Cautious welcome to after school care plan
- Published: 23 June 2005
TEACHERS and parents have given a guarded welcome to a plan backed by Justice Minister Michael McDowell to develop school-based childcare.
The minister said funding is already available in every county in Ireland to develop such facilities.
Mr McDowell also announced yesterday funding of €45 million to create almost 4,000 new childcare places for community based projects.
He said it would be better for communities to develop after-school facilities themselves with his backing rather than the Government attempting to develop them on a national basis.
The National Parents Council Primary (NPCP) is concerned, however, that parents who are out at work all day and who may well be commuting long distances may be expected to get involved in setting up 'not for profit organisations'.
The NPCP said other ways of providing after school care facilities should be explored before any decisions are taken.
Launching a departmental working group report on developing school age childcare, Mr McDowell said children aged between 8 and 15 were not being catered for under current childcare programmes.
Labour's spokesperson on Children, Senator Kathleen O'Meara said yesterday's announcement by the minister was another indication of the Government's piecemeal approach to childcare.
She said what appeared to be a large amount of money would go nowhere towards reducing the high cost of childcare to thousands of parents around the country.
General secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), John Carr, questioned whether schools would be ready or able to provide after-school facilities. Many were in need of urgent renovation and upgrade and lacked basic facilities.
The report by a working group of the National Childcare Coordinating Committee, proposes using school-based facilities for the provision of after-school care by either converting suitable spare space in existing premises or using quality pre-fabricated buildings located on school grounds.
The report stresses that grant support would only be provided in cases where land or space is available over a reasonably long time frame.
It also emphasises that the service should not be managed by either the school principal or board of management but by a committee supported by the school authorities.
Parent Anne Smyth who is co-director of the Stay and Play After School in Scoil Cathriona in Renmore, Co Galway, pointed out that State funding had been provided for the three after school carers who between them looked after 50 children.
The service was established in September 2003 and much of its success is due to the active participation of parents in planning and developing the service.
News Archive
- Published: 23 June 2005
News Archive
How to Log in to www.ippn.ie
- Published: 23 June 2005
If you are an IPPN member, please log into the website using the Members Login area on the right hand side of your screen, which is under the blue Learn tab as follows:
When you try and log into the site, your password must be in
the correct case, but your username does not. Be sure to check that you
have CAPS lock turned off to ensure a successful login!
Principals and Deputy Principals:
- In the user name field (where it says "Enter Username"), place your cursor in the field and type in the username that you were assigned and notified of by e-mail. Your username is usually your firstnamelastname - no spaces, hyphens, fadas etc.
- In the password field where it says "************", place your cursor in the field and type in the password that you were assigned and notified of by e-mail
- Click once on the Login button.
- Upon successful log-in you will get the message Welcome "first-name", "last-name". You will now be able to access members pages of the website, although some pages are available only to the national committee or executive.
Problems?
Cannot Log In or have forgotten your username and password?
Please click on the Forgot Password link under the Log In section
Follow the on-screen insructions.
What if I do not have an e-mail address?
IPPN encourages all members to use a personal e-mail address for receiving information from IPPN. All usernames and passwords are only issued by e-mail. Please set up an account with any providers, eg eircom, oceanfree, etc.
The IPPN Support Office does not have access to you Log In Details. They can, however, be retrieved on your behalf by the support office - this will take 2 working days and you will be requested to open an e-mail account.
If you are not a current IPPN member, please contact the IPPN Support Office to apply for membership.
Languages 'essential for students'
- Published: 21 June 2005
STUDENTS should be taught more languages and from an earlier age, employers organisation IBEC claimed yesterday.
Recent reports to the Government have
highlighted the lack of variety in languages available to second-level
students, with three-quarters of those who chose a language subject for
last year's Leaving Certificate studying French.
IBEC's assistant director of enterprise Caroline Nash said foreign languages should be made compulsory for the country's 440,000 primary pupils. Latest OECD figures show they receive less tuition in foreign languages than those of other developed countries.
Ms Nash said the modern languages in Primary Schools programme,
currently running in almost 400 schools, should be made available in
every primary school.
The programme has been successfully introducing children to foreign languages at an early age.
Ms Nash also called for a wider range of languages to be made available to second level students, to better reflect the reality of modern global communications.
"Last year, only 4% of students who sat a foreign language paper took the Spanish exam, compared to 75% in French. Yet, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world after Mandarin Chinese."
Languages 'should be compulsory'
- Published: 21 June 2005
FOREIGN languages should be made compulsory in primary schools and a wider range of languages should be available at post-primary level, the employers' body IBEC has suggested.
"Currently there are 390 primary schools offering foreign languages as part of the primary schools project in modern languages. This number needs to increase," said Caroline Nash of IBEC.
She quoted the latest OECD indicators, which showed that Ireland rated last of 11 countries for foreign language ability of primary school students.
Ms Nash said that the Government's Modern Languages in Primary Schools pilot programme should be made available to all primary schools.
Turning to post-primary schools she said that the range of languages available needed to reflect the reality of modern communications.
"Last year only 4pc of students who sat a foreign language paper took the Spanish exam compared to 75pc in French. Yet, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated that there are 332 million native Spanish speakers in the world, compared to 72 million native French speakers."
Last year the breakdown of foreign language papers in the Leaving Certificate was: French 75pc, German 20pc, Spanish 4pc and Italian 0.5pc.
Click here to access the article on the Irish Independent web-site - www.unison.ie
