The most influential person in Irish education doesn’t teach in an Irish school, doesn’t hold elected office and isn’t an official in the Department of Education.
He's not exactly a household name, but Andreas Schleicher's work has had a profound influence on how we educate children in Ireland. He will play a key role in how we fulfil their potential into the future.
The German mathematician’s unwieldy job title – director for education and skills, and special adviser on education policy to the secretary-general at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – might suggests he’s a tedious technocrat.
On the contrary, the white-haired 56-year-old has sparked a revolution in education systems, which has shaped the way governments are reforming them.
Much of this is down to his work in developing the Pisa league tables of international educational achievement. This global study is used to rank countries by their students' performance in reading, maths and science every three years.
Ireland has been performing well in these rankings; our students are among the best in the world at reading and significantly above average for maths and science.
But there are concerns that we have significantly fewer high-achieving students in maths and science compared to other developed countries.
So, what does Schleicher see as the strengths and weaknesses of Irish education?
"I think actually one of your great strengths is the value [Irish] society places on education. That's something that's not so common. You find that in east Asia; I'm not sure you'll find that in many other English-speaking countries," he tells The Irish Times.
Ireland is also doing “reasonably well” in ensuring students from all social backgrounds benefit from educational opportunities, and is directing resources at this.
Challenges
As for the challenges, he is unflinching. The Irish education system, he says, is “very much 20th-century” in its infrastructure and architecture.
“It is quite industrial in its outlook and its design. Students get taught one curriculum. It’s quite heavily focused on the reproduction of subject matter, and not that much focused on getting students to think out of the box, link across the boundaries of subject matter disciplines. That is something to think about,” he says.
“Education in general has done very well to educate second-class robots. People are very good at doing what we tell them. Artificial intelligence pushes us to think harder about what makes us human.
“And this is not just about cognitive skills, it’s about social and emotional capabilities as well. I think that will need to come more into the foreground of the discussion. That’s where I see some challenges.”
A recent OECD report he was involved in found our senior cycle/Leaving Cert was “too narrow and rigid” and its main focus seems to be acting as a filter for entry into higher education.
The world rewards you for what you can do with what you know. And that's where the interaction between knowledge and skills is becoming so important
Schleicher says there is a danger of trying to “push everybody through the same pipeline” rather than providing a range of different vocational and academic pathways for students.
“Do you see blue collar or white collar workers? No, actually, you can be a philosophy professor and you have to do a lot of very practical things; you can be a car mechanic, and you have to be a high-tech engineer these days. So, I think that distinction has disappeared from our societies. ”
He cites Switzerland as the “poster child” for top-performing countries where many of the brightest students choose vocational options .
Skills
Many critics accuse Schleicher – and the OECD – as being intent on prioritising “skills” and discarding knowledge. He dismisses the argument on the basis that they are interlinked.
"Google does know everything. The world rewards you for what you can do with what you know. That is the big differentiator. And that's where the interaction between knowledge and skills is becoming so important."
Skills are not just cognitive ones like creativity and critical thinking, but also social and emotional skills.
“Ireland is very successful on the Pisa results with literacy. Students are doing really well. But just 15 per cent of Irish 15-year-olds can distinguish fact from opinion in a reliable way.
“So, what value is literacy if you can’t navigate ambiguity? If you can’t manage complexity? If you can’t construct knowledge?
“The literacy of the 20th century was extracting predefined, curated knowledge. Read a schoolbook or a newspaper, you can trust it. The literacy of the 21st century is about constructing knowledge. That’s where the challenges lie. I think it’s not about knowledge versus skills; it’s about how can education strengthen that interaction between knowledge and skills.
“What you know in chemistry and physics is important, but can you think like a scientist? Can you you design an experiment?”
Modernise
The risks of not changing with the times, he says, include university graduates struggling to find good jobs; employers not being able to find the people with the skills they need. So, what do we need to do to modernise our education systems?
Ireland’s challenge, he says, is ensuring students and teachers become co-creators of lessons, where there is a high degree of professional autonomy, and where there is a much greater collaborative culture.
There also needs to be more lifelong learning and better systems to recognise people’s prior learning and experience. Fostering a growth mindset – where students believe learning will create opportunities – is crucial, as is the need for employers to do more to make workplaces areas of learning.
Most public debate on Irish education tends to focus less on education policy and more on pupil-teacher ratios.
Teachers who focus their whole life on knowledge transmission, they will be like truck drivers in the age of autonomous vehicles
Schleicher, however, says, there is “zero correlation” between quality of tuition and class sizes.
In Japan or China, he says, class sizes are bigger – but teachers spend more time with individual students outside the classroom.
“I think the question is not how big is a class; the question is how do we configure this space, the time, the people, the technology to give that individual time with each and every one.
“This is where teachers need to become really good coaches, good mentors, good facilitators and evaluators.”
The rise of technology is underlining this need to adapt, he says.
“Teachers who focus their whole life on knowledge transmission, they will be like truck drivers in the age of autonomous vehicles.
“I think the teachers who understand the relational and social aspects of learning... will be the ones who are successful.”
As for Schleicher, he is happy to underplay the influence he wields. He believes, however, that hard evidence can improve education for all children.
“The biggest strength of the OECD is that we don’t have legal or financial powers; we live on ideas. Education systems should be designed, created, by the people directly concerned. I wish Irish teachers had more of a say on what the education system looks like, as well as parents and particularly students. We do very little to seek the views of learners on the future. That’s where the power of influence should really come from.”
