REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE NEW EDUCATION CENTRE IN MONAGHAN TOWN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE NEW EDUCATION CENTRE IN MONAGHAN TOWN, WEDNESDAY, 25TH FEBRUARY, 04
A cháirde. Tugann sé áthas mór dom bheith anseo inniu ar an ócáid sárthabhachtach seo do Chontae Mhuineacháin agus don chóras oideachais i gcoitinne. Tá muid bailithe le chéile chun an ionad nua seo, Ionad Oideachais Mhuineacháin a oscailt go hoifigiúil. Is mór an onóir domsa an oscailt a fhógairt agus tá mé an-bhuíoch as an gcuireadh a tugadh dom chun é sin a dhéanamh.
It gives me great pleasure to officiate at this opening and to celebrate with you what is indeed a milestone in the history of education in Monaghan.
This impressive and spacious new building, the recipient of three significant architectural commendations, is already a success story which reaches not only into neighbouring counties but also cross border and further afield.
I am impressed to see that the entrance to the Centre has been set up with a wealth of displays, pictures and toys making it a welcoming and attractive place for children. This was an inspired gesture because it reminds us, as adults, and educators, that the child and student are at the very heart of our endeavours in education. Bring out the best in them and we bring out the best in our country. This new building tells them that their education is worthy of the very best facilities. That great American patriot Benjamin Franklin said that “If a man empties his purse into his head, no-one can take it from him”. Education is the very key to opportunity in life and our teachers shoulder a big part of the responsibility for providing those opportunities. My grandmother used to say - what’s learnt in childhood is engraved on stone - and we want our engravers to be first class, careful, steady, inspirational, so that like the diamond that a good engraver reveals from a lump of stone - the raw, undiscovered talent of our people is revealed, polished and harnessed to make strong confident individuals and a strong confident community.
We all have a strong vested interest in ensuring our teachers are as freshly skilled and continuously upskilled as possible in this fast changing world of ours, where the sell by date of skills and knowledge gets shorter by the day. Our teachers need good, accessible opportunities for continued professional development and that demands a strong local infrastructure, responsive to local and individual needs. Education Centres are key strategic partners in the development of this local infrastructure. Since its inception, Monaghan Education Centre, with its vision of ownership through involvement has provided an invaluable service to teachers in this area and of equal importance has developed a sense of ownership of the centre by teachers. It has administered national programmes with the high degree of commitment which is essential to their success and has been given the honour of being the host centre for the new Leaving Certificate history and geography programmes.
There is an historic photograph in the entrance area that depicts the Ministers for Education, North and South, turning the sod at the site for the new Centre. At that time, the centre had already established itself as a focal point for higher learning with cross border links to Queens University and the University of Ulster. This tradition continues to go from strength to strength in Monaghan Education Centre, providing vital access to higher degrees for teachers in the area.
Monaghan Education Centre played a key role in the introduction in this country of one of the most exciting educational projects of our time – that of Reading Recovery. As you know, Reading Recovery is an early intervention programme designed to provide accelerated learning for those pupils who have difficulty with reading and writing. Monaghan Education Centre was pivotal to the successful implementation of the pilot project which explored the potential of Reading Recovery to combat literacy problems at an early age. We know from the evaluation results that the programme was outstandingly successful in achieving its aims. The initiative of the Director in the early stages of the project was crucial as was the ongoing support which the Centre gave to this important project.
The testimonies of both parents and teachers demonstrate that the Reading Recovery project changed the lives of those it touched in Monaghan. Parents spoke of the gift that was given to their children, not alone the ability to read, but also self-confidence and pride in their achievements. Teachers spoke of their own professional growth and renewal, of the challenge of learning new methodologies and practices and of the reward of seeing their pupils succeed. Here are young boys and girls for who already a much brighter future has opened up for we know that literacy problems are among the major contributors to chronic underachievement and to lives only half lived.
Teaching is a collegial occupation that benefits hugely from peer dialogue. Not alone does it encourage the easy movement of insight, wisdom and ideas and the speedy driving forward of new methodologies but it is a source of mutual energy and inspiration. In any job it is easy to settle for the routine, for the plateau of effort and interest and to stop growing your commitment. But lifelong learning pulls us all out of that complacency and reawakens interest and confidence, renewing with real zest the great vocation which is at the heart of teaching. Ireland has benefited for generations from unselfish teachers whose vision was of a prosperous and successful Ireland, confident on the world stage, her culture vibrant, her young people’s genius at work in their own land. Many of those teachers grew up in that other Ireland - Ireland of poverty and mass emigration and they believed deeply that change would come through education. Their faith has been vindicated in this generation. To maintain and develop today’s success we have to continue to be hungry for knowledge and ever curious about our world. Good teachers feed that hunger and provoke that curiosity. This Centre is about ensuring Monaghan and its hinterland will have the best teachers.
I congratulate all who have been involved in the history of Monaghan Education Centre and who have provided the necessary support at crucial stages of its development - the Sisters of St. Louis Girls’ School and Cyril Carthy, the Department of Education and Science, CEO of Teagasc who provided accommodation in the Teagasc building for four years, John McEntegart, C.E.O. County Enterprise Board, McGarry Ní Éanaigh Architects, Francie McGuigan Contractor and all the sub contractors who worked for him. I commend all the past Directors, the late Seán MacCinna in whose honour today we name the lecture hall, Sr. Maura Dempsey, Diane Kendrick, Roy Mallon and Nora MacCinna, and everyone involved in this wonderful project.
I wish Monaghan Education Centre every success as it faces into an era of even greater significance in the educational world of Monaghan and beyond.
It is with great pleasure that I declare Monaghan Education Centre officially open.