Ireland has second worst class sizes in EU

The OECD Report, ‘Education at a Glance 2009’ was published earlier this month. It gives us a very interesting snapshot of exactly where our education system stands internationally.

The Report shows that:
· Irish classes are the second most overcrowded in the EU and the eighth most overcrowded in the OECD;
· Class sizes are far higher than the EU average with an average of 20 students per class in the EU and almost 25 in Ireland;
· The overall spend on education is 4.7% of GDP in Ireland compared to OECD average of 5.7%;
· When it comes to life-long learning, less than 1% of over-40s are in fulltime or part-time education. In other countries like Australia, Finland, New Zealand and Sweden this figure is more than one in ten;
· Ireland’s school evaluations structures are weak with 39% of secondary education teachers in Ireland having no form of school evaluation in the previous five years.

This objective unbiased Report highlights the great challenges we face in education. The comparison with other EU and OECD countries is pretty grim reading. Log on to www.oecd.org to see the report in full.

Encouraging life-long learning and improving evaluation structures have not been a priority despite the clear benefits other countries have received from investing in these areas.

Class Size does matter despite of what the Minister for Education has stated. The OECD Report confirms what most teachers and parents already knew: that Ireland already had some of the most overcrowded classes in the EU even before the Government’s decision to increase class sizes this year.

The OECD also confirms that Government investment in Education is a positive and profitable investment in the long term.

What we see in the OECD Report is that our education system which was neglected during the Celtic Tiger Boom and faces cuts in the recession is falling behind internationally. The OECD’s Reports should ring alarm bells at the highest level of Government.