Lessons to be learnt for Education Minister

MINISTER Richard Bruton aims to make our education system the best in Europe within a decade. He certainly has his homework cut out for him and could learn some lessons from the OECD’s latest report entitled ‘Education at a Glance’.

The first is that we need to invest more money into the system. It’s all very well pointing out, as his department did last night, that the percentage of total public spending on education is 1.6pc higher than the OECD’s average 11.3pc. But we also have a much higher percentage of our population in the education system which will continue to expand into the future.

This expansion means more investment in primary and second-level schools and will mean a corresponding demand for the creation of additional expensive third-level places.

Funding higher education adequately requires political will to either spend a lot more taxpayers’ money on the sector or introduce a student loans scheme. The present Government has shown little inclination to do either, but then neither has Fianna Fáil.

The second lesson is that schools have to do more to help young people not just prepare for the world of work but for living in society as fully rounded citizens. The levels of self-reported depression, particularly in Ireland, are worrying.

For early school-leavers, the rate is especially high with a quarter of female early leavers reporting depression. But one in 10 Irish graduates also reports depression – twice the OECD average.

Co-incidentally, a new subject called ‘Wellbeing’ is being introduced into secondary schools this term. For our students’ future, it should be fully embraced and supported by all.