Is the Irish education system better than the English one ?

[KatieDD]

I met a lady today who told me that she had her children in state education in Ireland but then when they moved over to England they had to go private for a comparable education.
Does anyone know if this is the case, I might move to Ireland

am an Irish woman married and living in uk now and on discussion with DH and friends yes we had a broader education in Ireland

A small example i know

I read somewhere that attainment at university level was similar. Don't know if that's true. My mum swears that the Irish Education system is far superior. She has no proof of this of course, as we all went to school here in the UK. If it's Irish, then it's better is my mum's philosophy.

well in NI the grammar school system is still in place, and I noticed that in the Sunday times top 200 list... most of the Northern Irish grammar schools were in the list. Thats a high percentage from a samll country.

Can't speak about Southern Ireland.

She thinks so (she was educated in Ireland you know!)

I have a niece who's just started at a small village church school in Ireland - she's 4, and there are 30 kids and no TA or any other help at all in the classroom. Her mother is far from happy. And I have to say my DS2 & 3 are way ahead of their Irish cousins (of the same ages - 10 & 6) in terms of reading and writing skills - I don't think mine are any brighter; they've just been taught better.

I am regularly astounded at the huge gaps in my dss's UK education and my friend who has a ds in Ireland and a dss in the uk says the difference is vast.
That said, I believe it isn't as good as it used to be, but then what is....

Oh blimey, back to the drawing board then, honestly if you can't rely on a lady in Tesco's running your life for you what can you do

I know a few teachers who were educated in Ireland and have taught in Ireland and say our education system is worse and that behaviour in our school is worse, the 2 are probably linked

on the behaviour element i think home is still a bit more community orientated

where i grew up if you got up to anything at school/got into trouble your family would always find out and it was like letting the side down etc

My DP is from Ireland and from visiting family over there I do get the impression it is better. I think at senior level the curriculum is broader. I agree withe MEG, it seems a much more community orientated country with families still living very close to each other and supporting each other.

I don't think there's that much difference at primary level, that's more down to how good individual schools are. But the curriculum at secondary level is better IMO. More students tend to stay to the final year than seem to in the UK and everyone has to do core subjects of English, Irish and Maths and then chose another 4 or 5 subjects (for leaving cert), so they have a broader (but probably less in depth) education than a UK school leaver.

I have always thought it strange that pupils here can give up English or Maths if they choose as surely good literacy and numeracy are useful in any career.

Not sure about the behaviour thing - the secondary school I went to know lets ALL the girls were full make up every day - the youngest ones would just be 12. Not a good idea imo, plus the girls seem to wander in and out of the school at will. I have also heard that at the other school in my hometown (small, rural) you can get just about any drug you want in the toilets...

Regarding the education itself, it's a very different system at secondary level - more subjects studied but perhaps not as much in depth. At third level I feel there is a lot more choice in the UK - certainly when I was applying there were quite a few things you would have had to go abroad to study...

well either the irish is significantly worse than the american or times have changed all round.

Are you still thinking of moving back Bran?

It is definitely not better, unless you are the teacher(better pay and longer hols there). I have taught in both systems and was educated in both and there is not a huge difference tbh but overall I think the British system is better. I could go into specifics but that might be boring. In terms of ICT there is absolutely no comparison, they are in the stone age there. It is barely taught at secondary school, unheard of a primary.

We had an Irish family with five children join the school last year, (Carmenere, they were from Arkla).

Every single one of them, were well behind the English syllabus and needed one on one to bring them up to speed. But then the school DS attends is only one point behind the other local primary school and they are a beacon school. So unsure if they are pushed harder IYKWIM.

I think it's probably fair to say that the choices are better in the cities than in the more rural areas noiamnot. The Irish system isn't terribly progressive though, there's a lot of fairly dull sitting behind a desk listening. But on the positive side there is a good grounding in dull but necessary things like grammar and arithmatic.

Yes SM (have you name changed or were you always SM?), but the timing is up in the air a little. It was supposed to be either summer 2009 or summer 2010, but that was before the credit crunch when dh could either have sold his company or opened a Dublin office. Now there's no chance he'd get a job in Dublin so he would be commuting to London for at least half the week. Having had him commuting to Amsterdam since March I would be reluctant to get myself into that situation again, it made DS really miserable.

Plus DS is only 4 so there is still plenty of time to move him before secondary (I'd like him to have about 3 years in national school before he goes to secondary), and I've just moved him from a school where he was unhappy to one where I think he'll be very happy so I would be reluctant to move him again at the end of this academic year.

House prices over there are looking a lot more reasonable though (clouds, silver linings etc).

I'm normally GrapefruitMoon Bran and was KTeePee before that...

Bamboostalks, the ICT thing reminded me that I had never used a computer before I went to university (ok it was a long time ago!) There was ONE in my secondary school but no-one had been brave enough to even turn it on before I left! I did feel I was at a disadvantage because of this in comparison to those who had gone to schools in the larger cities with better facilities...

I should start up a spreadsheet of who people used to be and who they are now. This is actually quite reminiscent of rl for me as I have terrible facial recognition and people are always chatting to me when I have no idea who they are.

Im in N. Ireland and in all of the subjects I took (dont know about every subject), taking the English paper could get us a max of C grade.

I think so, but then again I would I certainly think you get (or got) a more "rounded education" My sister (3 kids in Irish schools) was always horrified at what my kids weren't doing at school compared to hers when they were in school in England.

I know there is a real issue of cost and equality of access, but I found it really difficult to keep track of exactly what was going on in school without having textbooks that were brought home.