Lady on Ryan Tubridy who has seven kids and sounds sensible is keeping her kids at home from school. Nothing to do with Covid. Ryan full of praise for her. She admitted she did no teaching during lock down and the kids learned life lessons from donkeys. No mention of plans for home schooling.
Maybe she is right.
Seven kids? She’s clearly bonkers
Its good evidence to show the TV licence inspector when you tell them you don’t own a tv
Freida and Greta will be furious over the schools situation in Berlin.
Which will be the bigger govt screwup
0 voters
Sarah McInerney
Sunday August 23 2020, 2.00am BST, The Sunday Times
Anyone worried about sending their children back to school in the next few weeks would have done well to avoid RTE’s Six One News on Tuesday evening. Therein was broadcast the most dispiriting 90 seconds of political waffle of the week — quite the achievement given the competition for that particular accolade.
Some may be surprised that this prize does not go to health minister Stephen Donnelly. He came second for comparing the pandemic to jumping on a trampoline. Both are “inherently risky”, he sagely told Virgin Media.
EU commissioner Phil Hogan was placed joint second, for claiming he didn’t think attending a dinner for 80 people might be in breach of Covid-19 regulations, because the hotel and organisers told him so.
Transport minister Eamon Ryan came third, for his assertion that he didn’t realise how important it was to maintain social distancing on school buses until the National Public Health Emergency Team expressly said so on Tuesday. More of that anon.
But the Champions Cup for the most nonsense talked by any politician last week goes to relative newcomer Norma Foley, the education minister. Despite the widespread confusion about what is going to happen when our children return to school in September, Foley has studiously maintained a low profile. As a former teacher herself, she evidently took the principle of school holidays very seriously.
The panic reached fever pitch two weeks ago when it emerged that the British system for awarding calculated grades for A-level students led to significant numbers of disadvantaged students having their marks downgraded. On the face of it, the standardisation process looks very similar to that which we’ve been told will be used to calculate the Leaving Cert results. We can only speculate, because we don’t know what algorithm our government will use.
Initially, Foley sought to allay any fears by stroking our collective foreheads and humming nursery rhymes. The results will be “accurate, reliable and fair”, she said, via a spokesman, via a press release. Heaven forbid there’d be any face-to-face encounters that would allow media to ask questions.
Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t enough to soothe mounting fears about the process. Opposition parties called on Foley to publish the formula being used to calculate the grades. Not an unreasonable request, surely? If our algorithm is entirely different to that used in the UK, then we can all rest easy. If not, surely we should know now, rather than wait until the grades have been awarded and the damage is done.
The public pressure was sufficient to force Foley into giving a short interview to RTE last Tuesday. In that ill-fated 90 seconds, she was asked what was the problem with publishing the formula. This was her response: “Well, the general data is out there, but as the model is running, it’s important that the model runs as it should run. It is currently, eh, you know, the different manoeuvrings in it are currently running, and when it is completed it will be published.” Random words, strung together, making simply no sense.
To be fair to Foley, as a first-time TD she has been handed one of the most difficult briefs to manage during a pandemic. As we have seen, there are no easy answers to the quandary of how to award students marks when they have not sat an exam. However, disappearing from public view in the month before the results are due does not instil confidence. Neither does Foley’s apparently natural inclination to resort to obfuscation when asked simple questions.
She made a few other media appearances last week, but so many questions remain. It’s not just about the Leaving Cert. It’s about what happens when children stream off of a packed bus into the most overcrowded classrooms in Europe, with little to protect them from the virus but a few open windows for ventilation. It’s about the teachers with underlying conditions, scared out of their minds; the children living with parents or grandparents who are immunocompromised; the mixed messaging about everything from staggered openings to washing uniforms every day.
Schools must reopen, but it is a complicated process that requires leadership, guidance and honesty. Those three qualities have been sadly lacking from the current administration. It’s time — way past time — to stop the nonsense.
This one appears to be so out of her depth it’s frightening…
She’s fucking hopeless I’d say.
what party is she
FF
Jesus wept. Reminiscent of Mary Coughlan when the Cowen government imploded
To be brutally honest getting the schools back is going to be near impossible & beyond the gift of any politician . Going to be a huge problem & well Sarah knows that .
The rest of Europe have managed. Not without problems but most countries have managed it. Foley’s performance has been disgraceful. Just because it’s a difficult task should not make her immune to criticism
I never said she is immune to criticism . Schools have been coming back it fits and starts on the continent . The problem here is the ratio .
There is going to be no algorithm published until the results are issued and well people know that . The whole thing is a clusterfuck regardless .
To be honest if we had FDR as Minister it would still be near on impossible to solve.
The shitstorm will end the government but trust me the problem will still be there
loads of other countries have done it
from May
There’s a risk no matter what they do
We can judge Ms Foley on her performance and that of her department in the coming weeks, I don’t understand the rush to crucify her, ‘the reopening will be a disaster’ ‘the leaving cert will be a fiasco’
None of this has happened yet, but I’m certain that lots of people are praying it does
There’ll be an odd cluster here and there in the cities most likely.Most kids have been back to normal for at least 2 months with hurling and football cul camps etc without any major outbreaks.
No one in their right mind wants to see the schools fall.
No schools = No opening up