Irish Minister for Social and Family Affairs Speaks about Education in Ireland at the BA
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Alexandria— HE Mary Hanafin, Irish Minster for Social and Family Affairs, paid a visit to the BA on Tuesday, 5 January 2009, as part of her official visit to Egypt. HE Mrs. Hanafin’s visit to Alexandria followed a series of meeting with Egyptian Ministers in Cairo.
Following her tour of the Library and its different services and facilities, HE the Irish Minister gave a lecture to the BA Management on the education system in Ireland. She began her address by comparing the Ancient Library of Alexandria , a meeting place for great scholars and intellectuals, to Ireland, which is also known as “island of saints and scholars”.
Mrs. Hanafin elaborated on the success story of education in Ireland and ascribed this success to key principles highly valued by the Irish people and government, namely the strong involvement of parents in the education of their children, and the long standing commitment of teachers to quality education and professionalism. She maintained that educating children with special mental health needs is widely addressed in the new Irish education system.
On the subject of new curricula which focus on process rather than outcomes, Mrs. Hanafin said that such child-centered curricula, with an open range of subjects from dance and drama to politics and science, is in the core of the Irish education system success.
The session was concluded by a round of questions and answers, mostly discussing the challenges facing the Egyptian education systems and lessons to be drawn from the Irish experience.
It is worth mentioning that HE Mary Hanfin is an Irish Fianna Fáil (Republican Party) politician and the current Minister for Social and Family Affairs. She has previously served as Minister for Education and Science.