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Summary of ideas submitted in the Education category…

• Abolish state exams in favour of progressive assessment over a two-year period.
• Add economically relevant subjects to the Leaving Cert.
• After school computer classes should available free of charge to everyone with unemployed IT workers giving the courses.
• All academic staff should be on fixed-term contracts that are renewed every five years to incentivise them to stay at the top of their game
• All Children’s Allowance entitlements should be linked to an educational parenting programme for the child’s parents.
• All civil servants who use computers be given € 50 and be required to get their own specs
• Allow local community groups to use third level computer and research facilities.
• Allow people to attend postgraduate courses while retaining unemployment benefit.
• Allow students to sit both Honours and Ordinary Level Maths papers in the Leaving Cert. This will remove the risk of failing the Leaving Cert for those who are unsure whether or not they are able for the Honours paper.
• Allow the unemployed earlier access to the Back To Education scheme.
• As a debt of honor to the state, graduates who were educated at the expense of the tax payers should give one or two years’ voluntary service to the Irish state
• Assess all Junior and Leaving Cert students on interpersonal and intrapersonal Intelligence as a start towards creating the knowledge-based economy.
• Assign the five working days of the week (Monday to Friday) to specific languages
• Attract private sector investment for primary schools.
• Award bonus points for Leaving Cert Maths and Science subjects.
• Better quality teachers are needed for maths and science subjects.
• Bring back third level fees except in subjects identified as vital for economic growth.
• Bring business and engineering graduates together.
• Broadcast an Irish version of ‘University Challenge’
• Build colleges that cater specifically for 16 to 18 year olds. The new colleges will be small and incubators for innovation and creativity.
• Carry out a complete overhaul of the of the education system so that less teachers and infrastructure are needed to deliver better education.
• Cease most University research in the Humanities and redirect the resources to organising and providing training for unemployed people.
• Centralise the purchasing of computers for special needs pupils.
• Change the structure of the academic year in third level colleges.
• Channel some of the third level funding into a policy of ensuring a minimum educational attainment of everyone.
• Children from fee paying schools should pay third level fees.
• Children’s Allowance payments should be contingent on school attendance.
• Closedown Network 2 and spend the money saved on producing more Irish-made content.
• College students should work on real-life Irish business problems.
• Communities should be asked to help fund school buildings or extensions by contributing modest sums.
• Companies looking to cut costs through redundancies should be incentivised to ask employees to work three or four-day weeks, with the remaining days spent in education.
• Companies who benefit from high-skill graduates should contribute something to the educational system.
• Convert schools over to Open Source software.
• Convert unused industrial/housing estates as sites for schools and redevelop any existing buildings using sustainable design and construction techniques
• Create a hybrid system where the seven universities become fee paying institutions with four or five of them becoming centres of excellence