Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
AS A PARENT, having lived through two school closures, I can’t comprehend how hard it would be if my child suffered from such crippling anxiety that the very idea of going to school was impossible.
Imagine your child being out of school for two years and having to give up your job to be at home with them because they could not cope in mainstream education.
By international standards, we in Ireland are considered to have one of the top education systems in the world – but what about when attending a mainstream school is not an option – what then?
Our system
Five per cent of young people leave school early in Ireland, this rises to 15.2 per cent in disadvantaged areas. Each year, 4,500 young people drop out of school before completing their Junior Cert.
These children lose out not only on receiving an education but also on the opportunity to make friends, socialise with their peers and develop the necessary interpersonal and social skills that will see them through life. Studies show that early school leavers experience higher levels of depression, anxiety and their health and general wellbeing are detrimentally impacted.
The reality is, young people who leave school before the age of 16 have very limited opportunities to continue their education. Except for Youthreach, which is a state-provided programme of ‘second chance’ education, the area of alternative education is not explicitly defined or mentioned in the Irish education system.
While Youthreach supports many students in their education journey, it does not cater for all of their needs and many others who aren’t able to access a Youthreach programme find they hit a brick wall in terms of options.
This is where alternative education or out-of-education providers such as iScoil, Cork Life Centre, Citywise Fast Track Academy, Trinity Access 21, Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID), Aspire2 and An Cosán VCC have stepped in to provide education at both Junior and Leaving Cert level.
Alternatives
Alternative education changes the lives of children who are left out in the cold by mainstream education. These settings provide students with individualised support, with a focus on personal development and a secure and safe environment where students are seen as individuals with a wide range of strengths and needs.
Students attending alternative education settings have explained how the experience has built up their confidence and made them excited about the future.
That’s what you want to hear as a parent. We want an education system that supports our children to reach their full potential, and an important part of that is instilling the self-belief that they can achieve their goals.
In research conducted by NUI Galway, parents reported huge changes in their children’s approach not only to education but to life in general thanks to alternative education. One parent expressed how her son is now excited about life and the future in a way he wasn’t before. Another parent expressed how alternative education has given her son the power to be in control of his own future and that he now believes he has a future because the education he received in an alternative education setting allowed it to happen.
Limited choice
Alternative education centres are at full capacity and do not have places for all the referrals they receive. For example, iScoil has reported that they had to turn down 100 referrals into their service in 2019/2020 and the Cork Life Centre has an annual waiting list of over 150 students. This means a significant number of students who are not in education and are denied opportunities to develop and learn.
Today, 24 January is the International Day of Education. This is a day to reflect on how we can reimagine our education system and think afresh about how best we support children and young people whose needs are not currently supported by mainstream education.
Critical to this are the findings of the Department of Education’s 2018 review on current and future provisions of out-of-school education that have yet to be published. We have learned a lot over the last couple of years about how we can do things differently in terms of education and how we can and need to put children and young people’s interests first.
Building on the Department’s recent experience of responding to issues raised by Covid-19, the Minister for Education, Norma Foley is well placed to recognise that a ‘one size fits all’ approach does not work for every child and seizes the opportunity to recognise alternative education as a central component of our education system.
We need to examine the reasons why children and young people are dropping out of mainstream education, while recognising that there will always, for some children and young people, be a need for alternative education.
The Minister could deliver a clear alternative or out-of-education strategy with the resources to go with it. We need to get to a place where every child and young person, no matter where they live in Ireland, should be supported to remain in mainstream education, and at the same time, able to access an alternative education space if that is the best option for them to ensure that they reach their full potential.
Tanya Ward is Chief Executive of The Children’s Rights Alliance. She is currently the Chair of the National Advisory Council for the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Y’know some people should get a life with these complaints.
Yes we are a secular state, but living in a secular state means tolerating ALL religions. In fact when living in a secular state a person’s faith preference or if they are Atheist or Agnostic is their own personal belief and preference and their own business. If we should take any lesson from the past in Ireland, we should take this one. People are not defined by their faith preference alone, they are made up of more than that. Profiling people in this way is a dangerous road to go down as history proves again and again. We talk of religious freedom for other faiths that are in Ireland but what about religious freedom for native faiths. How can we call ourselves a tolerant state if we cannot even tolerate native faiths.
@Liz (10) (^_^): what do you mean by native faiths? Christianity, which is a middle eastern religion hijacked by the Romans? Or maybe you mean paganism? Either way, I do believe in freedom of religion, I agree with you on that part, once that religion is practiced privately and not imposed on others or does not impinge on the freedom of others, as it does currently in our religious run schools, for example.
@Liz (10) (^_^): ‘We talk of religious freedom for other faiths that are in Ireland but what about religious freedom for native faiths. ‘
Our native faith is paganism.
Podge and Rodge show last night was absolutely disgusting with the behavior of that thing,Maughan . I for one will be making a complaint. A new low in “entertainment “ . Yuck!
@James Wallace: Don’t forget the Jewish faith. Ireland has a long native Jewish tradition as well as Christian which is unfortunately is in decline however in recent times there has been an upsurge with workers from overseas
@Beyond Belief: True. I grant you. We were better off at times if we still were in my honest opinion with the carry on of the Church over decades.
Plus no women priests or married clergy. I think they need to cop on now.
People are perpetually offended these days, live and let live…I’m not a catholic but I don’t begrudge people their faith.
@Jun Stone: Fair enough. On the other hand, I have no faith in RTÉ’s habit of pushing for hefty increases in licence tax, requiring people who never watch RTÉ to pay regular sums of money to RTÉ.
Try getting a grip. It had huge sectoral interest and was televised. That’s not sectarianism, it’s the job of TV. Just as the euro. 2020, the GAA championship, referendum and GE coverage or anything else that has a large following. Sectarianism is making official complaints because of no other valid reason than being anti. Just find something else to do or watch like I did.
It was covering of the pope’s visit to Ireland of course the state broadcaster is going to cover it , sky news covered it most of the day too along with other media companies ,
Ireland should be transitioning to a secular state to allay the fears of unification held by NI Protestants and the Orange Order. The Pope’s visit was ill-timed at a time when unification is at its highest since 1921 and just resurrected the Paisley notion of a papist state.
Given the history of abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church over the past 100 years
the Government has to no demystify the Confessional seal of silence and compel all
citizens with the exception of legal advisors to report all criminal activity for secular
legal remedy. This process is happening in Australia,
The Government has to simply nationalise primary & secondary education, de-Catholic
the constitution and remove God from it for good measure and declare that religion and its practice is a private matter and that all Irish law should take precedence to Cannon Law and its derivatives. (replace calumny* with defamation, slander etc.).
If we can assure protestants in NI that they will have identical status as Catholics in a secular 32 county Ireland, then, IMO, the major stumbling block to unification is no longer there and economics will sort out the residual Unionist sentiments.
It is fine for the UK having a unified head of State & head of Church but a 21C Irish Republic should be independent and secular to reflect our neutral position with respect to global conflict.
To an outsider it seemed a Dr Who voyage back to the Middle Ages when it was found the Sgt McCabe had been subjected to “calumny” straight out of Cannon Law. If I remember form my Confirmation coaching , calumny & detraction was under the heading: “What else is forbidden by the 8th Commandment?
Ireland’s recent immigration program indicates an objective of being a multi-cultural
society and the preferred position of the State ought to be secular to accommodate
multiculturalism, Imo.
@Moorooka Mick: pppppffffffff
@Moorooka Mick: the state is secular. Legislation is not being scripted with a Catholic or any other ethos in mind. If the schools have a ethos, it’s because there’s demand for it. Some people want their children to grow up with some indoctrination and some don’t. It’s freedom of choice.
@Andrew Dillon: demand for it? there’s demand for non religious schools & even if what you say was true let people pay for private religious schools. A truly secular society cannot have public schools run by religious groups. it’s the opposite of a secular society. if people want their children “indoctrinated” let them pay for it or do it at home or at Sunday schools. I am also open to children being taught religious education in schools provided all religions and none are addressed as well as the pros & cons of such teachings. Catholics schools have been shown to be discriminatory towards both students & teachers & you say there’s no legislation being scripted. Maybe there should be to prevent this.
@Moorooka Mick: very well said. Bravo.
@Moorooka Mick: We don’t need to appease them, if they think we are all papists even after the pro gay marriage and pro choice referendums then what more can we do? Any anyways why should we be considerate about their feelings or concerns? A reunified Ireland would be great, but not if we have to bend at the knee to Arlene’s feelings!
@Andrew Dillon: except in most areas of the country there is NO choice.
@Moorooka Mick: the protestants in the north have more in common with Catholicism than secularism. In England 25% of the top performing schools were Catholic even though they make up a much smaller percentage of the total. It would therefore appear it would not be wise to reduce the number of Catholic schools.
@Tom Mullally: Or wiser to send your children to a top-performing school in England? A country where it is unacceptable to cover up child predator activities by failing to report them, arranging for secrecy contracts and allowing the predators to move around the country freely.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: tell that to the young girls in Rotherham
He gives a lovely mass though
@Nomad: Careful now .. He gives good mass .. Its the girls who are lovely
RTE intentionally or unintentionally gave the impression that it was going to be a nightmare getting to the event.
@Thomas Molloy: and catholics famously hate a pilgrimage.
Only a handful of people play Winning Streak each week and RTE gives it an hour airtime every Saturday and get paid for same.
Moorooka Mick .Set up a stall in O’Connell street and gather your follower’s and see how that goes .I am easy either way and disgusted at what was done in the name of religion or by the religious and I also believe that that is the general feeling of all catholics some of who are reeling at what has come out from time to time
It was much to popey for my liking.
Goes to show, no matter what RTÉ do they’ll be attacked by both sides. They can’t win.
The three Bryan Dobson fans must have been the father, son & Holy Ghost
Lads more people bought Gareth Brooks tickets than attended the pope…… We are a changed country but the rise in country music amoung young people needs to be looked at. It’s the main cause of Suacide
” Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s ” Romans 13:1 ” let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities ,for there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God.”
No formal complaints made now look at headline
I watched it with the sound off, but I thought the frocks were nice.
Online stories like this are inclined to elicit feedback on the RTE feedback and comments on various comments. Narcissistic commentary on public commentary tells us more about comment posters than it does about the professionalism of RTE.
Wouldn’t call it sectarianism, not a fan of R.T.E. but the way this visit was rammed down our throats was a disgrace. The good and the mighty after all their talk had no problem in bending the knee to El Papa. If people believe that’s their right…. but R.T.E. and mainstream media was over the top.
have your say