Accountability, rationalisation and the White Paper on Educational Development

Abstract

In his Foreword to the White Paper on Educational Development, the Minister stated that despite the fact that no Green Paper was issued, the issues dealt with are very much open for discussion and the Government's position is not inflexible. It is in this spirit that the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society has organised this symposium. I hope that my paper, and those of my colleagues, will contribute to a public debate, not alone on the issues raised in the White Paper as the omissions are so important, but on all the questions pertaining to the organisation, financing, and curricula of the Irish system of education.