Address by Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn TD, at the INTO Congress [DES - Press Release]
- Published: 25 April 2011
I want to start by thanking you for your invitation to join you at your annual congress today and for your warm welcome.
I’m delighted to be here.
I consider myself to have been given the job I wanted in what is, in effect, a National Government.
I am anxious to ensure that all of the education partners are in no doubt of the very difficult road that lies ahead.
In my opening remarks therefore I will set out the challenges we face as a country and what that means for the education sector.
My party respects the role of the trade union movement in this country.
I understand how an annual conference must discuss and debate the issues that matter to you, whether those are issues that concern you as individuals or issues that come from your concern for the primary school system generally.
In your classrooms you strive to teach children the truth.
I want to be equally frank about the resources that are likely to be available for education in the coming period.
I am not going to pretend that that the resources available for education can be improved, earlier decisions reversed or further difficult measures avoided.
The bottom line is that Ireland has to reduce its expenditure on public services and that means further difficult and painful decisions.
We must all come to terms with the extent to which our reliance on EU/IMF funding means that we operate without economic sovereignty.
The parties that have formed the new Government have done just that.
On the back of a historic election result Fine Gael could have sought to form a Government with the support of independents.
The easy road for the Labour Party would have been to take up the role of the largest opposition party for the first time in the history of the State.
Both parties instead chose to form a National Government precisely because the gravity of the situation demanded such a response.
The position is stark.
I have repeatedly made the point that the country is akin to being in receivership.
Ireland is unable to borrow in the markets the money that is needed to fund services and provide for capital programmes.
To put it bluntly, the money dispensed by ATMs to all public servants, including public representatives, to enable us engage in our daily activities and purchases comes from ECB monies provided to our banking system.
That money is made available to Ireland by the European Central Bank at fortnightly intervals.
Full Story: www.education.ie
Quinn rules out reversal on cutbacks [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 25 April 2011
TEACHERS will be left in no doubt by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn over the next three days that there is no extra funding to reverse cutbacks in schools.
But the minister will also tell delegates at their union conferences, beginning this evening at the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) in Sligo, that he is satisfied they are delivering the reforms required under the Croke Park public service agreement.
As one of the first unions to sign up to it last summer, the INTO can expect particular praise from the Labour minister for its successful implementation to date. The fine details mean that, between February and the summer holidays, the country’s 30,000-plus full-time primary teachers will have given an extra 18 hours of non-teaching work to their schools.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
Minister will tell teachers no plan exists to shut small schools [IrishTimes]
- Published: 25 April 2011
THE GOVERNMENT has no plans to close down hundreds of small rural schools, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn will tell primary teachers this evening.
In his first address to the annual round of teacher conferences, Mr Quinn will underline the seriousness of the economic crisis and the need for the education sector, which receives close to €9 billion in funding, to do “more for less”.
His expected comments come amid growing concern about the Department of Education’s value-for-money review of smaller schools. Mr Quinn will use his address to Irish National Teachers’ Organisation members in Sligo to reassure school communities. One source said: “This speculation about the department closing hundreds of schools is wide of the mark . . . We have no policy of shutting down smaller schools.”
Almost 650 primary schools – one in five – have fewer than 50 pupils, most of them two-teacher schools. Most one- and two-teacher schools are in Galway (72), Mayo (68) Donegal (60) and Cork (47).
Since October, these have been the subject of a value-for-money review.
The McCarthy Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure proposed merging some of these schools and eliminating 300 teaching posts to achieve savings of €18 million.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Pay tops teaching unions' agenda as conferences kick off [eecho.ie]
- Published: 25 April 2011
Pay, pensions and job prospects will be top of the agenda at the annual conferences of the three teachers’ unions this week.
More than 750 primary school teachers from across the country will gather in Sligo for the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) convention which opens today.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and the union’s general secretary Sheila Nunan will address delegates, who will discuss salaries, pensions and job prospects of new teachers.
The INTO claims up to 2,000 teachers will be without regular work at primary level next year.
Members will also focus on cutbacks in resources for special needs pupils and disadvantaged children, the future of small schools and the Croke Park Agreement.
Full Story: www.eecho.ie
Statement by Jim Higgins, INTO President, on Literacy and Numeracy in Schools [into.ie]
- Published: 25 April 2011
Monday, 25 April 2011
Statement by Jim Higgins, INTO President, on Literacy and Numeracy in Schools
INTO Annual Congress 2011
Progress on literacy and numeracy is affected by dilapidated school buildings, large classes and a lack of teaching materials – INTO President Jim Higgins.
The President of the INTO, Jim Higgins, has told the Minister for Education and Skills that progress on literacy and numeracy has been hampered by dilapidated school buildings, large classes, a lack of teaching materials and in recent years, the lack of qualified teachers. He was speaking at the INTO’s Annual Conference in Sligo which opened today.
Mr Higgins said primary teachers would respond to the challenge of raising literacy and numeracy standards. But said the Minister had to give a commitment to support teachers by resourcing modern classrooms.
He called for a review of the time allocated to the teaching of mathematics in the curriculum which he said had been reduced a decade ago.
The INTO leader rejected what he described as “simplistic demands for change which underestimate the complex task of teaching mathematics to young children.”
Full Story: www.into.ie
