Educate Together News Release July 21st 2008

Positive Feasibility Study results put pressure on Minister to facilitate Educate Together’s move to Second-level

Parents will be encouraged by this positive report, which lends academic weight to their campaign.
A feasibility study carried out by the the school of Education in Trinity College Dublin indicates strong support for second-level Educate Together education. A report of the findings of this study is being launched at 6pm on Wednesday 23rd July in the Atrium in Trinity College Dublin by Senator Ivana Bacik. The report strongly recommends that Educate Together be facilitated in opening second-level schools, highlighting clearly the educational benefits the Educate Together ethos can bring to this crucial stage of education, as well as the support of parents for such a move.

One strand of the research surveyed the scale and nature of the demand for Educate Together second-level schools among parents of children currently attending Educate Together primary schools. Of these, an overwhelming 90% of parents indicated that if the opportunity existed they would send their children to an Educate Together post-primary school. This is no surprise to the Educate Together organisation, which has been under increasing pressure from parents around the country to open second-level schools as the number of children attending its national schools has grown. There are now 44 Educate Together primary schools in the country and another 12 are due to open in September – taking the number of pupils attending its schools to nearly 10,000.

The implications of this for an area such as Lucan, which will have five Educate Together primary schools from next year, are significant. In the foreseeable future there will be 250 pupils graduating from Educate Together primary schools each year in the Lucan area, for whom the natural progression will be to move onto an Educate Together second-level school. Judith Neuman, parent and member of the Board of Management of Griffeen Valley Educate Together NS sums up the rising frustration of parents in the area, saying “with five Educate Together primary schools within a two mile radius, it is no longer a question of asking the Minister of Education ‘Can we have an Educate Together second-level school’  but asking ‘ Why don’t we have one yet?’ ”
Demand for Educate Together second-level education is not confined to areas of rapid population growth, however. Parents in Waterford who are campaigning for an Educate Together second-level school have already received over 200 pre-enrolments and they have identified a site for the school, which they hope to share with the local Gaelcholáiste.
The report provides a strong endorsement for Educate Together primary schools. An overwhelming majority of parents said that the Educate Together ethos was noticeable in the day-to-day running of their children’s school and 92% said that the Educate Together philosophy works in practice. This philosophy, as taught through the “Learn Together” ethical education curriculum, has been cited as an example of best integration practice by the Director of the EU monitoring body on racism and xenophobia (now FRA), Beate Winkler.

The feasibility study report states that 97% of Educate Together parents said that their children were happy at school. In partiular parents were happy that their children were treated with courtesy and respect and they felt that Educate Together schools provide a balance between academic development and social well-being. It is this balance and this respect that parents want to see carried through to second-level. While schools sometimes blame parents for an overemphasis on exams and exam results, here is a large body of parents who believe strongly that there should be more to post-primary education than merely the acquisition of points.

Speaking about the organisation’s move to second-level, Paul Rowe, CEO of Educate Together spoke of the crucial importance of second-level education in the development of young people and the positive contribution that Educate Together’s learner-centred approach, which inherently recognises the different needs and learning styles of students from diverse backgrounds, can make at this stage in their lives.
He also spoke of the need for reform of the second-level education system if it is to meet the needs of 21st century Ireland, saying “this is a crucial time in Irish education”. Referring to remarks made by John Herlihy, Google’s Vice-president of Sales and Online Operations for Europe, recently, that Ireland needs to move from a traditional economy - not to a knowledge economy, but to a thinking economy - Paul Rowe said: “Our young people working in tomorrow’s world will be absolutely inundated with information – we need to equip them with the critical intellectual and interpersonal skills necessary to assess and analyse that information and to work with others in a diverse society”.
Educate Together applied to the Minister for Education and Science to be registered as a patron of second-level schools in December 2007, based on its outstanding track record at primary level. This Report adds weight to the pressure already being put on the Minister by parents around the country to confirm this registration as a matter of urgency so that Educate Together can proceed to work with families at local level to provide for the type of modern, holistic, multi-denominational, learner-centred education they want.
Speaking about this process, Senator Ivan a Bacik said “It is very important that Educate Together should be registered as second-level patrons. Secondary schools run by Educate Together would be multi-denominational, co-educational, learner-centred and democratically run. In a modern, diverse and pluralist Irish society, these are the sort of secondary schools that our children need.”

The full report of the study, as well as an executive summary, will be available on the Educate Together website www.educatetogether.ie from 23rd July.
Ends.

Senator Ivana Bacik will launch the full Report of the Feasibility Study on Wed, 23rd July, in the Atrium, Trinity College Dublin at 6pm.
More information about Educate Together’s second-level project is available at: http://www.educatetogether.ie/2_campaigns/secondlevelet.html
Contact: Emer Nowlan for more information 087 0549753    emer.nowlan@educatetogether.ie