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Fluent Irish requirement ‘a barrier’ to more working-class young people becoming teachers – The Irish Times

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SG- Power and Decision Making in Schools

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Teacher shortages lead to 100% increase in demand for grinds | BreakingNews.ie

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Students are already requesting exam papers at the start of the school year in an effort to get ahead when traditionally they have waited until January to start focused exam revision

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The Irish Times helpdesk has received a steady stream of questions from students who are deeply disappointed with their calculated grades.

Many students are shocked to discover that, under the agreed process for assessed grades, there is no mechanism to review either the initial percentage mark awarded by their teacher, or the ranking place the teacher allocated to them within the class.

Many of these students attended high-achieving schools, among them sizable numbers who attended privately-managed grind schools.

In the case of St Kilian's Deutsche Schule in Dublin, the case raises some troubling questions over whether all schools have been treated fairly.

While the school expected half of its students to secure a H1 in German based on past performance, just 14 per cent secured this grade under the new calculated grades process.

These claims might be easily dismissed in another school - but given its track record of excellence in German, it raise questions about whether the Department of Education's standardisation process was nuanced enough to pick up these trends at individual school level.

As for many grind schools and other private schools, some also claim that teachers' estimated grades were lowered by anywhere between 20 to 40 per cent, well in excess of the national average of 17 per cent.

The fact that the Department of Education, following a Government decision , withdrew the "school profiling" data relating to the previous performance of schools over the past three years from the algorithm used to determine the final grades allocated to each student may also have played a role in flattening the curve of achievement.

By contrast, it may have benefited students in schools with less of a tradition of securing high grades for their students, and thus offers of places in high points courses. We don't know yet for sure.

Of course, it may also be the case that teachers in these schools overestimated their students to an extent far higher than elsewhere and, as a result, more of their estimated grades were pulled downwards.

This controversy also raises the wider question of perception of school performances. Students may expect stellar results from prestigious schools, but it isn't always the case.

For example, The Irish Times provides detailed data every year on the numbers progressing to college from all schools. Many of these schools have what appear to be 100 per cent progression rates. However, we make it absolutely clear that these numbers can be inflated by students repeating or reapplying to college. For statistical reasons, outside of our control, they are all included as being in the same class.

Many calls

(We would love to be in a position to publish the actual numbers of the current Leaving Cert class who progress to college. But under legislation, the national media is not provided with this data.)

So, there can be a misperception among both parents and students that all students from prestigious schools are guaranteed to secure high-points courses every year. Many do not and this is accepted.

But in the current scenario, where an algorithm is perceived to be determining the outcome, such acceptance is absent. This may be one of the reasons why our helpline is getting so many calls from students from these backgrounds.

What seems very clear is that at this juncture - the mid-point between the publication of the assessed grades and the publication of the college offers on Friday - that there are a lot of very anxious and disappointed students and parents.

No algorithm was ever going to be able to provide an outcome which kept everyone happy, but the level of unhappiness among those with high expectations is very evident, and is being communicated by parents to their public representatives and possibly legal advisors.

Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris was at pains to point out that everything possible is being done to maximise the number of places available for the CAO distribution on Friday.

Whether those additional places will be enough to take the heat out of the anger and upset of the students and parents involved, only time will tell.

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Have private schools lost out in the calculated grades process?

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The Irish Times helpdesk has received a steady stream of questions from students who are deeply disappointed with their calculated grades. Many students are shocked to discover that, under the agreed process for assessed grades, there is no mechanism to review either the initial percentage mark awarded by their teacher, or the ranking place the teacher allocated to them within the class.

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https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/education-inequality-class-divide-5216581-Sep2020/

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Opinion: Class and wealth, not merit, are rewarded in Ireland's education system

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Professor Kathleen Lynch argues that a class divide is feeding injustice into our education system.

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Religion, ethnicity and Irish Travellers

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Grind schools have become a popular option for students in the later years of second-level education, as they are known for producing high Leaving Certificate grades. However, the schools raise several questions regarding education equality and pressure. Sophie Finn investigates.

Grind schools have become a feature of the Leaving Certificate for many students, however, there has been much criticism levelled at the schools, mainly for creating a high-pressure environment and not incorporating a balanced curriculum, as many schools don't offer social or physical education. The schools have also come under fire for perpetuating inequality in education, as the schools can be very costly and the grade average is higher to non-fee-paying schools. This begs the question, are grind schools a blessing or a curse for students, and wider society?

Although not all fee-paying schools are grind schools, all grind schools are fee-paying. The Irish Times 2021 Feeders School list indicates 99.8% of those who attend fee-paying schools progress to the third level, of those 86.7% achieve high point courses, in comparison to 53.1% of students from non-fee-paying schools. Data from the Higher Education Authority regarding enrolments in 2018/19 indicate high point courses such as medicine and finance have a majority of students from affluent backgrounds, only 4% of medical enrolments are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Twice as many third-level students are classed as affluent (20%), in comparison to those classed as disadvantaged (10%). TCD, UCD and RCSI have the lowest proportion of students from disadvantaged areas, 5% in each college.

However, although those in fee-paying schools are more likely to secure a high point course, research from Delaney and Devereux indicates those from grind schools and Gaelcholáiste are less likely to complete a degree or perform well in third level, suggesting their school exam results were higher than their abilities.

99.8% of those who attend fee-paying schools progress to the third level, of those 86.7% achieve high point courses, in comparison to 53.1% of students from non-fee-paying schools

Insofar as education inequality perhaps grind schools are only a symptom of the cause, helping to maximise the grades of those who can afford it, the issue may instead be with the broken Leaving Certificate system requiring such intense curriculums and enabling this kind of profiteering. Research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in 2019 indicates teachers are unhappy with the current Leaving Certificate structure which they feel facilitates grind school type learning. "Teachers felt that current structures facilitated student emphasis on preparing for the exam rather than learning, leading to an emphasis on 'notes' and 'grinds' [private tuition] as ways of gaining valued points."

The exam itself may be "brutally fair" as outlined in the research from the ESRI, however, the type of learning it facilitates arguably benefits those who can afford grind. One teacher from a DEIS girl's school said "It's not continuous assessment and everything is based on one exam. The material being studied is often viewed as the subject matter for competitive effort between students. It is being increasingly subverted from its developmental role by the rise of grind schools and privately paid tuition in order to gain an advantage."

The University Observer spoke to students who studied in grind schools to get a first-hand perspective of their experience. Colm Lenihan is a final year law student at UCD who attended Limerick Tutorial College for his Leaving Certificate year. Discussing his experience Colm said, "I was initially reluctant to leave the school I had spent the last five years in, but my parents persuaded me that the grind school would guarantee me enough points to get the college course I wanted to do, so I went along with their wishes."

"The grind school experience was certainly unlike anything I had experienced up to that point... There was a very definite structure in place: hour-long classes (longer than usual) in blocks of two or three, from 9 to 5 with a lunch break at 1, followed by an hour break for dinner then mandatory, supervised study from 6 pm to 9 pm, or 10 pm for those who wished to stay longer."

Colm outlined that he was disappointed at the quality of teaching "The teachers were billed as some of the best, if not the best, Ireland had to offer. I found this to be only partly true. I can only speak for the seven subjects I studied for my Leaving Cert, but of those seven I found only three (four at a push) to be of the level advertised. The remaining two or three fell far short... and this was not an experience unique to myself... I do not wish to slander their recruitment process as these were clearly outliers; nonetheless, it surprised me".

I am not convinced that the school was worth the very high fee charged, as I am almost certain I could have performed almost, if not quite as well, in my old school

Colm emphasised there was a large significance placed on "exam strategy and rote learning", outlining, "We were taught to learn off large tracts of information and then apply it appropriately in the exam. Not every subject had the luxury of this system, but it was a very successful, if mildly cynical, tactic and I personally felt the quality of the information we were to learn was extremely high." Colm outlined the school was not all work "One would think that any student attending such an expensive and results-driven school would be fully focused on their education, but this was not the case. However, we were all still children essentially, and what disciplinary issues existed were relatively minor... for the most part, the students were nice, the teachers approachable and the school seemed to run smoothly."

When asked if, given the choice again, Colm would attend the school he admitted he was not sure. "On the one hand, it was heart-wrenching to leave the school I was very fond of, where almost all my friends went, and move to a city and live in a house with complete strangers. Additionally, I am not convinced that the school was worth the very high fee charged, as I am almost certain I could have performed almost, if not quite as well, in my old school. On the other hand, I did get more than enough points for my college course, so the grind school was officially a success, and I suppose when it comes to your future it is best not to take chances if you can afford it. I also made a few friends whom I count among my closest to this day, so perhaps I would not like to change anything."

Colm said the main advantage was the teachers, "how those three teachers taught was extremely engaging, refined over many years, a schedule for the year mapped out with military precision." The information given was also of good quality "although there was an emphasis on rote learning, the quality of the information you were learning mitigated the mind-numbing task of committing it all to memory... We were taught exactly how to approach the Leaving Cert, tactics, what to look out for, trick questions etc. The grind school has spent years perfecting its craft and it showed, as they dedicated whole sessions to just exam tactics." Other benefits included limited risk of truancy, specialised HPAT classes and for some students, supervised study.

Colm outlined that the main disadvantage was the cost, structure of learning, and for the supervised study, as well as some of the teachers, "I do not wish to accuse the school of bad recruitment... no one is at fault - I just had a bad year for those subjects. It was extremely surprising to leave competent teachers in one school, go to a grind school and find me worse off in two of the main subjects. I had to get maths grinds on the side, as did a lot of the students in Higher Level that year". However he outlined the teaching experience as "largely positive".

When asked if grind schools should be as prominent a feature in the Leaving Certificate, Colm was unsure. "Before I attended, my instinct was to abhor the idea that you could simply adopt a pay-to-win approach to the Leaving Cert, essentially buying your way into college by going to a fee-paying school that has some secret method of getting all of their students as many points as they need. To a certain extent, I stand by that, as the existence of the grinds, the school does make the playing field inherently uneven no matter what way you look at it. However, having attended one myself, I have a slightly different opinion. The grind schools may have experienced high levels of success over the years, but it is by no means guaranteed. As with everything in life, you get out of it what you put into it.

The grind schools may have experienced high levels of success over the years, but it is by no means guaranteed

"In my year in Limerick, I saw rich parents throw underperforming children into the school in the hopes that the structure and teaching would improve their results. For some, this worked and more power to them. However, for those who didn't work any harder, results stayed the same. A grind school only works if you do. They cram a frightening amount of material down your throat and if you can digest it all you'll do very well and the school will take the plaudits. If it's too much material for your capabilities, or if you relax and expect your mere attendance will be enough to get the school to work its "magic," then the grind school will have been nothing more than an expensive mistake."

Alan* attended the Institute of Education, a Dublin based grind school for his final two years of school, he decided to study there due to the wider range of subject choices. "I wouldn't have been able to do the subjects I wanted to do if I stayed in my previous school. It also allowed me to pick up an extra subject."

Discussing his experience Alan said "I had a positive experience studying there, however, it was a bit of a culture shock initially coming from a normal school to one where the only focus is grades. It was a really good transition step between school and college as it had a college feel to it but still maintained the basic elements of being at school. Everyone is in a similar situation, as in they came there mostly to try and get good results and this meant there was a very focused and sometimes stressful atmosphere in the school.

"In my personal experience, I found this great as I find it's easier to try and work harder when others around you are working hard. However, it was very like college as there was no one making sure you had any of the work done and it was left completely up to you to keep track of how much work you were doing. This was a great learning step as it really builds up your independence when you are 16 or 17 if there is no one checking over your shoulder to see if you're doing the work you should be doing."

When asked if he would choose to attend the grind school given the choice Alan said, "I would definitely choose to study at a grind school if I had to do the Leaving Cert again. The two years I spent there were great and I don't think I would have got the same results I did if I didn't go there."

"The main advantage of the school was the teachers and their notes. It makes it much easier to listen and take an interest in a subject when a teacher is passionate about what they are teaching and legitimately wants to be there. There are going to be bad teachers in any school but in the grind school, there was a much lower percentage of these teachers which was great. The notes were also great as they were really exam-focused which helped enormously when the exams came around.

"One of the biggest advantages was having a study hall in the school open all day. It would be very quiet in the hall and it would open first thing in the morning and not close until 8 or 9 pm. This was great as it meant you could go there whenever you wanted and have a really quiet space to study. In my experience, it was especially beneficial as I had a relatively long commute so the ability to stay for as long as I wanted in the evening and get all my work done before I got home was great.

"The main disadvantage was probably the time commitment and effort that I needed to put in when at the school. It was quite difficult trying to balance other things going on with the quantity of work I had to do as well as travelling in and out every day.

Asked whether he believes grind schools should be a feature of the Leaving Certificate Alan said "I had a positive experience at the grind school I went to but I don't feel strongly either way in relation to this issue."

The two years I spent there were great, and I don't think I would have got the same results I did if I didn't go there

There is no absolute answer as to whether grind schools are a blessing or a curse. Different students have different experiences, and although the ability to pay for better quality education is inherently unfair, as Colm said, attending a grind school does not result in "guaranteed" better success. Delaney and Devereux suggest increasing entry points for students who attend schools with advantages in exams. However, perhaps a better idea may be to restructure the Leaving Certificate exam structure should instead be redrafted to prevent the need for the type of learning grind schools facilitate and ensure it does not perpetuate inequality in education.

*Name has been changed

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Grind schools have become a popular option for students in the later years of second-level education, as they are known for producing high Leaving Certificate grades. However, the schools raise several questions regarding education equality and pressure. Sophie Finn investigates.

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Traveller children do not feel included, wanted or safe in school - especially at second level - while their parents fear for them while they are in school, a report on the community's experience of the education system warns.

The Government-commissioned report, Out of the Shadows, conducted on behalf of the Department of Education as part of the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) 2017-2021, remains unpublished.

"Rather than feeling a strong sense of belonging, the predominant feeling amongst the parents and students from the Travelling community . . . is one of being unwanted - both in school and by the settled community more generally in society," it says.

The report refers to "institutional and structural discrimination and racism within the education system" and says Traveller children feel "ignored" by some teachers when not asked for homework and given easier work than their peers.

The children described being called names such as "pikey", "knacker", "dirty" and "smelly" by their peers, and how other children refused to sit beside them. But when they raised such treatment with teachers, they often felt they were not taken seriously.

Others described feeling "sad" and "alone" at school, though some said they enjoyed aspects of the experience. Some said teachers or principals who were "interested in learning about Traveller culture" and had "zero-tolerance" policies on racist language had "very positive" impacts on them.

Cultural identity

On education, NTRIS says "access, participation and outcomes for Travellers and Roma in education" must improve and that "there should be a positive culture of respect and protection for the cultural identity of Travellers and Roma across the education system".

The 124-page report, by sociologist Dr Maria Quinlan, draws on detailed consultations with 104 Traveller and Roma parents and students, and 28 teachers and principals between November 2019 and January 2020. It aimed to establish a "baseline" of the communities' "lived experience" of the education system.

Participating parents who had felt "isolated and overlooked" in school themselves were "passionate about wanting something different for their children", it says.

While primary schools were generally welcoming spaces for Traveller parents, they found secondary schools "less welcoming".

They felt talked down to by teachers, who they felt "can often have low expectations of their children". The lives of Travellers, including accommodation challenges and poverty, as well Traveller culture, beliefs and identity, were ignored by many schools, making the education system seem "a 'settled' system . . . which Travellers must accept, and assimilate to, even if it does not meet their needs".

Teachers and principals described "deep frustration" that they were doing their best to support Traveller families but said education was "not valued" in "Traveller culture". Many believed Traveller children wanted to leave school at 16, for girls to "get married" and boys "to work".

'Discrimination'

Others felt the education system did "not deliver the same benefit for Traveller students as it does for settled students", adding that discrimination when seeking to access employment could "make progressing to the Leaving Certificate and . . . third level seem like a waste of time for Traveller families".

While a sense of "belonging" is key to full engagement in education, for the Travellers in the report "belonging is severely undermined by both wider societal racism and discrimination experienced within the education system".

Improving Travellers' experience of education would be "complex" and require a "multi-layered response", says the report.

"The education system has a key role to play but needs to be supported with wider cultural awareness, recognition and discussion of racism and discrimination at a societal level."

Asked when the report would be published, a spokesman for the department said: "Work is ongoing on a suite of reports on the theme of Traveller education. It is hoped to advance to publication the NTRIS baseline report as part of this work in the near future."

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Traveller children feel 'unwanted' in education system, says report

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Young people tell of name calling by peers and sense of being 'ignored' by teachers

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Students should be given more say in how their Leaving Cert is assessed after the pandemic, given how stress and anxiety "significantly reduced" when they had options this year.

That's according to the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), which addressed the Oireachtas education committee on Tuesday.

The committee was meeting with school management bodies as it began a series of roundtable discussions on Leaving Certificate reform. Research from 2018 found that 83% of students claimed that the Leaving Cert in its traditional form was not the best way to assess their educational achievement, according to Paul Crone, NAPD director.

"This research was undertaken pre-pandemic and since then we have significantly more evidence and experience to inform our decision-making in relation to student assessment.

"We have learned that it is possible for teachers to assess their students. We have learned that entry to third level must be decoupled from terminal exam results. We have learned that students' anxiety and stress were significantly reduced when they had options.

He said students should be part of the reform process rather than an afterthought.

"Give students a stronger say in their learning and assessment. We must recognise and embrace the professionalism of the teachers who have proven that they can impartially and fairly assess their students."

Ireland is very fortunate to have a very professional teacher body, said John Irwin, of the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools (ACCS), told the committee.

The pandemic helped us realise we can survive without the Leaving Cert, he added.

"Who would have thought, two years ago that we would be able to put together a particular process to allow people to be able to progress into other pathways in their life.

"Students were central in all of the stakeholder engagements around the processes that were brought in. They will have a very important role over the next number of months and years, in discussing and seeing, we're seeing where senior cycle goes."

John Curtis, the general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB) said there is a balance to be struck in retaining what is good in the current system. Students have previously suggested that continuous assessment promotes independent learning and better prepares them for further education, he added.

"Our experience around assessment at Leaving Certificate over the past two years has given us much to reflect on in this regard and opens up possibilities some may never have thought possible."

Exams have a role to play in Leaving Cert reform but should not dominate, according to Paddy Flood of Education and Training Boards Ireland.

"We believe that the time is right now to develop a rich, multi-faceted assessment process for senior cycle that is not dependent on performance over a short window in time."

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organisation: national association of principals and deputy principals

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organisation: association of community and comprehensive schools

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Student voices need to be heard in Leaving Cert overhaul

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More than 80% of students claim the Leaving Cert in its traditional form was not the best way to assess their educational achievement

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There is evidence of "unconscious bias" in favour of girls in the estimated marks provided by schools for this year's Leaving Cert students, according to an official analysis of grades.

A report by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) says while female students do better on average than males in exams, the gender gap was wider in school estimates compared to traditional exams.

It says this was not unexpected, given that research suggests "unconscious estimation bias" in similar contexts generally favours female students.

The report says it was not possible to correct against gender bias during its standardisation process of schools' estimated grades this year without "violating" commitments made over how the process would be conducted.

As a result, it said the Department of Education made "strong efforts" to address this by providing guidance to schools last May on the need to remain objective and avoid preconceptions about each student's performance.

Standardisation process

This year, Leaving Cert candidates were given a choice between receiving school-estimated accredited grades, sitting written exams or a combination of both.

The SEC's report notes that, prior to the pandemic, female students outperformed males in traditional exams, on average, by 5.7, 5.9 and 6.5 per cent respectively in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

School estimates resulted in a wider gender gap than this, at 7.9 points in 2020 and 7.7 points in 2021.

A standardisation process - which aimed to ensure consistency in results - had the effect of marginally narrowing the gap in these school estimates to 7.6 points in 2020 and to 7.2 points in 2021.

Overall, the gender gap between females and males widened in schools' estimated marks, with the exception of a few subjects.

Maths pattern

Higher-level maths is one of the few subjects where boys typically secure more top grades than girls.

However, this pattern was reversed under schools' estimated grades this year, with girls narrowly outperforming boys.

By the time, the written Leaving Cert exam results were factored into the final results, boys once again narrowly overtook girls in the proportion of H1 grades awarded to candidates in higher-level maths.

Overall, a gender breakdown of the final Leaving Cert results issued on Friday confirmed girls performed better than boys across the vast majority of higher-level subjects.

Girls secured a higher proportion of top grades - H1s - in 35 out of 40 higher-level subjects.

They include subjects such as applied maths, chemistry, agricultural economics, engineering and construction studies, where boys often outperformed girls in pre-pandemic times.

Boys secured more H1s in higher-level maths and computer science. They also outperformed girls in minority languages such as Italian, Portuguese and Hungarian, though these had relatively few candidates.

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Girls get Leaving Cert results boost from 'unconscious bias'

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Gender gap under estimated marks wider than with traditional exams, SEC finds

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more than 750 young people three to four years after completing the Leaving Cert through a survey and sample interviews.

Some 94 per cent of students from middle-class schools applied for higher education, compared to 80 per cent from mixed schools and only 50 per cent from working-class schools.

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https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/pupil-power-how-students-are-helping-to-turn-their-schools-green-1.4139580

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Pupil power: how students are helping to turn their schools green

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Irish schoolkids are working on eliminating plastic and nurturing biodiversity

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Traveller children feel 'unwanted' in education system, says report 

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Traveller children feel 'unwanted' in education system, says report 

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People felt the education system did not deliver the same benefits to Traveller students as it did to settled students. Travellers see the leaving cert and seeking jobs as a waste of time due to discrimination.
A sense of belonging is key to Traveller engagement in education as belonging is undermined by wider societal racism and discrimination.
Improving Travellers' experience of education would be complex

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Students to walk out in protest at accommodation crisis

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Students at third level colleges across the country will walk out of lectures and tutorials this morning in protest at the accommodation and cost-of-living crises. The action, which takes place at 11 minutes past 11, will see hundreds of students gather in college quads and other outdoor spaces to protest and draw attention to the financial difficulties many of them are facing.

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When Diane Reay, Cambridge University professor of education, started researching her book about working class children's experiences of education, she had no idea just how much inequality she would uncover in state schools today. "The most important thing I found out was that we are still educating different social classes for different functions in society."

She expected to find the English state system was providing roughly the same education for all. "But it doesn't. Even within a comprehensive school, when they're all in the same building, the working classes are still getting less education than the middle classes, just as they had when my dad was at school at the beginning of the 20th century."

Reay's background informs her book and her opinions. The daughter of a coalminer, and the eldest of eight, she grew up on a council estate and received free school meals. She then spent 20 years working as a teacher in London primary schools before moving into academia and ending up at Cambridge.

"My parents had a strong sense that the educational system hadn't been fair to them and they had missed out. I learned as a small child I had to work at least twice as hard as the middle class children to achieve the same result. When I did show ambition - to go to LSE [the London School of Economics and Political Science] to be a political researcher - I was told it wasn't appropriate."

How much has changed? "This government is making inequality in education worse, not better," she says.

Reay carried out more than 500 interviews and identified most with the children who were difficult and out of place: the "fighters", she calls them. "That was the sort of child I was in school."

Now she hopes to open up a national debate about what a socially just education would look like. "There's this incessant babble from the government about social mobility. But the academy and free school movement has made things worse for working class children, with more segregation and polarisation." In spite of free schools and academies receiving more funding per pupil than state comprehensive schools, they typically educate fewer children in receipt of free school meals, she found. "Free schools and academies have a more advantaged intake than the comprehensive schools do."

England does not have an education system that is serious about realising the potential of all children, she argues, with those on free school meals and receiving pupil premium 27% less likely to achieve five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C including English and maths. Four-fifths of children from working-class minority ethnic families are taught in schools with high concentrations of other immigrant or disadvantaged students - the highest proportion in the developed world, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Half of all free school meal children are educated in just a fifth of all schools.

"There are predominantly middle class comprehensives and predominantly working class and ethnically mixed comprehensives - and despite all the rhetoric around pupil premiums, pupils in the more working class comprehensives get less money per head. They get less qualified teachers. They get higher levels of teacher turnover and more supply teachers. Even if they are in the same schools as middle class children, they are in lower sets and yet again they get less experienced teachers."

All the children she interviewed had a powerful sense of their position in the academic hierarchy. "Right from reception now some children are in sets aged four and they can tell they're only in 'the monkeys' and that's not a very good group to be in. That means they're not very clever." She was shocked by the anxiety displayed by very young children, who, she says, blame themselves if they are put in the lower sets.

Research suggests it is the wealth and inclination of parents, rather than the ability and efforts of the child, that have the most bearing on a child's educational success today. "If you're a working class child, you're starting the race halfway round the track behind the middle class child. Middle class parents do a lot via extra resources and activities."

'There's lots of lining up and standing to attention. It's about disrespecting working class young people.' Photograph: Getty Images

Less affluent children also get a more restrictive educational offer, she discovered. "It wasn't until I talked to young people about their experiences that I realised how different and unequal their educations were. Because the schools that working class children mostly go to are not doing well in the league tables, there's a lot of pressure on their teachers and heads to increase their league table position. That means they focus ruthlessly on reading, writing and arithmetic."

Some children in these schools talked wistfully about hardly ever doing art, drama or dance: "These children come from families where their parents can't afford to pay for them to do those activities out of school. It almost feels criminal. It feels very unfair."

The difference between amounts spent on educating children privately or in the state sector is stark. She cites research from University College London that found £12,200 a year is the average spending on a privately educated primary pupil, compared with £4,800 on a state pupil. For secondary, it's £15,000 compared with £6,200.

"Society has got more unfair, and the gap between the rich and poor is a lot greater than it was even 30 years ago. We've got to move back instead of going further in the direction of austerity, which seems to be punishing the poor."

She believes the government's support for academies and free schools is powerfully ideological. "It's about opening up education to the markets. I found it particularly shocking - and I had to read some quite boring parliamentary reports to get the information - that masses of money has gone into the academy and free school programme, and it's been taken out of the comprehensive school system."

Reay found that free schools receive 60% more funding per pupil than local authority primaries and secondaries, and that £96m originally intended for improving underperforming schools was redistributed to academies.

To make things worse, an analysis of Department for Education data reveals that schools with the highest numbers of pupils on free school meals are facing the deepest funding cuts: in secondary schools with more than 40% of children on free school meals, the average loss per pupil will be £803. That's £326 more than the average for secondary schools as a whole. And primary schools with high numbers of working class pupils are e xpected to lose £578 per pupil.

Another blow being inflicted on working class children is through the way they are treated in some super-strict schools, argues Reay. She says some academies operate on the principle that working class families are chaotic and children need school to impose control. "There's lots of lining up in silence, standing to attention when an adult comes into the room, and mantras. I think it's about disrespecting working class young people and their families.

"There's one academy where the children have to say: I aspire, he aspires, she aspires, we all aspire."

Another issue is widespread setting and streaming. "There's masses of research that shows it doesn't work - that, actually, if you put children in mixed ability groups, the majority make greater progress.

"Plus, research on wellbeing shows that you need to decrease the social distance between people. There's mistrust, wariness and anxiety about people who are different from us. That obviously came out in the Brexit vote. If you put children together in their classroom, they start to learn that what they share is much greater than the differences between them."

After her own schooling at Ashby grammar school, Leicestershire, Reay went to Newcastle University to study politics and economics before getting a job as a primary teacher in Islington. She took her master's in 1985 at the Institute of Education then went back to teaching. She was the main breadwinner in her family, and managed to get funding to do a sociology PhD at South Bank University when she was in her mid-40s.

She took up her first research post at King's College London a few years later and in 2001 was given a chair at the Institute for Policy Studies in Education at London Met. After collaborating on a research project on school inclusivity with academics at Cambridge, she was asked to apply for her current job in the faculty of education in 2004. "If I hadn't worked with colleagues at Cambridge already, I don't think I'd have dared."

As a Cambridge professor, she is also highly critical of Oxbridge's failure to attract students from working class backgrounds and ethnic minorities. But lowering entry requirements is not the solution, she believes. "Focus just at the admissions level isn't really going to change very much. We're never going to have a critical mass of those students who are non-traditional to make a difference."

Instead of blaming non-traditional students for not applying, which she finds hypocritical, she'd like the elite universities to look at their whole culture and ethos. "Maybe they need to ask: how can we make ourselves more attractive to non-traditional applicants? The courses, for example, need to be brought into the 21st century, instead of staying in the 17th."

She was feeling positive that a debate about the diversity of Cambridge University reading lists was opening up - until the Telegraph ran its inaccurate front page story claiming a black student, Lola Olufemi, was forcing the university to drop white authors from its syllabus. "That poor woman was subject to so much negative feedback. The attitude of the Telegraph was: who does she think she is?"

Reay says she felt compelled to write this book because she believes things cannot go on as they are. "There needs to be a sea change in public opinion, for us to say this is too inequitable and unfair. There needs to be a new collective effort to make things fairer."

Miseducation: Inequality, education and the working classes by Diane Reay (£12.99) can be ordered from the Guardian Bookshop

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'Working-class children get less of everything in education - including respect'

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Interview Diane Reay grew up on a council estate, the eldest of eight, and became a Cambridge professor. Now she wants to talk about inequality in education

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Social Mobility Commission vows to find best strategies to boost outcomes, with 'particular interest' in teaching quality and style

Social Mobility Commission vows to find best strategies to boost outcomes, with 'particular interest' in teaching quality and style

The Social Mobility Commission - led by Britain's "strictest headteacher" Katharine Birbalsingh - will investigate which teaching styles work best to boost outcomes for poorer pupils.

The commission published its 2022-23 business plan today, titled 'A Fresh Approach to Social Mobility'.

Birbalsingh, headteacher of Michaela free school in London, pledged earlier this year to look at how "opportunities can be improved for everyone". Previously the focus has been too much on those going to Oxbridge or becoming top lawyers, she said.

The commission's aim is to "understand what educational strategies work best to promote good outcomes for schools and students", the business plan states.

This will include trying to "establish a better understanding of interventions which work".

"We will review what practices schools are implementing to improve outcomes for pupil premium students, particularly those that perform well on progress 8 measures.

"Against this background, we will develop a research project to understand how these practices may relate to students' progress, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

"We are particularly interested in learning more about aspects of teaching quality and style."

Birbalsingh's own school tops progress 8 tables

One school likely to feature in the work is Birbalsingh's own, which boasts the highest progress 8 score in the country - 2.27. This means pupils at Michaela achieved on average over two grades better than expected.

Michaela has been dubbed the strictest school in the country, with silent corridors and other controversial policies such as ditching SEND labels and giving detentions for failing to have a pen.

Back in 2016, Birbalsingh told The Sunday Times: "I think all schools should be super-strict. It is about believing that children do best in an ordered and structured environment."

Birbalsingh tweeted yesterday that schools with "great progress" have "brilliant" discipline, "explicit traditional" teaching, adult authority and "relentless belief in personal responsibility for everyone".

"If you want schools to have impact, values matter," she added.

The commission's business plan added: "Understanding 'what works' for families and schools can help us to raise awareness and advocate for the best evidence-based approaches to ensure that all children get the best start in life and ultimately, improve their social mobility prospects and fulfil their potential."

The commission will also "explore the impact of previous government-led initiatives targeting families to understand 'what works' in terms of enabling every child to fulfil their potential."

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Birbalsingh to investigate most effective teaching styles

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Social Mobility Commission vows to find best strategies to boost outcomes, with 'particular interest' in teaching quality and style Social Mobility Commission vows to find best strategies to boost outcomes, with 'particular interest' in teaching quality and style The Social Mobility Commission - led by Britain's "strictest headteacher" Katharine Birbalsingh - will investigate which teaching styles work best to boost outcomes for poorer pupils.

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Cork students 'heartbroken' by decision to amalgamate their school with another

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Wealthier parents (the wealthiest 20%) spend seven times more per child each year on private education outside of school hours than the poorest 20%. Those who are wealthiest use their private wealth to advantage their children outside the school system through private tuition in Ireland too

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The total number of Irish Travellers counted in April 2011 was 29,573 accounting for just over half of one per cent, 0.6% of the total population. The figure represents a 32 per cent increase on 2006 which was 22,435.                                                 The average age of Irish Travellers was 22.4 compared with 36.1 for the general population. Over half of all Irish Travellers, 52.2% were aged under 20.                                           Irish  Traveller  males  of  retirement age and above (65+)  numbered only 337 accounting  for 2.3 percent of the total  Irish  Traveller male population, in contrast to the general population where males of retirement age and above accounted for 10.7per cent of all males. 

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The total number of Irish Travellers counted in April 2011 was 29,573 accounting for just over half of one per cent, 0.6% of the total population. The figure represents a 32 per cent increase on 2006 which was 22,435.                                                 The average age of Irish Travellers was 22.4 compared with 36.1 for the general population. Over half of all Irish Travellers, 52.2% were aged under 20.                                           Irish  Traveller  males  of  retirement age and above (65+)  numbered only 337 accounting  for 2.3 percent of the total  Irish  Traveller male population, in contrast to the general population where males of retirement age and above accounted for 10.7per cent of all males. 

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"Grind schools - a blessing or a curse?"

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"Grind schools - a blessing or a curse?"

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Grind schools are known for achieving higher results.
Pressured environment.

'the students were nice, the teachers approachable and the school seemed to run smoothly.'

'The ability to pay for better quality education is inherently unfair'

'99.8% of those who attend fee-paying schools progress to the third level, of those 86.7% achieve high point courses, in comparison to 53.1% of students from non-fee-paying schools.'

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There are numerous studies that show that getting high grades and good degrees is heavily dependent on the money invested in a given child/adult over time. The educationally successful are disproportionately drawn from wealthier backgrounds because they have both the economic capital (money) and cultural capital (knowledge of how the education system works, and how and where to maximise competitive advantage for their own children).

Money

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Students across Ireland walked out in protest of the rising price of student accommodation.

Students walked out of their lecture halls at 11 minutes past 11 symbolising the 11 years that Fine Gael have been in power; during those 11 years the accommodation crises has gotten exponentially worse.

The government has been considering a €500 rent credit for students. However, this is not extended to students whose incomes' do not reach the minimum tax brackets to pay taxes.

However these grants and credits only apply to the students lucky enough to actually secure accommodation. Countless students have failed to find lodgings in cities resulting in commutes of over two hours for some. The Students' Union of Ireland has predicted that there will be a shortage of 20,000 beds by the year 2024.

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Grind schools have become a popular option for students in the later years of second-level education, as they are known for producing high Leaving Certificate grades. However, the schools raise several questions regarding education equality and pressure. Sophie Finn investigates.

Grind schools have become a feature of the Leaving Certificate for many students, however, there has been much criticism levelled at the schools, mainly for creating a high-pressure environment and not incorporating a balanced curriculum, as many schools don't offer social or physical education. The schools have also come under fire for perpetuating inequality in education, as the schools can be very costly and the grade average is higher to non-fee-paying schools. This begs the question, are grind schools a blessing or a curse for students, and wider society?

Although not all fee-paying schools are grind schools, all grind schools are fee-paying. The Irish Times 2021 Feeders School list indicates 99.8% of those who attend fee-paying schools progress to the third level, of those 86.7% achieve high point courses, in comparison to 53.1% of students from non-fee-paying schools. Data from the Higher Education Authority regarding enrolments in 2018/19 indicate high point courses such as medicine and finance have a majority of students from affluent backgrounds, only 4% of medical enrolments are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Twice as many third-level students are classed as affluent (20%), in comparison to those classed as disadvantaged (10%). TCD, UCD and RCSI have the lowest proportion of students from disadvantaged areas, 5% in each college.

However, although those in fee-paying schools are more likely to secure a high point course, research from Delaney and Devereux indicates those from grind schools and Gaelcholáiste are less likely to complete a degree or perform well in third level, suggesting their school exam results were higher than their abilities.

99.8% of those who attend fee-paying schools progress to the third level, of those 86.7% achieve high point courses, in comparison to 53.1% of students from non-fee-paying schools

Insofar as education inequality perhaps grind schools are only a symptom of the cause, helping to maximise the grades of those who can afford it, the issue may instead be with the broken Leaving Certificate system requiring such intense curriculums and enabling this kind of profiteering. Research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in 2019 indicates teachers are unhappy with the current Leaving Certificate structure which they feel facilitates grind school type learning. "Teachers felt that current structures facilitated student emphasis on preparing for the exam rather than learning, leading to an emphasis on 'notes' and 'grinds' [private tuition] as ways of gaining valued points."

The exam itself may be "brutally fair" as outlined in the research from the ESRI, however, the type of learning it facilitates arguably benefits those who can afford grind. One teacher from a DEIS girl's school said "It's not continuous assessment and everything is based on one exam. The material being studied is often viewed as the subject matter for competitive effort between students. It is being increasingly subverted from its developmental role by the rise of grind schools and privately paid tuition in order to gain an advantage."

The University Observer spoke to students who studied in grind schools to get a first-hand perspective of their experience. Colm Lenihan is a final year law student at UCD who attended Limerick Tutorial College for his Leaving Certificate year. Discussing his experience Colm said, "I was initially reluctant to leave the school I had spent the last five years in, but my parents persuaded me that the grind school would guarantee me enough points to get the college course I wanted to do, so I went along with their wishes."

"The grind school experience was certainly unlike anything I had experienced up to that point... There was a very definite structure in place: hour-long classes (longer than usual) in blocks of two or three, from 9 to 5 with a lunch break at 1, followed by an hour break for dinner then mandatory, supervised study from 6 pm to 9 pm, or 10 pm for those who wished to stay longer."

Colm outlined that he was disappointed at the quality of teaching "The teachers were billed as some of the best, if not the best, Ireland had to offer. I found this to be only partly true. I can only speak for the seven subjects I studied for my Leaving Cert, but of those seven I found only three (four at a push) to be of the level advertised. The remaining two or three fell far short... and this was not an experience unique to myself... I do not wish to slander their recruitment process as these were clearly outliers; nonetheless, it surprised me".

I am not convinced that the school was worth the very high fee charged, as I am almost certain I could have performed almost, if not quite as well, in my old school

Colm emphasised there was a large significance placed on "exam strategy and rote learning", outlining, "We were taught to learn off large tracts of information and then apply it appropriately in the exam. Not every subject had the luxury of this system, but it was a very successful, if mildly cynical, tactic and I personally felt the quality of the information we were to learn was extremely high." Colm outlined the school was not all work "One would think that any student attending such an expensive and results-driven school would be fully focused on their education, but this was not the case. However, we were all still children essentially, and what disciplinary issues existed were relatively minor... for the most part, the students were nice, the teachers approachable and the school seemed to run smoothly."

When asked if, given the choice again, Colm would attend the school he admitted he was not sure. "On the one hand, it was heart-wrenching to leave the school I was very fond of, where almost all my friends went, and move to a city and live in a house with complete strangers. Additionally, I am not convinced that the school was worth the very high fee charged, as I am almost certain I could have performed almost, if not quite as well, in my old school. On the other hand, I did get more than enough points for my college course, so the grind school was officially a success, and I suppose when it comes to your future it is best not to take chances if you can afford it. I also made a few friends whom I count among my closest to this day, so perhaps I would not like to change anything."

Colm said the main advantage was the teachers, "how those three teachers taught was extremely engaging, refined over many years, a schedule for the year mapped out with military precision." The information given was also of good quality "although there was an emphasis on rote learning, the quality of the information you were learning mitigated the mind-numbing task of committing it all to memory... We were taught exactly how to approach the Leaving Cert, tactics, what to look out for, trick questions etc. The grind school has spent years perfecting its craft and it showed, as they dedicated whole sessions to just exam tactics." Other benefits included limited risk of truancy, specialised HPAT classes and for some students, supervised study.

Colm outlined that the main disadvantage was the cost, structure of learning, and for the supervised study, as well as some of the teachers, "I do not wish to accuse the school of bad recruitment... no one is at fault - I just had a bad year for those subjects. It was extremely surprising to leave competent teachers in one school, go to a grind school and find me worse off in two of the main subjects. I had to get maths grinds on the side, as did a lot of the students in Higher Level that year". However he outlined the teaching experience as "largely positive".

When asked if grind schools should be as prominent a feature in the Leaving Certificate, Colm was unsure. "Before I attended, my instinct was to abhor the idea that you could simply adopt a pay-to-win approach to the Leaving Cert, essentially buying your way into college by going to a fee-paying school that has some secret method of getting all of their students as many points as they need. To a certain extent, I stand by that, as the existence of the grinds, the school does make the playing field inherently uneven no matter what way you look at it. However, having attended one myself, I have a slightly different opinion. The grind schools may have experienced high levels of success over the years, but it is by no means guaranteed. As with everything in life, you get out of it what you put into it.

The grind schools may have experienced high levels of success over the years, but it is by no means guaranteed

"In my year in Limerick, I saw rich parents throw underperforming children into the school in the hopes that the structure and teaching would improve their results. For some, this worked and more power to them. However, for those who didn't work any harder, results stayed the same. A grind school only works if you do. They cram a frightening amount of material down your throat and if you can digest it all you'll do very well and the school will take the plaudits. If it's too much material for your capabilities, or if you relax and expect your mere attendance will be enough to get the school to work its "magic," then the grind school will have been nothing more than an expensive mistake."

Alan* attended the Institute of Education, a Dublin based grind school for his final two years of school, he decided to study there due to the wider range of subject choices. "I wouldn't have been able to do the subjects I wanted to do if I stayed in my previous school. It also allowed me to pick up an extra subject."

Discussing his experience Alan said "I had a positive experience studying there, however, it was a bit of a culture shock initially coming from a normal school to one where the only focus is grades. It was a really good transition step between school and college as it had a college feel to it but still maintained the basic elements of being at school. Everyone is in a similar situation, as in they came there mostly to try and get good results and this meant there was a very focused and sometimes stressful atmosphere in the school.

"In my personal experience, I found this great as I find it's easier to try and work harder when others around you are working hard. However, it was very like college as there was no one making sure you had any of the work done and it was left completely up to you to keep track of how much work you were doing. This was a great learning step as it really builds up your independence when you are 16 or 17 if there is no one checking over your shoulder to see if you're doing the work you should be doing."

When asked if he would choose to attend the grind school given the choice Alan said, "I would definitely choose to study at a grind school if I had to do the Leaving Cert again. The two years I spent there were great and I don't think I would have got the same results I did if I didn't go there."

"The main advantage of the school was the teachers and their notes. It makes it much easier to listen and take an interest in a subject when a teacher is passionate about what they are teaching and legitimately wants to be there. There are going to be bad teachers in any school but in the grind school, there was a much lower percentage of these teachers which was great. The notes were also great as they were really exam-focused which helped enormously when the exams came around.

"One of the biggest advantages was having a study hall in the school open all day. It would be very quiet in the hall and it would open first thing in the morning and not close until 8 or 9 pm. This was great as it meant you could go there whenever you wanted and have a really quiet space to study. In my experience, it was especially beneficial as I had a relatively long commute so the ability to stay for as long as I wanted in the evening and get all my work done before I got home was great.

"The main disadvantage was probably the time commitment and effort that I needed to put in when at the school. It was quite difficult trying to balance other things going on with the quantity of work I had to do as well as travelling in and out every day.

Asked whether he believes grind schools should be a feature of the Leaving Certificate Alan said "I had a positive experience at the grind school I went to but I don't feel strongly either way in relation to this issue."

The two years I spent there were great, and I don't think I would have got the same results I did if I didn't go there

There is no absolute answer as to whether grind schools are a blessing or a curse. Different students have different experiences, and although the ability to pay for better quality education is inherently unfair, as Colm said, attending a grind school does not result in "guaranteed" better success. Delaney and Devereux suggest increasing entry points for students who attend schools with advantages in exams. However, perhaps a better idea may be to restructure the Leaving Certificate exam structure should instead be redrafted to prevent the need for the type of learning grind schools facilitate and ensure it does not perpetuate inequality in education.

*Name has been changed

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Grind schools have become a popular option for students in the later years of second-level education, as they are known for producing high Leaving Certificate grades. However, the schools raise several questions regarding education equality and pressure. Sophie Finn investigates.

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Teacher shortages lead to 100% increase in demand for grinds

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Teacher shortages lead to 100% increase in demand for grinds

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A recent shortage in post primary school teachers has lead to a 100% increase in demand for spaces in Grind schools

Irene Gahan who has run the Drogheda Grinds Academy in Co Louth for the last eight years says this is the first year that she has seen such demand at the very beginning of the new school year.

"On a normal year, we would have about 125 students now at the start of term, which would increase as the time gets closer to the exams. However, we had 200 students enrolled even just before the start of September. I've never seen that before."

"No student should be pressured into excelling in a subject that they haven't a natural aptitude for but unfortunately that is the system we have to work with."

The high demand for grinds and students taking grinds for subjects the don't actually  need grinds in is causing a lot of stress and problems for students.

This is all leading to a system where more money for grinds can equal more CAO points.

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The social class of a school is a greater determinant of whether a Leaving Cert student will go to college than his or her family background, a study has revealed.

The ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) report highlights the importance of creating "a culture of high expectations" in all schools, as well as a "whole-school approach to guidance".

It notes that students from working-class schools are much more dependant on career guidance counsellors for advice, a finding that would indicate the recent cuts in these posts will exacerbate educational inequality.

The study, entitled Leaving School in Ireland: A Longitudinal Study of Post-School Transitions, is described as the "first of its kind allowing us to link school experiences to post-school outcomes in the Irish context".

It followed more than 750 young people three to four years after completing the Leaving Cert through a survey and sample interviews.

Some 94 per cent of students from middle-class schools applied for higher education, compared to 80 per cent from mixed schools and only 50 per cent from working-class schools.

Working-class students This pattern was largely related to lower levels of Leaving Certificate performance in working-class schools. However, individual family backgrounds and the school's social mix also played a role, the latter a "much stronger" one than the former.

"Young people who attended a school with a concentration of working-class students were much less likely to go on to higher education than those who attended middle-class or socially mixed schools, even [allowing] for individual social background and Leaving Certificate grades."

It notes "the social mix of the school is a strong influence on exam success" and life choices after school. "Higher education in particular assumes a 'taken for granted' status in middle-class school settings, reflecting an expectational climate and culture in such schools which promotes higher education from an early stage in second-level education."

Those who attended middle-class schools found the advice of their mothers more helpful than career guidance counsellors but the pattern was reversed for working-class schools.

'Social class' In the latter cohort, "many young people point to the lack of detailed knowledge of the system among parents who had not themselves attended third-level education

".

The authors note that "social class differences in aspirations to higher education were evident as early as junior cycle", indicating the need for intervention well before the Leaving Cert year.

The Admission to Schools Bill, which is before the Oireachtas, seeks to prevent schools from "cherry-picking" students at enrolment stage, and the report says "this reform is likely to have consequences for the social mix of schools". But, this aside, "the results clearly highlight the importance of positive school climate and high expectations across all social settings".

It says the findings "point to the importance of a whole-school approach to guidance . . . in which the expectational climate of the school encourages young people to have high aspirations".

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Social class of school a key factor in third level attendance

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The social class of a school is a greater determinant of whether a Leaving Cert student will go to college than his or her family background, a study has revealed. The ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) report highlights the importance of creating "a culture of high expectations" in all schools, as well as a "whole-school approach to guidance".

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Readers like you keep news free for everyone.

More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.

For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.

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Opinion: Class and wealth, not merit, are rewarded in Ireland's education system

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Professor Kathleen Lynch argues that a class divide is feeding injustice into our education system.

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Access to the most selective higher education courses such as medicine, are heavily dominated by those from the most affluent (white Irish) families .
These family’s can afford to send their children to grinds school , private schools so they have a class based advantage teachers in these schools teach more as the children are wanting to learn and all listen , where as teachers in public/voluntary schools must stop teaching to correct students and this wastes class time and teachers patience away

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Teacher shortages lead to 100% increase in demand for grinds.

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Teacher shortages lead to 100% increase in demand for grinds.

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Grind schools are becoming more and more popular due to teacher shortages.  People are also realising that grind schools score higher.

Parents are putting their children into grinds for subjects they don't actually need grinds in, it's causing more stress and problems for the students.
Parents are worried about the shortage of teachers.

"On a normal year, we would have about 125 students now at the start of term, which would increase as the time gets closer to the exams. However, we had 200 students enrolled even just before the start of September. I've never seen that before.

"No student should be pressured into excelling in a subject that they haven't a natural aptitude for but unfortunately that is the system we have to work with.

"A student with dyslexia or a specific learning disability is even more disadvantaged across all schools and this provides them with an opportunity to learn in a different educational environment with smaller class sizes and more focused exam based help.

More money = More CAO points

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The Government-commissioned report, Out of the Shadows, conducted on behalf of the Department of Education as part of the National Traveller.  The traveller community is feelling unwanted.     The children described being called names such as “pikey”, “knacker”, “dirty” and “smelly” by their classmates, and how other children refused to sit beside them. But when they raised such treatment with teachers, they often felt they were not taken seriously enough

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The Government-commissioned report, Out of the Shadows, conducted on behalf of the Department of Education as part of the National Traveller.  The traveller community is feelling unwanted.     The children described being called names such as “pikey”, “knacker”, “dirty” and “smelly” by their classmates, and how other children refused to sit beside them. But when they raised such treatment with teachers, they often felt they were not taken seriously enough

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Students have more say in the exam they'll be writing given the fact their stress and anxiety levels have been reduced in the year they had a choice

Research said that 83% of students assessing the leaving cert believe that it doesn't reflect on one educational achievements.
Students say should be prioritized and acted upon instead of having an insight on their thoughts after the exam.

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Have private schools lost out in calculated grades procces

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Have private schools lost out in calculated grades procces

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many grind schools and other private schools, some also claim that teachers’ estimated grades were lowered by anywhere between 20 to 40 per cent, well in excess of the national average of 17 per cent.

While the school expected half of its students to secure a H1 in German based on past performance, just 14 per cent secured this grade under the new calculated grades process.

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- Pro student-choice article
- Exams are a major source of stress for young people, due to having to perform well over a short period of time
- Student’s anxiety “significantly reduced”  when they were given choices as to whether or not to take the exam, according to the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD)
- The pandemic has shown us that we can survive without the Leaving Cert
- 83% of students do not believe that the current Leaving Cert is the best way to examine their educational achievements, according to Paul Crone, NAPD director
- Students have previously suggested that continuous assessment promotes independent learning and better prepares them for further education
- “We believe that the time is right now to develop a rich, multi-faceted assessment process for senior cycle that is not dependent on performance over a short window in time.” - Paddy Flood, Education and Training Boards Ireland

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Student voices need to be heard in LC overhaul (28 Sep - 2021) Irish Examiner

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Student voices need to be heard in LC overhaul (28 Sep - 2021) Irish Examiner

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According to the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, Students should be given more say in how their LC is assessed. They state that stress & anxiety was “significantly reduced” when they had options.

Research conducted in 2018 showed that 83% of LC Students claimed that the 'Trad' form of the LC was not the best way to get their educational achievement. - Paul Crone, NAPD Director.

Paul also stated that "students should be part of the reform process rather than an afterthought." &
"Entry to third level must be decoupled from terminal exam results."

"Students have previously suggested that continuous assessment promotes independent learning and better prepares them for further education"- John Curtis, the general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body.

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universities call for leaving cert results to be given in June

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universities call for leaving cert results to be given in June

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Universities say timelines for the release of Leaving Cert results are “no longer fit for purpose” and want students to be issued their grades at the end of June

In 2019, Jim Miley said, just over 200 students achieved a maximum score of six H1 grades. This year, this had grown to 1,342, an increase of more than 600 per cent

the association wants “authentic assessment” across all subjects over a three-year period that “genuinely reflects” the learning and thinking of the student.

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Traveller children feel ‘unwanted’ in education system, says report

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Traveller children feel ‘unwanted’ in education system, says report

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Traveller children do not feel included, wanted or safe in school – especially at second level. Some travellers feel "ignored" by some teachers as they get easier homework than their peers and aren't asked to hand theirs up. The children have said they've been called names such as "knacker", "dirty" and "smelly" and other children sometimes refuse to sit next to them. Traveller parents who felt "overlooked" in school themselves wanted better for their children. Teachers and principals described “deep frustration” that they were doing their best to support Traveller families but said education was “not valued” in “Traveller culture”. Many believed Traveller children wanted to leave school at 16, for girls to “get married” and boys “to work”. Others felt the education system did “not deliver the same benefit for Traveller students as it does for settled students”.

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A study was done analysing the predictive grades for LC. A common trend before the predictive grades is that girls scored higher in all subjects with maths being the exception.

Prior to the pandemic and predictive grades it was found that girls typically scored 5.7% to 6.5% better than the boys.

Then in 2020 this jumped up to 7.9% and declined a negligible amount in 2021 to 7.7%.

Girls also scored higher in maths than the boys, which the trend used to be that boys would score higher than the girls. The girls "narrowly" outscored the boys in the maths exams.

Girls also out performed the boys in the wider range of subjects, they include subjects such as applied maths, chemistry, agricultural economics, engineering and construction studies, where boys often outperformed girls in pre-pandemic times.

Boys secured more H1s in higher-level maths and computer science. They also outperformed girls in minority languages such as Italian, Portuguese and Hungarian, though these had relatively few candidates.

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Travellers are severely underrepresented in schools, spending on average 4.7 years less time in school than regular people. 55 percent drop out before 15 and only 3.1 percent get education after 18, compared to 41 percent of the regular population. 84.3 percent of travellers are unemployed, maybe due to lack of education and educational opportunities?

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The Power of Appeals - A good or bad thing

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The Power of Appeals - A good or bad thing

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20% of Leaving Certificate results that were appealed this year have been upgraded.

This compares with an upgrade rate of 17% in 2019, which is the last comparable year.

This year's number of upgrades represents 1% of all Leaving Certificate results awarded.

One unlucky student had one result downgraded as a result of an appeal they submitted.

As well as students looking for rechecks, the State Examinations Commission also carries out a separate quality assurance check of its own.

This year that process resulted in upgrades for 60 candidates who had not appealed their results.

Appeal outcomes are available to candidates from today via the SEC portal.

Some 8,477 candidates appealed 18,760 individual results this year, compared to 9,049 candidates and 16,965 individual results in 2019.

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20% of Leaving Certificate results that were appealed this year have been upgraded. This compares with an upgrade rate of 17% in 2019, which is the last comparable year. This year's number of upgrades represents 1% of all Leaving Certificate results awarded. One unlucky student had one result downgraded as a result of an appeal they submitted.

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Lynch and Baker (2005) Equality in Education (pre-print) (1)

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Roisin
- good education is not without empathy and love
- human service eg politics is not fulfilled without emotional work
-depriving students emotional support is to fail in providing preparation for the future
- having a sympathetic political attitude is key to the efficacy of a democracy

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At Wicklow Democratic School, we recognise the importance of unstructured play in learning. Students of the school are free to play and fully immerse themselves in whatever passions and interests engage them. Free from scheduled lessons and curriculum, students decide for themselves how to organise their own time. In doing so, they learn to live their own independent lives based on their individual goals and aspirations.

Our school is inspired by the work of generations of educationalists and dozens of alternative schools, which have proven their value in helping children grow up happily and stay in touch with what moves and motivates them.

Want to help support our school?

Peter Gray on self-directed learning

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Welcome to Ireland's first democratic school for self-directed learning. At Wicklow Democratic School, we recognise the importance of unstructured play in learning. Students of the school are free to play and fully immerse themselves in whatever passions and interests engage them. Free from scheduled lessons and curriculum, students decide for themselves how to organise their...

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The Michaela teachers wrote a book!

Click on the book to find out more

Michaela GCSE Results Day 2019
The Michaela Sixth Form is now open!
Michaela 6 th continues the school's tradition of academic excellence, high standards and exceptional outcomes for students. For September 2021, we are looking for applicants who aspire to get into Oxford, Cambridge and other top universities in the UK and across the world.

Missed the open evening? Don't worry! Email mcs6visit@mcsbrent.co.uk and book a personalised tour of the school and Sixth Form.

You can find out more about the Sixth Form at www.michaela6th.co.uk. We look forward to seeing you there.___________________

Michaela makes brick phones fashionable again!

Broadcast 07/02/19 - The BBC visit Michaela Community School to find out more about our Digital Detox Smartphone Amnesty, and discounted Brick Phone initiative.
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Broadcast 11/02/19 - Headmistress Katharine Birbalsingh appears on Good Morning Britain as MPs debate whether schools should have a later start time. At Michaela, we start early and we know our children thrive as a result!
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Michaela free school founder Katharine Birbalsingh warns smartphone addiction is stopping pupils from revising for GCSEs - read the full article here.

Katharine Birbalsingh explains how Smartphones put children at risk and should be banned outright in every school - read the full article here.

The importance of homework

Broadcast 30/05/19 - Headmistress Katharine Birbalsingh appears on Good Morning Britain to discuss the importance of schools setting the right type of homework.

Fun video where we celebrate Michaela's Fourth Birthday!

Read our Outstanding Ofsted 2017 report here:

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Quotes from our families:
Thank you to all the Michaela team."Couldn't be more happy and relaxed about my choice as Michaela as first on my application list last year - can't wait for my son to join his sister at Michaela next year! Michaela is UNIQUE we're so lucky to have the Michaela team in Brent! " "My son was one of the students that started today at Michaela and the first thing he said "I want to thank you for all that you have done with the kids. " Dad and I are so happy with our son. We feel he has changed in many ways. Telegraph - 17.10.19: More than half of state school pupils failing to achieve 'strong pass' in English and maths GCSEs - Michaela Community School came fifth in England on the Government's progress measure He is so kind and respectful. He comes home talking about things he has learned at school and speaking French!!" My daughter is much more respectful to me and the way she talks to me is so polite.

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Click on the book to find out more The Michaela Sixth Form is now open! Michaela 6 th continues the school's tradition of academic excellence, high standards and exceptional outcomes for students. For September 2021, we are looking for applicants who aspire to get into Oxford, Cambridge and other top universities in the UK and across the world.

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education is directly integrated with the economy and access to education is dependant on having sufficient economic resources.
students are picked by their economic attraction ie. how much of an asset they or their parents will be to the school.

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-education is integrated into society selection and stratification for the Labour market and by the lack of economic to avail fully of the opportunities that education can offer
-people who lack the money and resources schooling demands will experience education failure

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Pages 25-28.5

Discusses introducing democracy to education
Democracy would have intrinsic benefits in a school due to everyone having a say
Democratic systems in the school system would instruct young people on how democracy is (or should be) in the real world
Listening and accountability comes with democracy
Democracy should not be about keeping discipline

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Abstract but Useable

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Thomas Hobbes’ theory of education analyzed into eight factors.

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According to Traditional Marxists, school teaches children to passively obey authority and it reproduces and legitimates class inequality.

Traditional Marxists see the education system as working in the interests of ruling class elites. According to the Marxist perspective on education, the system performs three functions for these elites:

It reproduces class inequality.

It legitimates class inequality.

It works in the interests of capitalist employers

The main source for the ideas below is Bowles and Ginits (1976): Schooling in Capitalist America. These are the two main sociologists associated with Traditional Marxist perspective on education.

1. The reproduction of class inequality

This means that class inequalities are carried from one generation to the next.

Middle class parents use their material and cultural capital to ensure that their children get into the best schools and the top sets. This means that the wealthier pupils tend to get the best education and then go onto to get middle class jobs. Meanwhile working class children are more likely to get a poorer standard of education and end up in working class jobs. In this way class inequality is reproduced

2. The Legitimation of class inequality

Marxists argue that in reality money determines how good an education you get, but people do not realize this because schools spread the ' myth of meritocracy ' - in school we learn that we all have an equal chance to succeed and that our grades depend on our effort and ability. Thus if we fail, we believe it is our own fault. This legitimates or justifies the system because we think it is fair when in reality it is not.

This has the effect of controlling the working classes - if children grow up believing they have had a fair chance then they are less likely to rebel and try to change society as part of a Marxist revolutionary movement.
If you'd like to find out more about the above two concepts please see this post on 'the illusion of educational equality' in which I go into more depth about educational realities and myths, as theorized by Bowles and Gintis.
3. Teaching the skills future capitalist employers need

Bowles and Gintis suggested that there was a correspondence between values learnt at school and the way in which the workplace operates. The values, they suggested, are taught through the 'Hidden Curriculum'. The Hidden Curriculum consists of those things that pupils learn through the experience of attending school rather than the main curriculum subjects taught at the school. So pupils learn those values that are necessary for them to tow the line in menial manual jobs, as outlined below
SCHOOL VALUES Corresponds to EXPLOITATIVE LOGIC OF THE WORKPLACE

Passive subservience (of pupils to teachers) corresponds to Passive subservience of workers to managers

Acceptance of hierarchy (authority of teachers) corresponds to Authority of managers

Motivation by external rewards (grades not learning) corresponds to being Motivated by wages not the joy of the job

For a more in depth account of Bowles and Gintis' Correspondence Principle, please see this post.

Evaluations of the Traditional Marxist Perspective on Education
Positive

There is an overwhelming wealth of evidence that schools do reproduce class inequality because the middle classes do much better in education because the working classes are more likely to suffer from material and cultural deprivation. Meanwhile, the middle classes have more material capital, more cultural capital (Reay) and because the 1988 Education Act benefited them (Ball Bowe and Gewirtz),

The existence of private schools is strong supporting evidence for Marxism - the wealthiest 7% of families are able to buy their children a better education which in turn gives them a better chance of getting into the top universities.

There is strong evidence for the reproduction of class inequality if we look at elite jobs, such as Medicine, the law and journalism. A Disproportionately high number of people in these professions were privately educated.

Negative

Henry Giroux, says the theory is too deterministic. He argues that working class pupils are not entirely molded by the capitalist system, and do not accept everything that they are taught - Paul Willis' study of the 'Lads' also suggests this.

There is less evidence that pupils think school is fair - Paul Willis' Lads new the system was biased towards the middle classes for example, and many young people in deprived areas are very aware that they are getting a poor quality of education compared to those in private schools.

Education can actually harm the Bourgeois - many left wing, Marxist activists are university educated for example.

The correspondence principle may not be as applicable in today's complex labour market where employers increasingly require workers to be able to think rather than to just be passive robots.

Neo- Marxism: Paul Willis: - Learning to Labour (1977)

Willis' research involved visiting one school and observing and interviewing 12 working class rebellious boys about their attitude to school during their last 18 months at school and during their first few months at work.

Willis argues pupils rebelling are evidence that not all pupils are brainwashed into being passive, subordinate people as a result of the hidden curriculum.

Willis therefore criticizes Traditional Marxism. He says that pupils are not directly injected with the values and norms that benefit the ruling class, some actively reject these. These pupils also realise that they have no real opportunity to succeed in this system.

BUT, Willis still believes that this counter-school culture still produces workers who are easily exploited by their future employers:
The Counter School Culture
Willis described the friendship between these 12 boys (or the lads) as a counter-school culture. Their value system was opposed to that of the school. This value system was characterised as follows:

1. The lads felt superior to the teachers and other pupils
2. They attached no value to academic work, more to 'having a laff'
3. The objective of school was to miss as many lessons as possible, the reward for this was status within the group
4. The time they were at school was spent trying to win control over their time and make it their own.
Attitudes to future work

They looked forward to paid manual work after leaving school and identified all non-school activities (smoking, going out) with this adult world, and valued such activities far more than school work.

The lads believed that manual work was proper work, and the type of jobs that hard working pupils would get were all the same and generally pointless.

Their counter school culture was also strongly sexist.

Evaluations of Willis

Very small sample of only working class white boys

Overly sympathetic with the boys - going native?

For a more in depth summary of Paul Willis, please see this post which focuses more on the research methods.
Essay Plans/ Revision Resources

If you like this sort of thing, then you might like my sociology of education revision notes bundle - which contains the following:

1. 34 pages of revision notes

2. mind maps in pdf and png format - 9 in total, covering various topics within the sociology of education

3. short answer exam practice questions and exemplar answers

4. how to write sociology essays, including 7 specific templates and model answers on the sociology of education

Other Related Posts on the Marxist Perspective on Education

Other related posts on other aspects of Marxism and related perspectives on Education

Sources

Bowles and Gintis (1976) Schooling in Capitalist America

Paul Willis (1977) Learning to Labour

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According to Traditional Marxists, school teaches children to passively obey authority and it reproduces and legitimates class inequality. Traditional Marxists see the education system as working in the interests of ruling class elites. According to the Marxist perspective on education, the system performs three functions for these elites: It reproduces class inequality.

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Thomas Hobbes was a 17th-century English philosopher who is on hand to guide us through one of the thorniest issues of politics: to what extent should we patiently obey rulers, especially those who are not very good - and to what extent should we start revolutions and depose governments in search of a better world?

Hobbes's thinking is inseparable from one major event that began when he was 64 years old - and was to mark him so deeply, it coloured all this subsequent thinking (remarkably he died when he was 91 and everything he is remembered for today he wrote after the age of 60).

This event was the English Civil war, a vicious, divisive, costly and murderous conflict that raged across England for almost a decade and pitted the forces of King against Parliament, leading to the deaths of some 200,000 people on both sides.

Hobbes was by nature a deeply peaceful and cautious man. He hated violence of all kinds, a disposition that began at the age of four, when his own father, a clergyman, was disgraced, and abandoned his wife and family, after he'd got into a fight with another vicar on the steps of his parish church in a village in Wiltshire.

The work for which we chiefly remember Hobbes, Leviathan, was published in 1651. It is the most definitive, persuasive and eloquent statement ever produced as to why one should obey government authority, even of a very imperfect kind, in order to avoid the risk of chaos and bloodshed. To understand the background of Hobbes's conservatism, it helps to realise that across western Europe in the 17th century, political theorists were beginning to ask, with a new directness, on what basis subjects should obey their rulers.

For centuries, way back into the Middle Ages, there had been a standard answer to this, contained in a theory called the Divine Right of Kings. This was a blunt, simple but highly effective theory: stating that it was none other than God who appointed all kings and that one should obey these monarchs for one clear reason: because the deity said so - and He would send you to hell if you didn't agree.

But this was no longer proving quite so persuasive to many thoughtful people who argued that the right to rule ultimately lay not with Kings, but with ordinary people, who gave kings power - and therefore should only expect to take orders from kings so long as, but only so long, as things were working out well for them. This was known as the Social Contract theory of government.

Hobbes could see that the Divine Right of Kings theory was nonsense and what's more, was going to be increasingly unpersuasive as religious observance declined. He himself was, privately, an atheist. At the same time, Hobbes was deeply scared of the possible consequences of the social contract theory, which could encourage people to depose rulers whenever they felt a little unhappy with their lot.

Hobbes had received a first hand account of the beheading of King Charles I on a scaffold in front of the Banqueting Hall at the Palace of Whitehall in 1649 - and his intellectual labours were directed at making sure that such ghastly, primitive scenes would never be repeated.

So in Leviathan, he put forward an ingenious argument that tried to marry up social contract theory with a defence of total obedience and submission to traditional authority. The way he did this was to take his readers back in time, to a period he called 'the state of nature', before there were kings of any kind, and to get them to think about how governments would have arisen in the first place.

Key to Hobbes's argument was that the state of nature could not have been a pretty place, because humans, left to their own devices, without a central authority to keep them in awe, would quickly have descended into squabbling, infighting and intolerable bickering. It would have been a little like the English civil war, but with people in bear skins bashing each other around with flint tools. In Hobbes's famous formulation, life in the state of nature would have been: 'nasty, brutish and short.'

As a result, out of fear and dread of chaos, people were led to form governments. They had done this willingly, as social contract theorists maintained, but also under considerable compulsion, fleeing into the arms of strong authority, which they therefore - Hobbes argued - had a subsequent duty to keep obeying, with only a few rights to complain if they didn't like it.

The only right that people might have to protest about an absolute ruler, or Leviathan as he called him, was if he directly threatened to kill them.

However, if the ruler merely stifled opposition, imposed onerous taxes, crippled the economy and locked up dissidents, this was absolutely no reason to take to the streets and demand a change of government.

'Though of so unlimited a power, men may fancy many evil consequences, yet the consequences of the want of it, which is perpetuall warre of every man against his neighbour, are much worse.'

He admitted that a ruler might come along with an 'inclination to do wicked deeds' but the people would still have a duty to obey as 'humane affairs cannot be without some inconvenience.' But this inconvenience is the fault of people, not the sovereign, because: 'if men could rule themselves, there would be no need at all of a common coercive power.' As Hobbes went on: 'He that complaineth of injury from his Sovereign, complaineth of that whereof he is the author himselfe; and therefore ought not to accuse any man but himselfe.'

Hobbes's theory was dark, cautious and not especially hopeful about government. In our more optimistic moment, we want him to be wrong. But it seems Hobbes's name will always be relevant and fresh again when revolutions motivated by a search for liberty go horribly awry. Hobbes was not against revolution for any sinister motives. He just maintained, as he put it in the preface to Leviathan, that he felt compelled:

'...to set before men's eyes the mutuall relationship between protection and obedience.'

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Thomas Hobbes was a 17th-century English philosopher who is on hand to guide us through one of the thorniest issues of politics: to what extent should we patiently obey rulers, especially those who are not very good - and to what extent should we start revolutions and depose governments in search of a better world?

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The Grolier encyclopedia contrasts Locke and Hobbes as follows:

Locke's considerable importance in political thought is better known. As the first systematic theorist of the philosophy of liberalism, Locke exercised enormous influence in both England and America. In his Two Treatises of Government (1690), Locke set forth the view that the state exists to preserve the natural rights of its citizens. When governments fail in that task, citizens have the right-and sometimes the duty-to withdraw their support and even to rebel. Locke opposed Thomas Hobbes's view that the original state of nature was "nasty, brutish, and short," and that individuals through a social contract surrendered-for the sake of self-preservation-their rights [...]

Locke addressed Hobbes's claim that the state of nature was the state of war, though he attribute this claim to "some men" not to Hobbes. He refuted it by pointing to existing and real historical examples of people in a state of nature. For this purpose he regarded any people who are not subject to a common judge to resolve disputes, people who may legitimately take action to themselves punish wrong doers, as in a state of nature.

Second treatise, Section 14

It is often asked as a mighty objection, where are, or ever were, there any men in such a state of Nature? To which it may suffice as an answer at present, that since all princes and rulers of "independent" governments all through the world are in a state of Nature, it is plain the world never was, nor never will be, without numbers of men in that state. I have named all governors of "independent" communities, whether they are, or are not, in league with others; for it is not every compact that puts an end to the state of Nature between men, but only this one of agreeing together mutually to enter into one community, and make one body politic; other promises and compacts men may make one with another, and yet still be in the state of Nature. The promises and bargains for truck, etc., between the two men in Soldania, in or between a Swiss and an Indian, in the woods of America, are binding to them, though they are perfectly in a state of Nature in reference to one another for truth, and keeping of faith belongs to men as men, and not as members of society.

Second treatise, Section 17, 18, 19

And hence it is that he who attempts to get another man into his absolute power does thereby put himself into a state of war with him; it being to be understood as a declaration of a design upon his life. For I have reason to conclude that he who would get me into his power without my consent would use me as he pleased when he had got me there, and destroy me too when he had a fancy to it; for nobody can desire to have me in his absolute power unless it be to compel me by force to that which is against the right of my freedom- i.e. make me a slave. To be free from such force is the only security of my preservation, and reason bids me look on him as an enemy to my preservation who would take away that freedom which is the fence to it; so that he who makes an attempt to enslave me thereby puts himself into a state of war with me. He that in the state of Nature would take away the freedom that belongs to any one in that state must necessarily be supposed to have a design to take away everything else, that freedom being the foundation of all the rest; as he that in the state of society would take away the freedom belonging to those of that society or commonwealth must be supposed to design to take away from them everything else, and so be looked on as in a state of war.

This makes it lawful for a man to kill a thief who has not in the least hurt him, nor declared any design upon his life, any farther than by the use of force, so to get him in his power as to take away his money, or what he pleases, from him; because using force, where he has no right to get me into his power, let his pretense be what it will, I have no reason to suppose that he who would take away my liberty would not, when he had me in his power, take away everything else. And, therefore, it is lawful for me to treat him as one who has put himself into a state of war with me- i.e., kill him if I can; for to that hazard does he justly expose himself whoever introduces a state of war, and is aggressor in it.

And here we have the plain difference between the state of Nature and the state of war, which however some men have confounded, are as far distant as a state of peace, goodwill, mutual assistance, and preservation; and a state of enmity, malice, violence and mutual destruction are one from another. Men living together according to reason without a common superior on earth, with authority to judge between them, is properly the state of Nature. But force, or a declared design of force upon the person of another, where there is no common superior on earth to appeal to for relief, is the state of war; and it is the want of such an appeal gives a man the right of war even against an aggressor, though he be in society and a fellow-subject. Thus, a thief whom I cannot harm, but by appeal to the law, for having stolen all that I am worth, I may kill when he sets on me to rob me but of my horse or coat, because the law, which was made for my preservation, where it cannot interpose to secure my life from present force, which if lost is capable of no reparation, permits me my own defense and the right of war, a liberty to kill the aggressor, because the aggressor allows not time to appeal to our common judge, nor the decision of the law, for remedy in a case where the mischief may be irreparable. Want of a common judge with authority puts all men in a state of Nature; force without right upon a manSRC="s person makes a state of war both where there is, and is not, a common judge.

Hobbes, on the contrary, asserts that without subjection to a common power, men are necessarily at war:

Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man.

In on this issue, and also on the meaning of civil society, Hobbes's position is the same as the fascist position: Peace is actually war in disguise. This is why Hobbes argued that corporations should be suppressed and replaced by the direct exercise of state power. This is why Hitler thought that declaring war on America was merely a meaningless trivial symbol.

It was not merely a symbol. Peace is not merely maneuvering preparatory to predatory attack.

Unlike the communists and the fascists Hobbes had no specific concrete plan for suppressing competition and the pursuit of conflicting goals, and he might well have disapproved of the details of the fascists plans, but he clearly regarded their objectives as a desirable and popular part of any good state

Locke was the seventeenth century precursor of classic liberalism, and Hobbes was the seventeenth century precursor of modern totalitarianism, particularly fascism.

Hobbes argued that what we today call civil society should exist only by the power of the state, and to the extent that it existed independent of the state, for example private associations, corporations, and political discussion, it should be suppressed. This measure is the distinctive characteristic of modern totalitarianism, both communist and fascist, though Hobbes's reasoning in favor of this measure is fascist, rather than communist.

Chapter 29 of Hobbes's Leviathan:

For men, as they become at last weary of irregular jostling and hewing one another, and desire with all their hearts to conform themselves into one firm and lasting edifice
[...]
I observe the diseases of a Commonwealth that proceed from the poison of seditious doctrines, whereof one is that every private man is judge of good and evil actions.
[...]
Another infirmity of a Commonwealth is the immoderate greatness of a town, when it is able to furnish out of its own circuit the number and expense of a great army; as also the great number of corporations, which are as it were many lesser Commonwealths in the bowels of a greater, like worms in the entrails of a natural man. To may be added, liberty of disputing against absolute power by pretenders to political prudence; which though bred for the most part in the lees of the people, yet animated by false doctrines are perpetually meddling with the fundamental laws, to the molestation of the Commonwealth, like the little worms which physicians call ascarides.

Hobbes's theory has far more in common with fascism, than it does with Locke's theory. To say that they were both social contract theorists is like saying that Adam Smith believed in the labor theory of value and Karl Marx believed in the labor theory of value, therefor Smith was a Marxist or Marx was a Smithian.

Locke's social contract had as much in common with Hobbes's social contract as Ricardo's labor theory of value had with Marx's labor theory of value.

Fascism is largely corporatism, indeed many fascists argued that fascism simply was corporatism, that race theory was irrelevant. Certainly Mussolini and Franco held this view. Corporatism derives from "one body" (corpora=body), not from corporation. Same metaphor as Hobbes's Leviathan, and the cover of Hobbes's book, and, in the case of fascism, the same rationale. The race, the nation, the folk, or whatever, are to be welded into a single entity, by the application of whatever force necessary

Hobbes favored unlimited power for the state, and he favored it for the purpose of ending all conflict and contention. He saw all non-state society as simply bad happenings that should be suppressed.

If people go about their material lives freely they will come in conflict, and Hobbes regards it as the duty of the state to prevent such conflict.

Locke argues that government is legitimate, but only legitimate in so far as it acts within the limits of this implied contract.

Like any unwritten contract, it is not at all clear just what precisely the limits of Locke's contract are, and Locke clearly considered that his contract could stretch a long way, but is equally clear that modern twentieth century governments are substantially breaking it, for the majority of disputes that an ordinary citizen finds himself involved in are disputes with the state, and in these disputes, for example with the IRS, the state acts as judge in its own cause, a clear violation of the Lockean contract. A state cannot be as large and intrusive as modern states are without finding it necessary to substantially violate Locke's implied contract in many ways.

Locke's contract was for a judge. Hobbes's contract was for a master. While in some situations the distinction between these two roles may be fuzzy, it is clear that vast majority of people today encounter the state in the role of master, rather than judge, thus the modern state is far more Hobbesian than Lockean, though it is still very far from the absolutist government that Hobbes commended.

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The Grolier encyclopedia contrasts Locke and Hobbes as follows: Locke's considerable importance in political thought is better known. As the first systematic theorist of the philosophy of liberalism, Locke exercised enormous influence in both England and America. In his Two Treatises of Government (1690), Locke set forth the view that the state exists to preserve the natural rights of its citizens.

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Statistics on travellers staying in school:

Hilary Harmon, Pavee Point’s education coordinator, said there are just over 36,000 Travellers living in Ireland today with almost 74% living in a house and 42% under the age of 15. However, just 13% of Traveller children complete second-level education, compared to 92% of children in the settled community.