THE IRISH EDUCATION SYSTEM 1950s

Albert Folens had a passion for teaching and he was a good teacher. When he came to Ireland he had difficulty coming to terms with the Irish education system. It did not recognise his excellent teaching qualifications and he had to start from scratch, getting a BA, HDip and MA in UCD, all first class honours. As a member of ASTI he was frequently ejected from meetings for his radical advocacy. Through his teaching he became acutely aware of the gaps/faults in Irish secondary education and set about remedying these to the best of his ability. Thus was Folens publishers born and the company continues to support the sector to this day.

When Albert first began teaching here the whole education system in Ireland upset him. Students could have relatively low intelligence but, if their parents had money, they could attend university. The brightest of students had to leave school aged twelve, thirteen or fourteen if their parents could not afford to further their education. And in the schools there was huge reliance on corporal punishment which was repugnant to him. As a member of ASTI his main bugbears were:

• The companies that had a monopoly on supplying school books, as well as the exorbitant cost of these books to the students.
• The absence of books on subjects like science, biology, maths etc. in Irish. The Irish speaking students had to learn directly from their teachers or from English books and write their exams in Irish. He wanted the English books to be translated and then printed in Irish so as to even up the playing field somewhat.
• The subject of corporal punishment was also regularly on his agenda.

While he was under a lot of stress at the time, his teaching French in Coláiste Mhuire seems to have given him a healthy outlet. His teaching methods were benign and effective. The proof of the pudding is that both myself, Alan Dukes and others revere him to this day and both Alan and I have profited in our lives and careers from what we learned then.

His transition into publishing also came through his Coláiste Mhuire classes. He saw the seriously deficient notes that were been sold to students throughout the country and felt he could do better, and out of the simple "Folens Notes" grew a major educational company.

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