Ireland launches action plan for education

The Irish government on Thursday launched its first action plan for education, seeking to make the country's education and training service the best in Europe.

"It seeks to make Ireland the best education system in Europe. It is the way we ensure equality of opportunity, success, hope and break the cycle of disadvantage," Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said at the launch of the plan.

Under the three-year strategy, the government outlines hundreds of actions to be implemented from 2016 to 2019 with particular focus on disadvantage, skills, and continuous improvement within the education service.

The plan includes rolling out coding to primary schools from 2018, teaching of computer science as a Leaving Certificate Examinations subject, and processes to introduce teaching of new languages such as Mandarin at second level and to enhance teaching of languages at third level.

The Leaving Certificate Examinations, commonly referred to as the Leaving Cert, is the final examination in the Irish secondary school system.

"This is not a comprehensive list of everything that will be done: at the start of 2017, and in each subsequent year, we will publish an updated annual action plan for education which will contain further actions to be implemented in that year," the government said.

The aim of the action plan is to improve the learning experience and the success of learners, and improve the progress of learners at risk of educational disadvantage or learners with special educational needs, according to the government. Endit