Sir, - Ms Brenda Morgan, B.Ed., comments (August 14th) on my letter of July 19th in a rather strange way. Most of her ideas, she argues, would "go a long way to making Mr Foyle's literacy and numeracy suggestions effective." Yet, in my opinion they would simply increase the present waste and human pain within our education system and outside it, due to youngsters being allowed into second-level education with inadequate literacy and numeracy skills.
With a brusqueness which a certain type of teacher reserves for outsiders, Mr Morgan considers "balderdash" my basic suggestion which she correctly quotes as: "No one should be allowed leave primary school to go on to second level without a Literacy and Numeracy Certificate, even if that meant repeating the final primaryschool year again and again to succeed." Brevity stopped me from making the obvious point that the repeat year would focus totally on Literacy and Numeracy to the exclusion of everything else.
However, even that might not satisfy Ms Morgan, who goes on to say: "Imagine the diminished self esteem an unfortunate 11 or 12year-old might have with this constant repetition!" What about the damage to self-esteem which is about to be inflicted during the coming year on second-level students (and their teachers and parents) with inadequate literacy and numeracy skills? What about the self-esteem damage for the rest of their lives, and the economic cost? - Yours, etc.,
Joe Foyle M.A.,
Sandford Road, Dublin 6.