Seminar to mark 50 years since the launch of the ‘Investment in Education’ Study
Venue: Hoey/Neill Theatre, Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
It is fifty years since the Investment in Education study was initiated by the OECD and the Department of Education in 1962.
This seminar marked the extraordinary contribution made by the study to the transformation of the Irish educational sector. The event offered the opportunity to consider contemporary themes in Irish education (participation; the ‘knowledge economy’; rationalisation) and discussed the implications of the report for contemporary educational policy.
Guest contributors included Prof. John Fitzgerald (ESRI), Prof. Maria Slowey (DCU), Dr. Frank Barry (TCD) and Prof Áine Hyland (UCC).
The Seminar was hosted by the School of Education TCD and the Economic and Social Research Institute.
Programme
10.00 Registration
10.30 Welcome (Prof Mike Grenfell, Head of School).
10.40 Opening address (Dr Mary Canning (former lead education specialist, World Bank)
11.00 Session 1: Panel discussion
Historical Reflections on Investment in Education
Chair: Dr. Patrick Geoghegan, Senior Lecturer/Dean of Undergraduate Studies
• Prof. Áine Hyland (Emeritus Professor of Education, UCC)
• Mr. Barry Desmond (former Minister for Health and member of Steering Committee for Investment study)
• Mr. Tony O Dálaigh (former Private Secretary to three Ministers for Education)
11.50 Coffee break (11.50-12.15pm)
12.15 Session 2: Panel discussion
Education and the Economy – contemporary education policy
Chair: Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú (Secretary General, Department of Education and Skills)
• Prof. Maria Slowey (Director of Higher Education Research and Development, DCU)
• Dr. Frank Barry (School of Business, TCD)
• Prof. Frances Ruane (Director, Economic & Social Research Institute)
• Mr. David Begg, (General Secretary, Irish Congress of Trade Unions)
1.10 Lunch
2.00 Session 3
Chair: Dr. Aidan Seery (School of Education)
• Paper by Prof John Fitzgerald (Research Professor, ESRI) – ‘Education and Irish Economic Development’
• Closing address – Mr. Ruairi Quinn TD, Minister for Education (2.30pm)
3.15 Close of Seminar – Dr. John Walsh & Dr. Selina McCoy