Extension to region’s education centre
The Minister for Education, Joe McHugh, officially opened the new extension to Athlone Education Centre last week.
Ferbane woman Dolores Killian is the current chairperson of the centre, which provides continuing professional development to staff and stakeholders of more than 200 schools in the Midlands.
Its extension, which commenced in 2017 and has been in use since early last year, consists of two meeting rooms, a state-of-the-art boardroom, and additional office and storage space.
At the official opening on Thursday last, credit was given to another Offaly person - former centre director Dr Frank Walsh - for his work in bringing the project to fruition.
Dr Walsh, a native of Tullamore who lives in Clara, currently works for Laois and Offaly ETB as head of its teaching and learning unit.
It was announced at last week's event that the boardroom in the new extension would be named 'The Walsh Boardroom' due to his contribution.
In a speech during the Minister's visit, Dr Walsh said the workload of teachers had "changed significantly" in recent times.
"Curricula have changed, teaching, learning, assessment, feedback, and reporting have changed, and this has all landed on the teacher’s desktop, their laptop, their tablet," he said.
"Given the pressures within the system, perhaps we need to examine teacher wellbeing in a meaningful manner, with correct structures and supports in place, to ensure that our teachers, those professionals at the coalface of educating the future citizens of Ireland, do not require other forms of tablets to assist them in their work."
He said that the tablets comment was "slightly facetious" but added that he sincerely believed if teacher workload and teacher wellbeing was not addressed soon "there will be long-term consequences to the education system of Ireland."
Minister McHugh responded by saying he was "continuing to hear that message about the importance of ensuring we look after the teachers in terms of their own, not just professional development, but personal development."
In her speech at the launch, Ms Killian said the centre had been "a very positive influence" on her own work as a teacher in An Grianán NS in Mount Temple, Westmeath.
"As one component piece of our highly valued education system, Athlone Education Centre is committed to the continued development of high quality supports for teachers and the wider education community across the Midlands," she stated.