We’re into added time. A draw isn’t much of a result for Ireland as far as qualifying for Euro 2012 is concerned, but under the circumstances it will be an extraordinary achievement if they manage to hold on and keep a clean sheet.”

Liveblog (Guardian) here

(Sergei Grits/AP)
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