Ireland's Education ratings plummet, in PISA International Rankings

[Sister Mercedes]

What infrastructure gap?

An infrastructure gap is when you use your scare resources to pay your teachers more for working shorter hours and retiring much earlier, rather than investing it in resources for the school like classrooms, computers and sports facilities.

[Luachara]

We pay our teachers above the OECD average

Teachers paid above OECD average - The Irish Times - Tue, Sep 13, 2011

yet we spend below the OECD average on education

OECD highlights poor Irish education spending - RT News

Many Children moved here from countries with lower rankings. That must be one explanation. This issue has not been considered and resources. A great deal of resources might be required to bridge the gap, if it is possible to bridge.

[Luachara]

An infrastructure gap is when you use your scare resources to pay your teachers more for working shorter hours and retiring much earlier, rather than investing it in resources for the school like classrooms, computers and sports facilities.

Teachers have aspirations of living in houses too and consuming the other necessities in our high cost economy.

[Sister Mercedes]

Teachers have aspirations of living in houses too and consuming the other necessities in our high cost economy.

Is a house a relatively high cost item in Ireland in 2012?

[brughahaha]

4) More access to computer games and social media meas that children are actually less capable than before of concentrating for sustained periods of directed and independent work and study (fact - Harvard Graduate School of Education).

5) And finally, why would a child from an educationally disadvantaged background even bother? Thanks to Bertie and his every-increasing Social Welfare handouts, they have witnessed their parents get everything they need (housing, money, medical cards, etc) from the State and an education only means having to actually achieve for oneself.

But hey, that's just my opinion.

First (4) point i agree with , someone on the Kenny show the other morning saying how we no longer listen ( children and adults) anymore in order to absorb information as it is always available to us again unlike the past

Second (5) point is absolute social snobbery and generalisation of the worst kind , you complain about a mere €500,( plus plus plus) try 188 before being such a snob

[Luachara]

Is a house a high cost item in Ireland in 2012?

No but a mortgage on a house bought between 2003- 2008 is. It was very difficult to retain young teachers in the Capital during the boom

[alloverbartheshouting]

You missed one. Crap, under-qualified, under-worked, over-entitled, over-paid teachers.

Sister, you're gas. Over on the special education needs thread, you asked questions which have been answered. Did you bother reading them? No. You don't bother educating yourself as you are quite happy regurgitating the same uninformed drivel.

Sure, why let the facts get in the way of an ingrained and misinformed outlook?

[drummed]

We do in a lot of cases but even they can't bridge the infrastructure gap that has developed between us and most developed countries educational systems in the last ten years.

I'll translate for you all. "We need to pay the teachers a lot more".
I think thats his basic argument.

[Sister Mercedes]

Many Children moved here from countries with lower rankings. That must be one explanation. This issue has not been considered and resources. A great deal of resources might be required to bridge the gap, if it is possible to bridge.

But the other countries we are measured against, such as the USA, UK, Sweden, etc, have been dealing with immigrant children for years. Perhaps the lack of immigrants in Ireland previously just covered up how bad our education system was.

[Sister Mercedes]

Sister, you're gas. Over on the special education needs thread, you asked questions which have been answered. Did you bother reading them? No. You don't bother educating yourself as you are quite happy regurgitating the same uninformed drivel.

Sure, why let the facts get in the way of an ingrained and misinformed outlook?

Was there a point hidden deep in there?