Available onlineEducational journeys
(page 5 of 5)Online exhibition theme created by Philip O'Sullivan, a member of the OU Time to Think Project Team
| Rab Kerr image : | Administrative building for education in the H Blocks |
| Date: | 2005 |
| Geoff Moore clip: | And that is how they taught me about non-Euclidean geometry |
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| Duration: | 00:02:28 |
| Date: |
| Joy Clark clip: | The Open University was just an answer |
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| Duration: | 00:02:37 |
| Date: |
It was not just OU tutors who were involved in making OU study happen in the prisons. They were supported by a range of staff both within and outside of the OU, including administrative staff, prison education officers and teachers, prison governors, education staff at the NIO (Northern Ireland Office) and Department of Justice in the Republic of Ireland. OU study was only part of education in prisons.
OU tutor Doros Michail remembered:
There were 'A' Level teachers, and there were college teachers and there were basic [education] teachers trying to teach prisoners how to read and write and do very basic kind of mathematics. So there were a number of education staff, there was education going on at various levels.
Doros Michail
Sheelagh Wilson, Prison Teacher in the H Blocks recalled, "We had to collect the OU essays. The teachers were always dependable in that they always got the materials to or from the prisoners." Teachers also supervised students watching videos of OU TV programmes. In the first audio clip on this page one of the teachers, Geoff Moore, recalls how this also became a learning experience for him. Prison Library Officers in all the prisons played a key role in supporting OU study. In Portlaoise Prison (County Laois) in the 1980s Bill Carroll, a prison officer, was the focal point for delivery and receipt of TMAs (Open University Tutor Marked Assignments) and looking after OU tutors.
Joy Clark was Education Officer in Armagh Prison and then became Chief Education Officer for the Northern Ireland Office with responsibility for education in all prisons in Northern Ireland in 1989. In the second clip on this page she reflects on the value of the OU in a powerful testimony to the enduring value of education from the standpoint of the prison authorities.
