Ireland

Basic Data
Official Country Name:	Ireland
Region:	Europe
Population:	3,797,257
Language(s):	English, Irish (Gaelic)
Literacy Rate:	98%
Academic Year:	September-June
Number of Primary Schools:	3,391
Compulsory Schooling:	9 years
Public Expenditure on Education:	6.0%
Foreign Students in National Universities:	5,975
Libraries:	351
Educational Enrollment:	Primary: 358,830
	Secondary: 389,353
	Higher: 134,566
Educational Enrollment Rate:	Primary: 104%
	Secondary: 118%
	Higher: 41%
Teachers:	Primary: 16,202
	Secondary: 27,273
	Higher: 8,979
Student-Teacher Ratio:	Primary: 22:1
Female Enrollment Rate:	Primary: 104%
	Secondary: 122%
	Higher: 43%

History & Background

The Republic of Ireland is the second largest British isle, covering 27,136 square miles and bordered to the northwest by Northern Ireland; in the past it went by the Irish Free State (1922-1937) and Eire (1937-1949). Eire is still used by many persons as their name of choice for Ireland, also causing some confusion outside the country's borders. The capital city is Dublin, containing one-third of the Irish Republic's population. During the second half of the twentieth century, the presence of so many fine higher education institutions in Dublin led to the renovation or restoration of many neighborhoods that had been reduced to slums. The predominant religion is Catholic. Ireland's 26 counties have been free of British rule since 1922, which has resulted in some educational changes, including great emphasis on the Irish language, literature, customs, and history.

Beginnings: Ireland's history began during the Mesolithic Era. Hunters from faraway British Isles and likely even southwest Europe first settled this island west of present-day Great Britain. The country began to show signs of civilized development in the Neolithic period about 4000 to 2000 B.C. A communal people, the language of these Pre-Celtic people has been lost.

Celtic & Roman Influences: Ireland's rugged beauty has always attracted settlers and conquerors. The best known of these were the Celts, likely hailing from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), known for their skills as goldsmiths and artisans. Shortly before the birth of Christ, Celtic was the primary language of the country under the ruler of Celtic chiefs. For hundreds of years, the Celts failed to develop a sophisticated form of writing other than a means of documenting family names.

In 54 and 55 B.C., Julius Caesar won some skirmishes with the natives he encountered in Britain. His documentary writing preserved his experiences, and schoolboys in England and America at one time translated them for practice. Caesar referred to Ireland as Hibernia, translated literally as the place of winter.

Catholic Church's Preservation of Scholarship: During the Middle Irish period, poets and scholars were trained at church schools, historians believe. The evidence comes from writings that survive as clues to the period. Irish tracts reveal that a mentor called a foster father tutored a pupil known as a felmac. Scholars were trained in Irish law, history, and literature, as well as in Latin.

These schools, by the fourteenth century, had changed. Instead of religious scholars acting as tutors, non-clergy scholars taught subjects, such as verse writing, to their pupils. Students of medicine learned from Irish texts that had been translated from English medical books.

After Caesar, the name most renowned and associated with Ireland is St. Patrick (circa 385-461). In addition to his many successes as a missionary, Patrick is said to have encouraged the preservation of the old warrior chants by having the words set down for posterity. Although the details of Patrick's life are blurred (partly because his own Latin writings show no mastery of the subject), he was a Brit whose father was a Roman bureaucrat and, while young, he was captured in Ireland and spent six years in slavery as a herder; he escaped and was schooled in Latin and theology, though precisely where is mere speculation. Patrick returned to Ireland in 432 and set out to convert to Catholicism the people whose nation he had come to love. One result of these conversions is that Ireland by the sixth century had several established monasteries that were havens for the preservation (and copying) of manuscripts, culture, and learning.

After an invasion by Norsemen in the eighth century, Ireland was under Viking influence until the Irish king Brian Boru fashioned an army that fought for independence. In the eighth century, the population with the name Gael then, replaced the term Erainn that had been the name for the people of Ireland. In time, the term Irish became applied to the people of this nation, even though the term was derived from a Welsh word meaning "savage." The natives, to distinguish themselves from the Viking conquerors, used Gael.

During the beginning of the Middle Ages, Ireland maintained a reverence for teachings of the Church and Church documents. In turn, the monasteries preserved the old Irish tales and accounts of heroes and everyday life. These clearly would not have survived had the monks not copied them into their manuscript books. Ironically, it was the Catholic nation's policy of putting no local ruler above the Pope in the Vatican that led to Ireland's longstanding domination by Great Britain. The only pope of English ancestry, Pope Adrian IV, in a political agreement, gave Henry II, the former Duke of Normandy (who gained control of England by invasion), permission to serve as overlord of Ireland. This decision to turn Ireland into a fiefdom was disputed by the Irish as an illegitimate transfer of power. Lands owned by the Irish were given to absentee landlords in Britain, creating a peasant class existing in woeful ignorance and poverty. In spite of Henry II's edicts maintaining that there existed separate areas of church and state, in Ireland even in the twenty-first century, that line of separation frequently dissolved.

Political, Social, & Cultural Bases: Just as religion influenced the daily life, social divisions, and political upheavals of Irish life for centuries, so too has it had a profound effect on education in the Emerald Isle. That very upheaval and strong allegiances to the Church interfered with the development of a unified system of education in Ireland.

In the late 1500s, coinciding with the growth of Protestantism in the country, non-Catholics had decidedly better schools. While Protestant diocese schools and "royal schools" set up by the Crown benefited the wealthier Protestant class, charity schools inadequately supplied the needs of the children of poor Protestants during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Catholic poor were largely ignored, their children termed urchins. One minister in 1712 said that when all the needs of the poor Protestant children were met, the schools then should try to assist the Catholic children. The charity schools were run by the Church of Ireland and were similar to those in Britain. Funding was supplied variously by parishes, landlords, clergy, and district governing boards.

The Church of Ireland was declared the state church in 1537 and remained so until 1870. In 1539, monasteries were declared dissolved, although it took some years for many to disappear. However, during much of the sixteenth century, nearly all areas of the country outside Dublin and areas of Northern Ireland were Catholic. The Crown brought Scottish settlers to Northern Ireland that were members of the Church of Ireland. During the closing years of the sixteenth century, the Church of Ireland made a conscious attempt to establish parishes in every county of the nation.

The royal schools were grammar schools started at the insistence of James I, the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, who ascended the throne with the help of Elizabeth I. (Elizabeth, in 1587, executed his mother, Mary (Stuart) Queen of Scots, with no protest from James, after she was found guilty of plotting the death of Elizabeth). James, who authorized a version of the Bible still used today, was an erratic man who believed in the divine right of kings. These royal schools were started in the 1600s by Church of Ireland bishops, but perhaps because they were founded under coercion, had many deficiencies and poor supervision.

Higher Education History & Background: Like other political areas, higher education in Ireland has always had confrontations, although much less in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century. In 1591 (or 1592, as some claim), the oldest continuous university in the country, the University of Dublin was begun, with Trinity College as its only college. Throughout its history, the school's agenda and even curriculum displayed a marked Protestant orientation, though the state had a loosely enforced policy of giving no money for denominational higher education.

In spite of politics and religious rancor at times, Trinity, since the 1700s, has been one of Europe's respected institutions, highly competitive and fiercely proud of the highest academic standards. Its senior fellows ran the school as a sort-of personal fiefdom, and seniority among fellows, rather than scholarly accomplishment, was used to establish a pecking order. By 1792, the institution enrolled 933 students. The Catholic Church in Ireland entered the realm of higher education in 1851, establishing Catholic University with famed author and educator John Henry Newman as rector; Newman, a one-time Church of England minister who converted to Catholicism and became a Cardinal, was world famous for his book, The Idea of a University, and other writings. In 1883, it became the University College, Dublin, operated under control of the Jesuit Order (known also as the Society of Jesus). When all of Ireland was under British rule, Catholics in the nineteenth century were given first the Queen's University and then the Royal University of Ireland. But the government found it could not run a school catering to just one denomination, and Royal University became open to anyone passing entrance requirements.

Until 1970 when a long-standing Catholic boycott was lifted, Catholics tended to avoid enrollment at the Anglican-run Trinity College in Dublin, perhaps the best-known Irish university. Some Irish students of Presbyterian background also preferred to pursue their higher education in Scotland, rather than accept the dominion of the established faith. In truth, this religious atmosphere could not be escaped at Trinity since many prospective religious leaders of the Church of Ireland took their degrees here. After 1970, the student population became more diverse.

Constitutional & Legal Foundations

The fundamental rights of citizens to an education are among the rights guaranteed in Article 42 of the 1937 constitution of Ireland. The constitution was largely prepared by New York-born Eamond deValera (1882-1975), Ireland's most visible leader following the granting of independence from Britain, and the country's two-time president. The constitution acknowledges the responsibility of the nation to work with parents to entitle children to receive an education without cost to the family.

There also have been a number of important statutes directly concerning education. For example, the Medical Act of 1886 was concerned with ensuring the quality education of doctors; the law stated that graduates had to be educated in surgery, medicine, and obstetrics. The education of girls was done sporadically until 1892, when a law mandating compulsory attendance was passed. At the time, it only assured students of a primary school education and little more. In 1972, the law was changed regarding compulsory education, raising the age of required education to 15 years old.

The Vocational Education Act of 1930 established Vocational Education Committees (VEC) throughout Ireland. Such committees oversaw what then was defined as "technical and continuation education." Today, about 10 percent of costs pertaining to this area of education is VEC funded, while the Department of Education foots 90 percent of the costs.

Also related to education are the provisions of the Dublin Institute of Technology Act, 1992, and section 9 of the Universities Bill, 1997, that formalized by statute whether a new school of higher learning should be granted a charter or not.

If there is a deficiency in Irish education, it has been the lack of a guiding educational philosophy. However, the new curriculum that became effective around the turn of the twenty-first century may be a step in that direction. Child-centered learning is the goal, along with developing skills in all subjects, particularly science and instructional technology, while also concentrating on training students in the traditional basic subjects.

Educational System—Overview

Around 1800 the Anglican Church was responsible for supervising the education of boys and girls at both the primary and secondary levels. But many areas of the country that were heavily Catholic were resistant, and some rural Catholic areas either had no schools or offered little financial support for them.

There were a few superior schools in Ireland, the education historian R.B. McDowell has written—the well-funded Royal School at Armagh, Enniskillen, and Burrowes. But these were the exception. Hence, Ireland, in many pockets of the country, relied upon numerous private academies taught by schoolmasters of various skill levels and education levels to educate students in cities and rural towns. Some of the schoolmasters were clergy. Others were women, and limited their students to young ladies (in the parlance of the time). Some offered room and board or meals only for the young people. Standard subjects were elocution, arithmetic, bookkeeping, foreign languages, and geography. The girls' schools added "finishing school" classes to raise cultured pupils.

Almost as it was in the Middle Ages when scholars traveled far and wide to recruit students and teach, in Ireland during the late 1700s and early 1800s, poor, learned men traveled to offer classes in barns and anywhere else a few students might be assembled. The schools were nicknamed "hedge" schools because they were as apt to be taught under the shade of a hedge as in a building, and they were of uneven quality—as likely to be taught by an itinerant, unqualified teacher as a scholar. In time, however, even some of the secret, underground hedge schools became permanent fixtures in a community, and the classrooms sometimes were the equivalent of mainstream classrooms with proper textbooks instead of merely a handy Bible or popular novels.

Nonetheless, Catholics, in particular, considered them a better alternative to Protestant schools or no schooling at all. Estimates during the 1820s were that as many as 400,000 pupils were in attendance at hedge schools. There were 9,000 such schools in existence in 1824, according to The Oxford Companion to Irish History.

In sharp contrast to the hedge schools, a handful of day schools associated with the Church of Ireland opened in Ireland that were the equivalent of day schools for younger children in England. In 1811, impressed with those schools, some business leaders from Dublin (who were Quakers and members of other sects) resolved to try to improve educational opportunities for poverty-stricken youth. These reformers called their organization the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland, and their crusade resulted in the state granting funding. The Society also admired the pioneering work of English educational reformer Joseph Lancaster, founder (in 1801) of a free elementary school that organized one-room schoolhouses for the poor. Teachers enlisted their better students and designated them as monitors to train younger or less-quick-to-learn peers.

Following Lancaster's precepts, a monitorial system was installed at the Society's headquarters in Kildare Place in Dublin, and the hope was that superior teachers could be trained here. Each student monitor was given a bench with 10 students to school. In contrast to brutal methods of some schoolmasters, Kildare Place eschewed beatings in favor of shaming miscreants. But the daily practice of Bible reading infuriated Catholics in the country; they refused to accept the validity of the King James Bible and disagreed with the school'srefusal to interpret the scripture reading for students. By 1831, funding for the school dried up and went to the national schools where separation of church and state was followed in theory, though not in practice.

Enough students possessed sufficient literacy for the cities to support at least one newspaper and occasionally many papers. More sophisticated subscribers read Hibernian Magazine. Theatres did a brisk business entertaining a story-loving people. Dublin supported a lending library, and booksellers made a living off scholars and the well-to-do. But McDowell, the critic, said that the general state of Irish letters was poor then, the glory years of the great Irish playwrights at the Abbey Theatre and poets such as Yeats were still one century away. McDowell stressed that Ireland failed to measure up to comparison with the intellectual accomplishments of Scotland, let alone Britain.

Perhaps the most significant time in the establishment of a countrywide, state-aided educational system of elementary schools was in 1831, championed by Lord Edward G.S.M. Stanley. Conflicts immediately arose over the matter of keeping religious influence out of schools because the elementary schools were told that churches had the right to provide pupils with supplementary religious education. Even though, in theory, no aid was to be given to the primary schools and emerging secondary schools, in reality, religious influences permeated all levels of the educational system, particularly the school boards, which were headed by priests or vicars, depending on the district's religious makeup.

At first, however, Protestants were the main critics against "godless" schools, while Catholic leaders, worried about high illiteracy rates among their people, generally supported the state-run educational system, at least at first. Eventually, Catholics came to despise the system, saying students were exposed to pro-British and anti-Catholic influences. Nonetheless, the formation of national schools was an important step forward in the history of education in Ireland. It was intended to give an equal education to all pupils without meddling from churches. It gave Irish schools a semblance of structure, and it established a policy of local districts to pick up their fair share of costs for teacher salaries, school lots and building costs, and schoolbooks.

During the nineteenth century, as classes were taught in English, there eventually occurred a downplaying of Irish as the native tongue. During the twentieth century, following a great surge of nationalism after Ireland gained its independence from Britain, there was a clamor to restore the teaching of Irish once again in schools of all levels. However, as native speakers age and die, there are linguists who predict that the "true Gaeltacht" dialect may disappear; others are dedicated to its preservation. With Catholicism further losing its influence in the twenty-first century, some nationalists feel it is important to preserve all forms of the Irish tongue as a way to unify the nation.

Literacy: The INTO teachers union in 1998 founded a committee for the study of literacy issues in Ireland. The union announced that it was looking into strategies for assisting children with literacy problems. The committee concluded that Irish children too often perform below the literacy levels of other European countries. They have performed in substandard fashion in reading levels. INTO concluded that teachers must be recruited who are particularly trained in developmental studies and remedial education. In addition, areas of particular concern to INTO are adult literacy problems and the literacy deficiency of people living in disadvantaged areas of the Irish Republic.

Special Needs Education: In 1998, Micheal Martin, Minister for Education and Science, announced that the government had made the needs of special education students a priority. In particular, the government has ensured that children with autism will have automatic access to special classes. There also will be trained teachers available and the support and infrastructure to serve their needs. The pupil-teacher ratio of special needs youngsters is 6:1. The cost of the reforms in 1999 was estimated at nearly 4 million pounds.

Compulsory Education: In Ireland, compulsory education is from the age of six, theoretically. However, given the increasing role women have played in the Irish labor force, the majority of children enroll by the age of four or five. In 2000, some government spokespersons advocated cutting off free primary education at 18-years-old, but the proposal has met with parent indignation and media expressions of outrage in favor of giving slow learners all the time they need to graduate.

Female Enrollment: As in other countries, the education of girls and women was slow to take hold as a concept in Ireland. During the Middle Ages, Ireland truly was a land living in the Dark Ages when it came to schooling females. There were some gains in the 1500s, but those were lost the following century.

Not until the 1700s did some women from wealthier backgrounds not only show their aptitude for serious study, but also a number of female poets, writers, and intellectuals contributed significantly to Irish letters.

That somewhat of a turnabout had been achieved by 1831 is seen in the creation of a national school system that provided the same curriculum for males and females, as well as access to scholarships to acquire training to serve as teachers. However, clear to the end of the 1870s, those schools that charged tuition put emphasis on graduating ladies able to take their place in society.

Finally, in the late 1870s and 1880s, attitudes changed dramatically in Ireland, and women earned the right to pursue rigorous studies at the university level, forcing schools at the lower level to upgrade curriculum choices for women. At individual universities, administrators showed varying degrees of acceptance for female equality in education. In Belfast, Cork, and Galway, women who could afford the tuition took classes alongside males in the 1890s, but Dublin schools of higher education resisted compliance until 1910.

With the worldwide spread of feminism in the last half of the twentieth century, many inequities in the education of all females came under criticism. Slowly, the country moved ahead to enable women from lower income families to gain an education with the aid of public funding targeted for that purpose.

Academic Year: Many Irish schools are in session far fewer days than schools in other industrialized nations. The exceptionally shortened school calendar has been linked to dismal scores of many Irish students in science and mathematics, according to educational experts inter-viewed by The Irish Times in 1995. Only 35 percent of Irish schools remain in session for more than 175 days (with a high of 200 days), while 90 percent of schools in Scotland and England do so.

While 65 percent of Irish students who are 13-years-old go to school only between 151 and 175 days, in England and Scotland, less than 3 percent of students are in school for fewer than 175 days. Irish 13-year-olds scored next to lowest in a ranking of competing countries in science and scored eighth out of 14 in mathematics.

In 2001, as secondary teachers were involved in a dispute over salary, commentators noted that if higher pay scales were granted, teachers might be asked to teach additional school days to equal the number of days scheduled by English and Scottish schools.

Preprimary & Primary Education

Irish children tend to start school at a younger age than do other world children. Both junior and senior infant classes are the equivalent of preschool classes in most other countries. Ninety-five percent of all five- to six-year-olds are in senior infant classes, and 59 percent of four- to five-year-olds are in junior infant classes. Provision in national schools for children aged four and five is an integral part of the regular school system.

Children in infants' classes follow a prescribed curriculum that was introduced in September of 1999. Teachers are trained national school teachers; however, parents and media critics are loud in their denunciation of the preprimary school program and what is perceived as less-than-strong interest on the part of the state in this area. Eleven major reports from 1980 to 2000 have criticized the preschool program. According to the latest figures (1998), slightly more than one percent of three-yearolds in Ireland were in school full-time.

The Department of Education, in addition to regular classes offered mainly at private preprimary schools, also sponsors an Early Start Preschool pilot program, a program for children with disabilities, and the Breaking the Cycle pilot project for at-risk children.

Children are not legally mandated to attend school until their sixth birthday. Nonetheless, nearly 100 percent of five-year-olds and 52 percent of four-year-olds attend primary schools. Four-year-old girls are four to five percentage points more likely to be in primary school than are boys. Primary schools have expenses for the site and 15 percent of the capital costs paid by local communities. The state pays 85 percent of capital costs, plus an additional 10 percent in areas designated to be disadvantaged.

The Department of Education pays the salary of teachers. Schools are given a grant for a portion of expenses such as lighting, heating, cleaning, maintenance, and teaching materials.

At this level, Ireland's educators have been asked to increased emphasis on active learning and problem solving in their classrooms. Parent satisfaction with primary schools has generally been high. However, the Irish National Teachers Organization in 1994 conducted a study of six comparable schools in Limerick and Derry, finding wide differences in school funding between the two jurisdictions. Primary schools in the Republic of Ireland were said to be "under-funded and under-resourced" compared to Northern Ireland schools. The Republic of Ireland also displayed higher pupil-teacher ratios than their counterparts in Northern Ireland. The findings created considerable concern in Ireland, and led to cries for curriculum reform and additional government funding.

Six years later, a curriculum reform committee and consultants had addressed most of the major weaknesses in the primary system. A new primary curriculum was approved by the Minister of Education and introduced by the Department of Education in 1999-2000 to 3,000 primary schools for the first time since 1971, but some of the courses such as a social, environmental, and science course were delayed until 2002. Initial reaction to the curriculum was positive from both an important teachers union and the National Parents Council, both of which were involved in curriculum discussion.

More than 10 years in the writing, the new curriculum attempted to address low rankings in science among Irish students who had earned schools the criticism of media writers and parents. The curriculum emphasizes child-centered learning with skills development. Math (with an emphasis on problem solving), history, and geography were also given emphasis, according to The Times Educational Supplement. Science; educational drama; and social, personal, and health education were added to the new curriculum.

The changes were implemented by 21,000 primary school teachers to their 460,000 pupils. The curriculum was broken into 6 main areas and then subdivided into 11 subjects. Other important aspects include a revised Irish curriculum "based on a communicative approach;" a new English syllabus; and updated educational methods in language learning, reading, and writing.

In the Republic of Ireland, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), although not a statutory body, takes an advisory role to assist with the formation of a new curriculum. The NCCA consulted with course committees for each subject before sending a recommended curriculum to the Department of Education.

Textbooks: With the adoption of the new curriculum, educators and administrators have also discussed what they perceive has been an over-dependence on textbooks in the primary school curriculum. Educators say that too many teachers allow textbooks to drive their classes rather than using them as a resource in moderation.

Secondary Education

A national system of education was established in 1831 that was intended to be nondenominational, but struggles between the Catholics and Church of Ireland members made that a near impossible goal to accomplish. That principle was reaffirmed in 1878 when the government established the Intermediate Education Board.

In the first half of the twentieth century, Catholic parochial schools included both minor seminaries and elementary and secondary schools. Facilities were generally aged and decaying. More emphasis was put on religion and the preservation of morals than on academic preparation. Textbooks were outdated. In part, some of the blame goes to shortsighted religious leaders, but some also goes to the exclusion of Catholics from Irish schools for so many years.

One of the major reforms in Irish education occurred in 1947 when the Education Act provided free secondary education in national schools. Then, in 1963, the minister of education carefully restructured postprimary schools into secondary and vocational programs. This coincided with increased secondary attendance owing to an increase in the birthrate following World War II. The government announced its commitment to education as crucial to the growth of industry and professions, as well as the nation's economic health and stability.

Because the Leaving Certificate, administered in the thirteenth year, is the primary entrance requirement for higher education, secondary teachers put considerable emphasis into getting their classes fully prepared. With only so many students accepted, there is pressure since even students that graduate in Ireland do not automatically qualify to get in. Far more applicants send in their application papers than can be admitted. Acceptances are given based on merit and scores on the final secondary school-leaving examination. Places for medicine and veterinary studies are especially competitive.

Curriculum Requirements: Republic of Ireland schools have set Irish (Gaelic) as the primary language of instruction since 1922 (part of the mandatory curriculum in 1928), although English is so widely used that nearly all Republic of Ireland schools qualify as bilingual.

In the Republic of Ireland, the main academic subjects in the curriculum are mathematics, history, geography, and a choice of other recognized subjects, usually science. A revised curriculum in all of Ireland is being implemented, marked by increased science emphasis. Students are asked to observe, perform experiments, and develop reasoning and inductive skills.

Much of the push for increased science emphasis can be credited to an organization called Forfás, overseeing the National Policy and Advisory Board for Enterprise, Trade, Science, Technology, & Innovation. Forfás encourages and promotes the development of enterprise, science, and technology in Ireland, including support for education at all levels.

Educational System: Pupils that expect to apply to university take up to nine subjects and a minimum of six subjects. After three years of secondary education, students complete the junior cycle and the junior certificate is then taken. The certificate measures achievement, but it is not used by universities for admission purposes. At the end of the final year of secondary school, students take the leaving certificate. There are two levels of achievement: the ordinary level and the higher level. Although both cover the same school material, the higher level requires more sophisticated responses.

Expenditure: Secondary schools have 90 percent of total expenses for approved building and equipment costs paid by the government. Teacher salaries and allowances, with minor exceptions, are paid by the Department of Education. Schools are expected to operate within the limits of a budget provided to administrators at the start of the school year. A capitation grant pays for ordinary over-head, library books, and partial computer expenses.

Until late in the twentieth century, when educators placed increasing value on instructional technology, computers were considered a luxury. If additional funding is required for computers, schools must participate in fundraising activities to meet the costs. Musical instruments and school trips also are paid with money raised through volunteer efforts. In 1994, critics of fundraising for free schools argue that the practice likely hurts the parents of school children in disadvantaged areas. Parents who are poor may feel obligated to make contributions and may suffer financially for their payments. Other critics say such parents have enough trouble putting money aside to send their children off to college eventually, as the poor of Ireland have long been underrepresented at the higher-education level.

Then too, in 2000 and 2001, employers have claimed that a shortage exists in workers trained to use computers, which has resulted in recent governmental attention to the perceived oversight. A national project called Schools IT 2000 was set in place to correct the computer shortages in education. To administer the program, The National Center for Technology in Education (NCTE) was established and asked to coordinate the program. An administrator and four staff members were hired to see that the directive would be carried out. The program is both exciting and extensive. Telecom Eireann gave each school a multimedia computer with an Internet connection. Also provided was a telephone line, free rental of the line for two years, and five hours of free Internet access.

Previously, the NCTE, together with the Department of Education and Science, provided schools with 15 million pounds in funding to buy 15,000 new computers and equipment in 1998 under the Technology Integration Initiative scheme. All schools in the free education system at primary and postprimary levels were given generous per-pupil grants. Because the equipment without teacher training is not useful, another 1.4 million pounds were granted to buy hardware for Teacher Training Institutions, Education Centers, and the School Integration Project. There also were nationwide seminars for teachers, and the NCTE provided hardware specifications and discounts from suppliers to help schools make wise computer choices.

Because teachers are expected to require computer support, the Schools Support Initiative developed a support network called ScoilNet, to give advice and assistance. The Department of Education and other offices are forming partnerships with corporations such as IBM as well. In 2001, arrangements were set in place for a National Policy Advisory and Development Committee (NPADC) to act as a support group for the Minister and the Department of Education and Science on the future implementation of computers and technology in the schools.

Foreign Influences on Educational System: Ireland continues to be an attractive destination for students pursuing an undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional education. Medical students find Ireland's prestigious programs, up-to-date facilities, and attractive setting especially appealing. The National University of Ireland or NUI, which offers a full-time undergraduate degree in Medicine plus specialist training at postgraduate level, reports that two-thirds of its full-time student population is made up of international students. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) attracts both undergraduate and postgraduate students from more than 40 different countries and from all five continents. More than 65 percent of places offered to undergraduates each year are allocated to students from outside Ireland.

Dropouts: Since 1988, an educational program for those leaving school early was operated with the cooperation of local education and labor training authorities. The Youthreach Program provides two years of education, training, and placement for those between 15 and 18 who fail to earn a formal diploma. In 1991, some 3,336 persons enrolled in Youthreach but, by 1995, that number had dropped to 1,630 boys and girls.

The first or "Foundation" year provides skills classes, on-site job training, general education, and counseling services. The second, or "Progression Year," provides similar training, plus options such as training in specific skills, temporary employment, or additional education. In addition to secondary school dropouts, vocational colleges in Ireland have also become concerned about dropout rates for students that many educators perceive are rising at a troubling rate. Several colleges formed committees to get a handle on the problem in 1998. Colleges were also asked to compile accurate records showing what percentage of the entering class leaves prior to the start of the second year.

Higher Education

University, non-university, and private colleges provide higher education in Ireland. The number of applicants for places in third-level colleges outnumbers openings for students, and the dropout rate of first-year students is a national concern, causing critics to question the quality of the nation's secondary schools. Perhaps the most important occurrence in the behind-the-scenes running of Ireland's colleges was the establishment of a Higher Education Authority. This advisory board was an important adjunct to the minister for education, making recommendations on fiscal matters and on ways to upgrade colleges and universities. The Higher Education Authority and the Department of Education work in cooperative fashion. Higher Education in Ireland takes the form of universities, technology institutes, and colleges for teacher education. Additional institutions provide specialized training in art, design, medicine, theology, music, and law.

Since the 1960s, industry in Ireland has reported a shortage in skilled workers, particularly, after 1995, those with sophisticated computer skills. Since universities were unable or unwilling to address these needs, the government of Ireland set up the National Institute for Higher Education (NIHE) to upgrade and start technical colleges graded as third-level educational institutions.

Higher education in Ireland has changed considerably throughout the past two decades. The number of students enrolled has increased markedly with the establishment of teaching institutions with a technology emphasis such as the Regional Technical Colleges (RTCs). Most institutions of higher education are state-supported, meaning they receive more than 90 percent of their income from the State. Since 1975, additional universities in Limerick and Dublin were opened, and the Institutes of Technology were expanded to take more enrollees. Disciplines gaining favor from students since 1965 are in the arts, social sciences, technology, and business. Also since 1965, Ireland's universities have experienced a significant jump in enrollment from 21,000 in 1965 to nearly 97,000 in 1997.

Since the passing of the Irish Universities Act in 1997, eight universities operate in Ireland. These are the University Colleges at Dublin, Cork, and Galway; the National University of Ireland (NUI); the University of Dublin (Trinity College); Dublin City University; University of Limerick; and Maynooth University. Each of these colleges offers courses as varied as social science, the arts, Celtic studies, law, medicine, dairy science, veterinary studies, architecture, and agriculture. In addition, there are a number of designated third-level institutions that interact with the Higher Education Authority. These are the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, The Royal Irish Academy, the National College of Art and Design, and The National Council for Educational Awards.

In Ireland there also is a higher education unit called non-universities, and in 2000 there were 14 of them located throughout the country, including Tallaght and R.T.C. Co. Dublin, which opened in September of 1992. They provide higher technical and technological education.

In 1995, the government published a document called "Charting our Education Future" that said the nation was striving "to ensure the highest standards of quality in all fields, in order to provide students with the best possible education." The government's "White Paper," as the report was called, said, "the restructured Higher Education Authority will be responsible for monitoring and evaluating the quality audit systems within individual institutions. The system will be based on cyclical evaluation of departments and faculties by national and international peers preceded by an internal evaluation; arrangements for the implementation and monitoring of evaluation findings; and the development of appropriate performance indicators."

The Department of Education, university presidents, and the Higher Education Authority developed performance indicators for higher education institutions and their faculties that assess all activities, particularly teaching and research.

Admission Procedures: Admission procedures for universities and colleges of higher education set their own minimum entrance requirements. The office that acts as a coordinator for applications is the Central Applications Office. Scores on the school leaving-certificate examination are used to reserve places for students on a point system.

Applicants may be admitted to an Irish university if they have earned a Leaving Certificate or diploma that signifies the successful completion of 13 years of schooling with a minimum overall average. (Prior to 1999, a student had to show evidence of passing the Matriculation Examination of the National University of Ireland; the exam was phased out in 1992). Most higher education institutions use the Central Applications Office in Galway to screen applications. The Central Applications Office was established in 1976.

Enrollment: According to the Central Statistics Office, in the decade between 1988 and 1998, the number of Republic of Ireland students enrolled in full-time or part-time undergraduate courses increased by 72 percent. Over the same period, postgraduate students more than doubled. Of the 89,500 students in higher education in 1994, approximately 52,000 attended at the university level.

Professional Education: An institute of higher education offering training in medicine began in Dublin during the seventeenth century, but it was run haphazardly until 1711 when a medical school opened at Trinity College, Dublin. Even then, very few doctors chose to earn their degrees here. Most preferred to study medicine at established, prestigious schools in Great Britain or other European countries. In the earliest days of medicine, surgeons were associates of barbers and belonged to the Barbers Surgeons Guild. In time, a Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) was established in 1654. Next, Charles II chartered a Fraternity of Physicians in 1667.

In 1713, a Dublin physician named Sir Patrick Dunn died and bequeathed a chair of medicine to Trinity College. Even by 1747, the number grew only to two additional distinguished professor chairs. In 1785 the school began a College of Surgeons. In 1816, the school was connected with a hospital and offered clinical studies, ensuring its reputation. Cadavers, as was the custom of the day as recalled in literature by Charles Dickens and Ambrose Bierce, were stolen from cemeteries in the night by grave robbers.

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) was established in 1784 and now is associated with NUI. Ireland's most prestigious medical school, it is housed in an early nineteenth century building on St. Stephen's Green in Dublin. The renovated building contains state-of-the-art computer laboratories; modern lecture, theatre, and seminar rooms; and laboratories.

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, other prominent physicians expanded their practices by opening medical schools. A number of physicians in other cities also began to run them, but these failed to out-live the men who started them. In 1855, Catholic University also operated a hospital that eventually was taken over by University College, Dublin.

Members of the legal profession practiced law well before the twelfth century in Ireland. Formal schooling was required of attorneys during the sixteenth century. Prospective attorneys by 1628 were required to study at the Inns of Court in London, a professional school that, at the time, had been in existence for two centuries, for the required five years.

Catholics were prevented from becoming attorneys by means of a loyalty oath to the Church of Ireland that they were unable to take, lest their own Church excommunicate them. Lawyers who successfully passed the London Inns of Court and took the oath were admitted to the professional company of judges and lawyers in a society named the King's Inn (after the building that for a long time housed the society). Today, tradition continues as the Honorable Society of King's Inns and the Incorporated Law Society provide academic preparation in law for prospective attorneys to qualify respectively for barrister-at-law and for solicitor.

Vocational Colleges: By way of example, students seeking a career in tourism find an internationally acclaimed institute in the Shannon College of Hotel Management. It was founded in 1951 by educator Brendan O'Regan, as a source of trained managers for the Irish hotel trade. Shannon College is a hands-on college that uses internships to enable students to acquire on-site hotel experience to complement management training. Those earning the diploma in International Hotel Management are expected to demonstrate business skills, managerial skills, and fluency in one or more foreign languages. The National Council recognizes the school's diploma for Educational Awards, the National University of Ireland, and several prestigious industry associations such as The International Hotel Association.

Religious Institutions: Chief among religious institutions is the National University of Ireland (NUI), established in 1908. NUI is actually made up of three colleges: University College, Galway; University College, Cork; and University College, Dublin. The Royal College of Surgeons and St. Patrick's College, a training school for future priests, also are associated with NUI.

Private Colleges: In Ireland there are a small number of private colleges providing third level and professional education. By way of example, four of the major institutions are:

1. The National College of Ireland (NCI) located in Dublin is an independent institution specializing in industrial relations, management, and related areas; it offers a National Diploma in Personnel Management (4-year evening course) and a B.A. in Industrial Relations (5-year evening course) conferred by the NCEA.
2. The Shannon International Hotel School offers a four-year Diploma in Hotel Management. The final year includes a management internship in the United Kingdom or United States.
3. The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) offers sub-degree, primary degree, and graduate programs in its specialty areas.
4. The American College offers degrees and diplomas in the humanities, business, international law, and psychology. Validation is from a university in the United States.

Degrees Offered: A bachelor degree is obtained after a three- or four-year full-time course or comparable period of part-time study. This degree is usually pursued in a particular subject or field of study. The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) program requires three or four years' study, while Bachelor degrees in Medicine and Dentistry require six years of study.

Postgraduate Training: A Graduate Higher Diploma is generally obtained after one or two years of postgraduate study. A research thesis is generally required. A Master's degree requires course work, a research project, and examination in a specific field of study. The normal duration of study is from one to three years following the Bachelor degree.

The Doctorate is the highest academic qualification awarded in Ireland. The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.) Degree, Doctor in Letters (D.Litt.), Doctor in Science (D.Sc.), and some others may be obtained only by research and are, in general, completed in one to three years after the Master's Degree.

National & Government Educational Agencies: Higher education in Ireland is managed only at the national level and not administered by regional agencies in Ireland. The government has entrusted its Department of Education to oversee and administer the country's system of higher education—known as the third level. The vocational schools, also known as technical institutes, get operating funds from the Department of Education; however, the Universities and some colleges of education apply for funding from the Higher Education Authority (HEA). Other third level institutions provide specialist education in areas such as the arts or the professions and business, but these, too, get the bulk of budgetary funding through the state.

The state has reacted to strong criticisms of its higher education facilities by taking a far-reaching role in educational matters. Most conspicuously, it founded the HEA in 1969 to keep a master plan for such institutions, as well as to possess budgetary powers. In addition, an agency was formed to monitor standards and curriculum matters in 1972. The National Council for Educational Awards (NCEA) oversees both undergraduate and graduate school matters under its jurisdiction. Another bureaucratic addition came about in 1976 to take over certain administrative duties such as processing applications from persons applying for courses at the universities, some specialty colleges, and a number of private colleges as well. This agency is called the Central Applications Office (CAO).

Expenditures: Public moneys appropriated for pre-school, primary, and secondary schools fall short of those spent by many comparable European nations, but Ireland's spending on higher education compares favorably with rival countries, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 1993, the Republic of Ireland spent 1.7 billion pounds (US$2.6 billion) on education. Areas where the Republic of Ireland falls relatively low in preschool, primary, and secondary education were pointed out by a study issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 1995 (though based on 1992 figures). The OECD finds Ireland deficient compared to other European countries in per-pupil expenditures at the preschool, primary, and secondary levels.

The Department of Education: The Department of Education administers public education, including primary, postprimary and special education. State subsidies for universities and third level colleges are given out through the Department. The three main levels of the education system are first, second, and third levels. The first and second level is referred to generally as primary and post-primary, respectively. The mission statement of the Department of Education says its purpose is "to ensure the provision of a comprehensive, cost-effective, and accessible education system of the highest quality, as measured by international standards, which will enable individuals to develop to their full potential as persons, and to participate fully as citizens in society, and contribute to social and economic development."

Nonformal Education: Teachers in Ireland frequently find teaching aids and sources from 1 of 30 part-time and full-time Education Centers in the country. These centers offer various support services and resources to teachers and to other partners in education. Two of the best known are the Blackrock Educational Center and Dublin West Education Center. These centers also keep an online presence with information on how to access contact persons and information.

In 2000 and 2001, many Irish children participated in a multi-center project called Write-a-Book. Meant to be a celebration of writing and artistic abilities by Ireland's children, not a contest, the student authors chronicle their lives, cultures, and homelands. Each participant receives a certificate. A few outstanding books are selected upon merit, and an Irish television star or media personality presents awards to the children.

Continuing Education: Students who do not enter a university or technical college but wish postsecondary school training frequently elect to take additional course-work in vocational schools. More than 30,000 part-time students were enrolled in vocational, community, and comprehensive schools in 1994-1995. More than 300 courses are open to such students.

Vocational schools, as have other Irish higher education institutions, improved much in the 1990s. With industry jobs going begging in the late 1990s, many additional students found new institutions such as the Regional Technical Colleges (RTCs) a good fit for their needs. In 1996 the Minister of Education unfolded plans to also allow the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) to offer degree-granting programs for professional and managerial students.

Distance Education: Taking courses via the Internet, television, video, and radio—distance education—can be taken in addition to regular university courses or in place of university courses. Distance learning is equal to the amount of work performed in a regular classroom, but it is done at a time and place chosen by the student. No formal entry requirements are required for applicants aged 23 and older, making distance learning particularly attractive to adults and students getting a second chance at a college degree after dropping out earlier in life. Students also have the option of taking courses through the established Open University and the developing Irish National Distance Education Center (NDEC) headquartered at Dublin City University.

For students willing to give up the benefits of classroom instruction and close face-to-face interaction with professors and their fellow students, distance education is an option worth taking to earn a B.S. or B.A. degree that could not be obtained by traditional means. Course offerings include selections from literature, philosophy, history, psychology, and sociology. Another option is a BSc degree in information technology. Students choose from a course menu including management science, computing, and communications technology.

Teaching Profession

In 1834 a systematic teacher-training program began in Dublin at certain model schools for male and female students. There were about 25 model schools there by 1850; the training period lasted six months. For a time, both Protestant and Catholic students attended these schools, but in the mid-1860s Catholic authorities forbade students from attending, not wanting the Protestant influence on the children. When teacher training became more formalized, the schools no longer were used to train teachers but, nonetheless, many of the schools continued to exist until the twentieth century.

Irish teacher training involves several differences between primary and second level schoolteachers. Second level teachers usually complete a primary degree at university and then follow up with a Higher Diploma in education at a university. Primary school teachers complete a three-year program, leading to a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree, at a teacher training college. St. Patrick's College, Church of Ireland College, St. Mary Marino and Froebel College of Education are based in Dublin. Mary Immaculate College is based in Limerick. One criterion for primary school teacher training in Ireland is proficiency in Irish.

Student-Teacher Ratio: In 1997-1998 the teacher-student ratio was 19 pupils per teacher in the Republic of Ireland. This was two more pupils per teacher than in Northern Ireland.

The Training of Agriculture Instructors: The government involved itself in national agricultural operations, such as the training of teachers in agriculture-related subjects, in 1899. Ireland that year created the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI), hoping that education and scientific farming methods could prevent a recurrence of the Great Famine that ravaged Ireland from 1845-1849. Heavily dependent upon potatoes, a non-native crop brought to Europe from South America by the Spanish in the sixteenth century, Ireland's potato crop was ruined by blight caused by a fungus possibly introduced with imported fertilizer. Up to one million people died from starvation and disease, and many more Irish emigrated to the United States and other countries.

In addition to agriculture, the maintenance of fisheries, and the keeping of agricultural statistics, the Department of Agriculture involved itself in the training of teachers in such areas as health, science, plant breeding, and animal husbandry. Unfortunately, the department failed to establish a clear division of powers with the Congested Districts Board (CDB). The CDB, begun in 1891 as a board intending to improve agriculture in areas of extreme poverty, was given large amounts of money in its budget and the power to arrange training of agricultural instructors.

As is true of other areas of politics in Ireland, the DATI and CDB never could resolve differences. DATI ceased to exist in 1922 and a Department of Lands and Agriculture came into being. Although both groups were involved in strife, and the CDB was scored for chronic mismanagement of funds, a number of good instructors were trained, and Irish farmers and poor townspeople learned the dangers of relying upon a single crop for sustenance.

Students unwilling or unable to obtain a college degree may opt to attend classes and on-farm-site training to qualify for a Certificate in Farming. This three-year agricultural education and training program provides basic skills training in animal and crop husbandry, farm equipment and machinery, and environmental conservation.

The Farm Apprenticeship program is carried out by the Farm Apprenticeship Board. An apprentice begins the program with one year of courses at a recognized agricultural college and then begins an apprenticeship with a sponsoring farmer.

Unions & Associations: Three unions, the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland; the Irish National Teachers' Organization; and the Teachers' Union of Ireland represent Ireland's teachers. The Association of Secondary Teachers is the union representing secondary school teachers in Ireland. The Irish National Teachers' Organization was founded in 1868 and is the largest teachers' trade union in Ireland; it represents teachers at the primary level in the Republic of Ireland. The Teachers' Union of Ireland's teachers and lecturers work in vocational schools, community and comprehensive schools, Institutes of Technology, and colleges of education.

The reputation of the teachers' union was dealt a damaging blow in 2001, as media reporters, parents, and students condemned a pay dispute by secondary teachers who used their students as pawns in an effort to get the government to accede to their demands. The striking union, the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland, made an attempt to force the government's hand by claiming it might fail to process the Leaving Certificate examination needed by students for entry into Irish universities.

Just as upset as parents and students were teachers, among the lowest paid in Europe, and envious of Northern Ireland schools with better resources, who expressed anger and resentment over the nation's failure to reward their hard work as teachers with the competitive pay rate they felt they deserved. The government treated the teachers' demands as a bluff. By April 7, 2001, so many teachers had agreed to correct the Leaving Certificate out of concern for their students or fear for their jobs that the union clearly had been defeated.

The other unions also decried low wages but agreed to an arbitration process called benchmarking, which was intended to bring teacher salaries on a par with wages paid to other types of employee groups in Ireland.

Summary

Since the 1960s, the Irish have been aware of serious deficiencies in the educational system. Reforms, however, have been incomplete and less than satisfactory, as several studies and self-studies note.

In 1966, a research team headed by educator Patrick Lynch completed a thorough analysis of the primary and secondary systems and produced a scathing report called "Investment in Education." In 1967, a report completed by a special commission on higher education concluded that the third-level was no less problematic. Changes were implemented immediately, although these were less successful than ministers of education, parents, and politicians hoped they would be. The primary level revamped its curriculum. Smaller secondary schools with aging facilities and other deficiencies were consolidated with stronger schools into institutions with a modern look and characteristics. Of utmost importance, the government made it possible for many of Ireland's sons and daughters to receive an education at state expense.

The combination of free schools and better facilities pleased parents immensely. In 1965-1966, there were 143,000 students enrolled in postprimary schools. Fifteen years later, 301,000 students enrolled. For the immediate future, Ireland's educational prospects continue to look promising at the university level in particular. In 1995, the Steering Committee on the Future Development of Higher Education released projections of a total enrollment of 120,000 students in higher education by 2005. The predicted increase has been attributed at an economic boom, technological development, and greater opportunities for lower-income students.

According to a new report released in 2001 by census officials, more than 25 percent of all births in the Republic of Ireland now occur outside marriage. The information is contained in a new compendium publication Ireland, North and South —a statistical profile that has been jointly produced by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and the Republic of Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO). The high number of children from one-parent homes is expected to have an effect on primary education in Ireland by 2005, and it eventually will affect secondary schools.

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—Hank Nuwer