Ireland’s educational system, educational challenges and the purposes of improvement

Written by Stefania Grace Tangredi

Source: Journal of Rural Studies

Ireland’s territory is divided into two parts: Ireland, sometimes referred to as “the Republic of Ireland”, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.  Ireland is a member of the European Union.

The population of the country in 1926 was 2,971,922, increasing to 4982 million in 2023. Ireland became a free state in 1922, a parliamentary democracy governed by the 1937 Constitution of Ireland.  The official languages are both English and Irish.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Irish economy was growing and increasing not only in the political field but also in the educational field. In 2008 unemployment increased, and GDP dropped in growth. The recovery plan agreed upon at that time required a significant cut in public spending and a range of measures to stabilize finances and return to growth; Ireland exited successfully at the end of 2013. The Expenditures on Education by the Government are 3.72 % as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP); this is lower than both the regional average (4.6%) and the average for its income group (4.5%).

Ireland’s educational system

In Ireland, attendance at National Schools is free, and the State must provide free primary education. Some private elementary schools charge a fee. Attendance at most secondary schools is free, but some private schools charge a fee for the families, even in secondary education. Sometimes the schools bear the expenses for books, uniforms and exams. The history of Ireland has been shaped by the influence of religious institutions in society, including the education system; therefore, the Catholic Church plays an important role in education: most primary schools, like the National Schools, are run by the Church and subsidized by the State. Most Secondary Schools – private schools for secondary education – are also run by Catholic institutions. Education in Ireland is obliged from age 6 to 16, or until students have completed three years of secondary education.

Source: Europe Academy of Religion and Society.

Elementary school consists of eight grades. Pupils typically advance to secondary school at age 12. The Second Level is divided into a Junior Cycle and a Senior Cycle. Both general and vocational subjects are taught in secondary education.

Secondary education includes secondary institutions, vocational, comprehensive and community colleges. The number of young people continuing their education after compulsory education is high: more than 90 % of 16-year-olds, 75 % of 17-year-olds, and about 50 % of 18-year-olds attend school full-time.

Education in Ireland: outlook for growth

The challenges faced by Ireland for the education system are multiple. Ireland is trying to accommodate a rapid increase in enrolment. However, primary enrolment is declining after reaching a peak in 2018, and post-primary enrolment continues to grow strongly, increasing by 34,300 between 2017 and 2021. Full-time postsecondary education enrollment is also rising rapidly, with an increase of nearly 16,400 between 2017 and 2021 and 13 additional postsecondary schools since 2017, reflecting the substantial increase in enrolment.

The total number of teachers has increased by over 7,804 since 2017, from 64,692 to 72,496. The student-teacher ratio in elementary schools has decreased from 15.3 to 13.7 since 2017 and from 12.8 to 12.2 in secondary schools.

Not only is Ireland trying to increase enrolment, but it’s also promoting a more pluralistic school system that better accommodates diversity, especially religious diversity, in line with the changing profile of the population. A number of schools in Ireland, from 2019, have started to become the first transfer from catholic to multi-denominational.  The schools will implement programs to encompass and include different beliefs and values.  

The participation of children with special education needs has increased in the education system. Ireland wants to provide an education system that supports their participation and advancement to ensure they can reach their full potential. It is essential that schools have policies in place to deal with any difficulties of the students.

To maintain the quality and performance of all levels of the education system and to face the work world, to keep up with the changing world, the education and training system will play a key role in meeting existing and emerging skill needs by providing education, training, and skill development opportunities for those entering the workforce, as well as ongoing upskilling and retraining of existing labour market participants.

How did Ireland face the educational issues during covid-19 in 2020

According to a UN report, nearly 190 countries have imposed school closures, affecting 1.5 billion children and young people. As so, students had to start to adopt new learning, “learning from home education,” and teachers and educators had to change their way of teaching. The UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay guaranteed that United Nations was providing aid to adapt to this situation, especially since they were working with countries to ensure the continuity of learning for everybody, particularly disadvantaged children and youth who tend to be the hardest hit by school closures.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, 94% of students said they used a combination of textbooks and digital tools. Many students (79%) indicated no difficulties had been experienced, and if they had, the issues would have been addressed promptly. Most young people completed their assignments and received the teacher’s feedback.

Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash

Bullying in schools

Even if a lot of children and adolescents attend Catholic Schools, a growing number of people do not practice the religion and may attend Christenings and Communions just because it is part of Irish culture rather than having any genuine belief in the practice, even though the majority of schools in Ireland are Catholic schools. Nearly 80% of the population describes their religion as Catholic, according to the 2016 Census.

Religious practicians and committed students feel vulnerable as they are a minority in Irish schools now.

To avoid this problem, Irish schools must have a code of behaviour and a specific educational program and procedures that together form the school’s plan to help students in the school to behave well and learn well. Also, school support teams will be available to help students experiencing bullying, and all the staff will be trained as part of the new action plan.

Disadvantaged people in Ireland

Despite having the fastest-growing economy in Europe, poverty levels in Ireland are stable. Children are more likely than the overall population to experience ongoing poverty.  More than 62,000 children live in persistent poverty, and others are in danger of poverty. One in five parents do not have enough food to feed their children. Children who travel a lot, like the Roman children, are particularly vulnerable. The term “Roma” is used by the Council of Europe to refer to Roma, Sinti, Kale and related groups in Europe, including Travellers and the Eastern groups, like Dom and Lom, and covers the wide diversity of the groups concerned, including persons who identify themselves as “Gypsies”.

Source: CSO Ireland.

From statistical data 2016, 2 % of 10-year-olds in Ireland cannot read and understand a simple text by the end of primary school. Those in rural areas are potentially negatively affected by difficulty in maintaining involvement in education or accessing facilities.

Educational disadvantages are often related to socio-economic factors, for example, inadequate income, poor housing,  health or family problems. Children who have been born into poor households or live in deprived areas are most subject to educational failure and subsequent labour market exclusion. Young people who experience social disadvantage are at a higher risk of being exposed to factors that impact their opportunity to progress successfully through first and second-level education.

Conclusions and recommendations

Ireland’s education system has shown significant strengths and achievements while facing challenges. The country is firmly committed to providing quality education to its citizens, evident through its well-structured and accessible education infrastructure. Ireland’s emphasis on early childhood education, investments in technology, and dedication to inclusivity have contributed to a positive learning environment for students of various ages and backgrounds.

The education system has many merits, but some areas can be improved to enhance its overall effectiveness:

Ireland should invest more than it does in education, particularly at the primary and secondary levels; this is crucial to maintaining high-quality teaching standards and facilities. Adequate funding will ensure all schools have the necessary resources to support students’ learning needs.

Despite progress, educational disparities persist in some regions and among specific demographics. The government should focus on narrowing these gaps by implementing targeted interventions, such as improved access to resources and specialized support for disadvantaged communities.

Continuous professional development for educators is essential to keep up with evolving teaching methodologies and technologies. Encouraging and providing opportunities for teachers to enhance their skills will benefit the student’s learning experience. As the education landscape becomes increasingly demanding, prioritizing mental health support services for students, parents, and educators is vital; creating a positive and supportive learning environment will help students thrive academically and emotionally.

References

Educational Challenges in Saudi Arabia

Written by Matilde Ribetti

The importance of education

Every individual has a right to education as it is the cornerstone of human progress. The ancient Greeks, who created the notion paideia, namely the holistic formation of the pais (young man) and the Romans, who eventually translated it into humanitas, were already aware of its significance. In fact, Cicero himself clarified the content of the latter concept by drawing a fundamental connection between the passion for knowledge and the elevation of human nature (Nybakken, O. E., 1939).

Throughout the centuries, the right to education underwent a number of changes before landing at its current formulation in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Modern society has now recognized its universal, accessible, and mandatory nature, at least in its early phases, and this is of fundamental importance when contextualized in contemporary culture.

Brief history of the Saudi education system

Saudi students study in the Prince Salman Library at the King Saud University in Riyadh. Photo by Tribes of the World.

 

Saudi Arabia, as outlined in the Saudi Vision 2030 growth plan, has recognized this relevance and has been at the forefront among MENA countries in the field of education.

To be able to understand this plan of innovation, it is necessary to outline at least the most general features of the historical and political background.
The three identity lines constituting the core of Saudi society are Islam, tribalism, and oil trade (Ochsenwald, W. L., 2019). As far as education is concerned, of the three the most interesting element is certainly the religious one: Saudi Arabia is an Islam Sunnite theocratic state whose citizenship can only be obtained by professors of the Muslim religion (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Interior Ministerial Agency of Civil Affairs, 1954).

The greatest support of such a close link between religion and State is surely the educational system, which since the seventh century has been articulated in various institutions related to the religious sphere. The most prominent examples are the kataatiib, elementary schools where young Saudis are taught the principles of the Quran (Esposito, John L., ed., 2003). Over the centuries, particularly under Ottoman rule, schools and teaching methods underwent numerous changes, culminating in modern times in a radical centralization of the system, presided over by the Governmental Directorate of Education (Rugh, W. A., 2002).

Oil business revenues played a key role in financing government educational projects. Particularly, in the late 1970s’ the State championed a series of development plans resulting in the extraordinary increase in school enrollment by 192% at the elementary level, 375% at the intermediate level, and 712% at the secondary level (Anon, 2020).

Now, in the context of Saudi Vision 2030, the education sector is being swept up in a new wave of investment aimed at equipping Saudi students with the tools they need to tackle “the jobs of the future” (Vision 2030, 2022).   In concrete terms, the considerable public spending (17.5 percent SAR 1.1 trillion in 2019) has resulted in the construction of 719 new schools and in a substantial school staff re-training program (KSA budget report, 2018).

The entire modernization process has thus culminated in the establishment of a system that nowadays looks like this: the country is equipped with an extensive network of public education centers segregated by gender and divided into three basic levels, elementary (six years), intermediate (three years) and secondary (three years) (Barry, A., 2019).

Accessibility

In terms of accessibility, the system can be said to be quite advanced: looking at the three regions with the lowest human development index in the country (0.855 HDI), namely Sourth Narjiran, Asir and Jizan it can be noted that the ratio schools – population is even more favorable than in the Riyadh province, the most prosperous in the country (Subnational HDI, 2023).

In fact, while the southern provinces have about 1 school for every 600 citizens residing in the territory, the populous capital region, although home to 38.9 % of Saudi educational institutions, has a value of 1 to 1392 in terms of school-citizen ratio (Saudi Arabia Education Report, 2021).

Another determinant factor  of accessibility is affordability: government schools are free for the entire population. However, the presence of numerous international private schools and the renown associated with them risks undermining equality in achieving the best schooling, on the basis of economic discrimination (Anon, 2020). However, it is pointed out that the public system, by virtue of the aforementioned centralization, is the most frequented by the population and therefore this constitutes a minor problem (Saudi Arabia Education Report, 2021).

Overall, the Saudi education system can be said to enjoy good accessibility, as evidenced by the growth of the student population by more than 6 percentage points in just four years (Saudi Arabia Education Report, 2021).

For economically disadvantaged students

However, formal equity does not necessarily correspond to substantive equity: while on paper the school system is equally accessible to all citizens from all income brackets, studies show that, in essence, students from economically disadvantaged families do not enjoy the same privileges.

Data report that the percentage of students under the age of fifteen coming from disadvantaged economic backgrounds who repeated an academic year amounts to 24.2 percent, compared with an average of 20.3% reported in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

In contrast, economically privileged students who found themselves having to repeat a year of their course of study amounted to only 3.3%, compared with 5.0% recorded in OECD countries.
These data highlight how the range of inequality regarding educational opportunities is eminently wide in KSA, where 20.9 percentage points divide disadvantaged students from privileged ones (compared with an average of 15.3 percent in OECD countries).

Other relevant indicators concern the student-teacher ratio among students in either socio- economically disadvantaged or advantaged schools. Here, too, the measured disparity rates are worryingly high when compared to the OECD average and motivate the poor performance of disadvantaged students in both mathematics and the humanities (Education GPS, 2018).

In light of the above, it is clear that the Kingdom still needs to take many steps to succeed in smoothing out the aforementioned differences so that every individual can fully enjoy his or her right to education.

For women

Another peculiarity to be taken into consideration is gender segregation, which in itself is not an obstacle to the use of educational services but may in some cases be a pretext for degrading education addressed to a gender, often the female one. Yet the data speak for themselves: in Saudi Arabia, female students follow the same curricular program and put to the test they outperform male students in all areas surveyed, including math, science, and curriculum subjects (Abdourahmane , B, 2021).

Such a result seems to support the hypothesis that, particularly in the MENA area, the division between males and females allows the latter to emancipate themselves more easily and express their intellectual qualities free from the social pressures related to the male-female relationship (Eisenkopf, Hessami, Fischbacher, & Ursprung, 2015).

The choice of curriculum subjects is a perfect example of this: in an all-female school it was found that female students felt more comfortable choosing science-oriented subjects, even though usually perceived as “boy stuff” (Sanford, K., & Blair, H., 2013).
In view of this, it can be inferred that the gender segregation system is not a detriment to the education of young Saudi women, quite the contrary.

Additionally, enrollment rates in primary and secondary educational institutions are reported to be almost the same for men and women (Abdourahmane , B, 2021) and in 2018, 66 percent of natural science, mathematics and statistics graduates were women (OECD, 2019).

However, the real issue for a Saudi woman arises once she completes her studies. The unemployment rate for women stands at 21.5 percent, compared to 3.5 percent for men (World Bank Data, 2013). As reported by the OECD women are still less likely to work despite improving gender equality in tertiary attainment levels due to the “regulatory barriers of a conservative society,” combined with endemic discrimination against women and a gendered educational system (Alfarran, A., Pyke, J., & Stanton, P., 2018). The latter, while it does not prevent women from obtaining an adequate education, it does in part prevent them from employing the knowledge they have acquired in the labor market.

In this respect, the data on the accessibility of the educational system for women should be read in conjunction with that on the labor market, so as to have a more complete picture of its critical points.

Saudi Ambassador Visits His Children at ASIS. Photo by Lwi932.

Quality

One of the methods used to assess the quality of a school system is to conceive it as a production system divided into inputs and outputs.
By inputs we mean the stimuli provided to students through curricular programs, methods, staff, and teaching materials, while outputs are student performances, not only in terms of academics, but also participation and long-term impact on society wise (OECD, 2000).

Looking at the case of the KSA, the first critical issue related to inputs provided by the system concerns schools whose principal reported that the school’s capacity to provide instruction is hindered to some extent or a lot by a lack of educational material, which amount to 44.4 percent against an average of 28.4 percent in OECD countries.

A similar figure is found in relation to the lack of teaching staff: 49.5 %of schools complain of such a shortage, compared with an average of 27.1% in OECD countries.

These shortcomes result in relatively lower academic outcomes than the OECD metric. Saudi students scored on average 100 points lower than their OECD peers in tests on reading, mathematics and science. However, it is indicated by PISA that the average for OECD countries amounts to 500, with values ranging from 400 to 600. Therefore, it can be said that KSA falls within a good range of achievement.

Based on the above, it can be concluded that in general the Saudi system, although not without critical issues, boasts an adequate overall quality resulting in fairly good academic preparation and cultural training of students.

In conclusion, Saudi Arabia has faced many challenges in the education sector in recent decades. However, the government has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to improving the quality of education and providing educational opportunities for its citizens. The expansion of public schools and the establishment of new universities are just some of the positive steps taken by the country. Despite this, there are still some issues to be resolved, such as gender inequality and the need to develop a more equal educational system in terms of economic opportunities. This is why it is necessary for government authorities to give absolute priority to the issue: education is a basic human right, and only through quality, inclusive and equitable education Saudi society will progress and prosper.

 

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