REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT AN EDUCATION ROUND TABLE AT THE GARDEN HOTEL
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT AN EDUCATION ROUND TABLE AT THE GARDEN HOTEL SHANGHAI
Dajia hao. Hello everyone.
"Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned? Isn't it also great when
friends visit from distant places?" (Confucius: Analects, Chapter 1, Verse 1).
Confucius’ extolling of education and the virtues of travel from afar to exchange
information is an apt mis-en-scene, I think, for our discussion today. China and Ireland both have long histories of regard for education – your recorded history somewhat longer than ours. Ireland’s welcome for education and the international respect that we gained for learning goes back a long way through the centuries to the time when we earned the title “Island of Saints and Scholars”.
We earned that ancient title during what were, for Europe, the Dark Ages. This period in the early Middle Ages, after the fall of Rome, was a time of political and social upheaval. As one would expect in such conditions, learning, scholarship, and culture all but disappeared from mainland Europe. The wonderful heritage of western civilisation, including the classics of Greece and Rome and Christian works, could well have been lost to later generations. Fortunately, however, Ireland, as a small island off the north west of Europe, remained largely apart from the turmoil and stayed peaceful.
Learned scholars continued their study and copying of the ancient texts in the monasteries that flourished throughout the island. The monasteries were the repositories of learning and were in fact the schools, universities and libraries of their day. Ireland became a centre of education and scholarship. Scholars from Britain and the mainland of Europe studied in its famous monastery schools and at least two foreign kings were educated in Ireland: Dagobert II of the Western Franks and Aldfrid of Northumbria. Scripture and theology were the chief subjects of study at these schools and the need for religious artefacts also fostered the arts. Beautifully illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow, and the Book of Armagh, were written by the scribes in the monasteries and some of the finest metalworkers made beautiful book shrines and chalices.
The Irish monks did not confine their educational and religious activities to Ireland. They spread their knowledge to the continent, travelling to Europe and established daughter institutions there. With the return of stability to Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries, the knowledge that the Irish monks had so lovingly conserved over the previous centuries had again the chance to flourish. Thus the Irish monks not only were conservators of civilisation, but became shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on western culture.
While our Chinese friends may regard this particular flowering of Irish education as coming rather late – a thousand years after Confucius in fact – it is a growth that we have cherished since and have seen develop through the intervening centuries. Ireland and Irish people have always regarded education very highly. We have had to. In conditions where wealth and political power were in the hands of a foreign power, education was for ordinary Irish people their means of advancement.
That they use it well can be seen in the record of achievement of Irish people in literature, mathematics, and science and the application of their intellect to economic development.
Our shared regard for learning makes it quite natural that education should be one of the most important sources of linkages between Ireland and China. The Governments of Ireland and China have set the foundations that will enable us all to build on a framework for future close co-operation.
There is a strong tradition of collaboration between the third level education sector and educational companies in Ireland and third level educational establishments in other countries. Ireland’s long tradition as a provider of quality education is backed by the high standards of its education services, internationally recognised qualifications and the worldwide reputation of its training. Irish universities and colleges recognise the strong potential of the Chinese economy, with large numbers of highly educated young people emerging from the school system and seeking third level education. Ireland is attractive to your students in terms of openness, cost and career advancement opportunities. And of course Ireland is not as remote as it might at first seem, for here in China, great Irish names are already well known - Joyce, Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Beckett, more latterly Seamus Heaney and the young people will have heard of U2, Westlife and the Corrs. Coming to Ireland is not to come to a strange and utterly unknown land but to a place whose music and literature, dance and poetry may already have a place in Chinese hearts and heads.
A well-educated population is viewed as a defining characteristic of a modern, progressive and outward-looking society and education has long been valued in Irish society. Our emphasis on education and training has been a key element in the economic and global trading success of a country, which does not have an abundance of natural resources nor can it offer the economy of scale of the larger global economies.
The wisdom of successive Irish governments, particularly over the past thirty years, in investing heavily in education and training, has been responsible to a large extent for attracting foreign direct investment and also for the development of native Irish enterprise and the emergence of a vigorous, aggressive, dynamic entrepreneurial culture.
The proportion of total public expenditure accounted for by education is higher in Ireland than in any other country in Europe. Over the past ten years the number of full time students in third level education has increased by almost 80%, while the number of full time students in technical/technological institutions has more than doubled. Half the Irish workforce has experienced third-level education. And 60% of Ireland’s third level students major in engineering, science or business studies.
The World Competitiveness Report has ranked Ireland first in Europe for the quality of education that everyone receives, and first in the world in terms of its education system meeting the needs of a competitive economy. An OECD survey of international companies, which asked the reasons for the choice of country for investment, placed Ireland as top in Europe for its educated workforce and second for its workforce skills.
Ireland has a reputation as a world education centre and has developed an international standing as a centre of quality education and training. The international activities of Irish institutions and organisations cover a wide range of areas such as medicine, accountancy, engineering, management and professional business studies and language. Ireland’s long tradition as a provider of quality education is backed by the high standards of its education services, internationally recognised qualifications and the worldwide reputation of its training.
Today, in Shanghai, as part of my first State visit to China, I am accompanied by the largest Irish trade mission ever to visit China and, indeed, one of the largest overseas Irish trade missions ever. It is indicative of the importance of China to Ireland that a number of significant cooperation agreements have been signed and a representative office opened during our visit. This Round Table initiative is being held to recognise the cooperation agreements between Chinese universities and their Irish counterparts, with significant agreements for joint ventures, student and professor exchanges, franchising of programmes and joint degree programmes.
There has been a welcome growth in student numbers from China studying at Irish universities and institutes of technology. On their return to China, they will no doubt, play an important role in building the Chinese economy in the 21st century. We look to the students of China and other distant great countries who have studied in Ireland to become valued friends of Ireland for the future and, indeed, I am delighted to say that two such graduates are with us today - Prof. Bao Jun of the North Eastern Agricultural University in Harbin and Prof. Liang Ping Wu of the East China Normal University both of whom studied in University College Cork. I am also pleased that an Education Attaché has been added to our Embassy in Beijing to further increase the number of Chinese students choosing Irish Colleges for their under-and post-graduate studies.
The Chinese Colleges represented here today, which have formed relationships with Irish institutions, are renowned centres of learning. I am confident that the agreements that they have signed will lead to a deepening of those relationships. I congratulate all the participants and wish your continued collaboration every future success. Through your efforts may Ireland and China prosper and may our people grow in knowledge of one another and in friendship.
Feichang Ganxie. Thank you very much.