Bob Geldof's new MDG project

We emailed Bob Geldof for a submission but unfortunately he was not able to respond, no reason given, but we did get this email from Zita at ONE www.one.org.


"Dear Meg,

Thank you for your request for a submission from Bob Geldof for your project. It has been passed on to me as we at ONE work with him on his Africa campaigning activities. Unfortunately it will not be possible for him to do a contribution, but this is a really great project and I wish you every success with it.
ONE’s mission is focused on achievement of the MDGs, and education is so important not just in its own right but as a key element of enabling the others to be reached. There is some policy information about education in Africa on our website here, in case it is of any use to.
In the run up to the World Cup (rather a sore point I know!) we are part of a coalition called 1 goal which is running a big campaign for the World Cup to create focus on the need for education and generate momentum around MDG 2 http://www.join1goal.org/

Congratulations on this project, it looks great.

With thanks and best wishes
Zita"

Early School Years in Northern Ontario,Canada.

My early school years growing up in Canada were spent living on an isolated gold mining townsite in Northern Ontario, close to the town of Timmins. My father was a geologist and privileged to have a home close to the mine. The section where we lived had only seven houses and was surrounded by rock, sparse trees and lots of blueberries which I loved to pick. My sister who was four years younger was my best friend and has been for over 65 years. Our fun was with each other.
Our parents spent time with us as well as with their friends. I spent hours with a blackboard and chalk playing school with my sister teaching her as well as an assortment of dolls and teddy bears. As she got older we would reverse that role.

My father read to us nightly until I was 9 or 10 and then it was expected that we spend half an hour or so reading in bed prior to going to sleep. My mother had played the piano, and music appreciation for classical music was always part of my life. She taught me how to bake at an early age as well, making cookies on Saturday for school lunches the next week. Proper nutrition was equally important.

The school I attended was close to 2 miles away-a cold bus trip in the winter and a long walk or bicycle ride in the summer. My parents close friends were the teachers so I was frequently taunted on the long walk home being called “Teacher’s Pet” I learned at a fairly early age that “names can’t really hurt you” which helped to teach me tolerance. I also had to be mindful of the fact that there were black bears around and one needed to be wary on that trek home.

There were only 4 rooms in the school with the grades from kindergarten to Grade 8 being doubled up. One learned as the other grade was being taught. We had spelling bees regularly on Friday afternoons where we were lined up in teams on either side of the classroom and encouraged to compete. After that it was arithmetic. I was expected to do well in that subject - my grandfather was a math scholar and in the summers when we visited him in Kingston, Ontario, he quizzed my sister and me regularly. Along with this was again the expectation that education be pursued to the university level. Ideally I would become a 3rd generation Queen’s woman. I am pleased to say that I eventually made that goal, although not without a few character building struggles along the way.

There was good clean fun stuff at school as well. We played baseball, competitive marbles and jacks, and took long walks at lunchtime on paths leading towards the woods. In spring we were taken on nature walks by our teachers and taught to identify wildflowers in season. I can still vividly feel the sunlight on me as we did those walks. What happy memories!

I have for many years valued the isolated early start I had in life. I am not afraid to be alone, and I get along just fine with myself as well as most other people. At the same time my friends are very precious to me.
Brendan Munnelly

The need to raise awareness

We recently wrote to Mary Kenny, a professional writer and columnist with the Sunday Independent, asking for a submission for our book project.

Ms Kenny wasn’t sure if she would be the right person to make such a contribution and admitted “I know very little about education, and I suspect that what I know is probably rather out of date, as it is a few years since my own children were in primary school.

Neither am I very well acquainted with the Millennium Development Goals. I haven’t a clue what “21 quantifiable targets” means. A lot of this bureaucratic jargon obfuscates more than it clarifies. You’d have to explain a lot more to me, so that I could get a clear picture of what you have in mind.”

Ms Kenny wished us much success with the project, saying, “If I knew more about what it actually was, I might be able to comment on it more helpfully.”

While we had explained what the book was about this response highlights the importance of our project; to raise awareness. Isn’t it a sad situation that the people who write columns for us every week in our newspapers don’t know about these important goals? Wouldn’t it be great to get more journalists writing about the MDG goals and making more people aware through their newspaper columns?

Mrs L


--Read Mary’s new book: “Crown & Shamrock: Love and Hate between Ireland and the British Monarchy”, published by New Island Books. (ISBN: 978-1-905494-98-9).

Primary school in Narobi, Kenya

Josephine Anyiko went to Primary school in Narobi, Kenya before coming to Ireland. Here she tells us about school in Kenya.

“Primary Education quite different in Ireland compared to Kenya, it was a privilege for me to go to a primary school in Kenya. School fees were to be paid, different amount for different terms. Our first term was most expensive because we had to buy books, uniforms, shoes etc. third term was the cheapest.

Going to primary school in Kenya was a privilege, you had to be comfortably well off or financially rich to take your child to a primary school. It’s quite expensive for Kenyans to go to school. Transport getting to school and back home again was difficult because of poor roads, if the heavy rains come, muddy roads become impassable. Some children walked long distance.

In Kenya a school year was divided into three terms, 1st term January to March, 2nd term May to July, and 3rd term September to November. We closed for the month of April due to the rainy season, August and December for holidays. Each January you move to another grade.

Primary school in Kenya lasts eight years before you go to secondary school. You start in Pre-unit at age of 6 years. You move until you finish class eight at age of 15 years. Then you are able to go to Secondary school. Secondary school in Ireland is very different to Kenya secondary school. In Kenya Secondary school lasts for four years rather than the 5 or 6 years in Ireland.

During my Kenyan primary school days I witnessed a lot of punishment beatings with a bamboo stick. This would happen to students who came to school late, if homework was not done, or if you were rude to a teacher. I was often scared, but like most things I got used to it. I don't think it did me any harm.”

Sarah's grandparents recall school

Sarah Mc Evoy spoke with her grandparents, Paddy and Mary Smith, for our book project. Here is what they told her.

Mary says, "When I went to primary school, we were educated by nuns. We had no uniform, and so, we wore whatever clothes we had at home. There were very few teachers in my school. The entire school was taught by 3 nuns. Everyone was a very good student because we loved school and loved learning. In primary school I made many friends that are still good friends today, many years later. At break, we would play marbles and skipping. Because I had my primary education, I was able to go on and do my Intermediate exam. In my opinion primary school were some of the best years of my life. I learned social skills and I made many friends. Without primary education I would be lost. I would not be able to read or write and this would really hold me back today."

Paddy told Sarah, "We were educated by the local laity. We wore our own clothes as nobody could afford a uniform. There was little formal education in my primary school. When I was 10, I left school to work on the family farm. There was only 1 teacher in my school. He taught all the students from 1st to 6th class.

Everyday, each person in the school had to bring a sod of turf for the fire. This was the only source of heat in the school. I had to walk 4 miles to and from school every day, no matter what the weather was like. Although I left school when I was 10, I still learned many valuable things like how to read and write, how to communicate with people, how to work as part of a team and how to make friends. I think that primary school is an experience that nobody ever forgets and it is really important in the rest of your life."

Thanks to Paddy and Mary for sharing those memories with Sarah and with us.

Cathy Geagan - never lose your education

Cathy Geagan wrote to us and told us that in China,

"Almost 5 million students a year fail to complete compulsory education on time. About 1 million children drop out of school each year because of poverty, particularly ethnic minorities and girls – and those girls who remain in education are often the victims of systemic gender discrimination, particularly in rural areas. The poverty of an area as well as the poverty of individual families is an obstacle, with many schools in China lacking the resources to provide more than two to three years of schooling. They are poorly equipped, often providing little more than desks and chairs, and their curricula are severely limited. Notebooks and writing materials, not to mention quality stimulating textbooks are often prized possessions for the lucky few with access to them."


Cathy and her friends taught in XingMeng School, a combined primary, middle and senior school with over 4,000 students. Her job was to teach English as a foreign language.

Cathy says, "The students were all very dedicated to their education, raising at 6am for morning exercises before breakfast and class beginning, with supervised study after the days schooling only ending at 9pm. It was apparent in every one of my students that they prized their education, and considered themselves lucky to be getting it."

Cathy's teaching methods were fun compared to traditional Chinese methods.

" Bringing 'fun' into the classroom made us popular with the students, but it was remarkable how it never made education frivolous for them. It was too important to ever be that.

All over the world, every day, people experience loss. They lose their jobs, their homes, their partners, their minds – no one can ever lose an education. Chose to waste, yes, but never lose. I believe every child on earth, no matter what their nationality or economic status, should have primary education as a building block they will never lose – not least for the ability to go places in their heads."

Joan O’Flynn remembers and reflects

Joan O’Flynn, Celbridge Camogie/GAA and National President, Camogie Association reflects on her primary school days and how she can't imagine life without the opportunities they presented her.

"When I was attending primary school in Ladysbridge National School in East Cork, a new school was built in our parish when I was in sixth class. It amalgamated three small schools into one new modern school. We moved to a school that had six classrooms instead of two. I moved from a classroom with one teacher and four classes, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th class, to a classroom where the teacher had all 6th class. We had central heating instead of an open fire, indoor toilets instead of outdoor ones and had a huge big playing field and a basketball court instead of a small school yard.

You're probably saying this must have been a 100years ago but it wasn’t - it was in the 1970s. The good thing was that improving the conditions of our school was providing us with warm and spacious facilities plus recreational space meant that our opportunity to grow and learn also improved. We were lucky as many children around the world still don’t enjoy that opportunity.

I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without the opportunity to meet and mix with and learn with children from different backgrounds and experiences. I got these opportunities mostly through school.

I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without the ability to think, read, write, analyze, question, dream and imagine. I learned these at school.

I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without the fun, the play, the laughs, the cries and the friendships from those school days.

These are all life long skills, gifts and memories. 2015 is only five years away. Working to promote awareness of the Second Millennium Goal and attaining it is both urgent and important so that every child, no matter where they live, has the opportunity to learn, to grow and to reach their full potential."

Life is a school!

Ignace B. Wedraogo, a Philosophy teacher and the founder of Primary and secondary schools in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso sent us this lovely poem.

Life is a school!

We are born young, babies.
We want to live, so we have to go to school.
The child is the father of the man.
A kid needs a good education to be a great man tomorrow.
Educate a girl is educate a Nation, people say.
Primary education is the cement of live.
Free primary education for all children.
Life is a school!