Newly qualified teachers need our support [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 22 March 2011
I AM writing to bring to your attention the plight of newly qualified teachers.
Until recently all NQTs had five years to complete their diploma but a decision has been made reducing that time to three years.
Many NQTs are having great difficulty finding even a few days’ substitute work and some "lucky ones" have found a maternity leave to cover.
With even more graduates coming to the jobs market this September, there is enormous pressure on NQTs (who are counting on being fully probated teachers in order to improve their employment prospects).
The recent decision by the Teaching Council makes no sense in a time of education cuts and unemployment for newly qualified teachers.
Should the three years run out, an NQT may apply to the Teaching Council for an extension. However, I contend that if the recent decision were reversed and NQTs had five years to complete the Dip, then many would avoid the highly stressful scenario of feeling that "time is running out".
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
Lessons in hardship at your local school [IrishTimes]
- Published: 22 March 2011
The cap on the number of special needs assistants is every parent’s concern, writes SHEILA WAYMAN
IT IS the time of year when parents are getting good – or bad – news about where their child is starting primary school in September. Once a place is confirmed, thoughts turn to buying the uniform, the books, the bag and the lunch-box.
But for parents of children with special needs, there are more serious matters to worry about. One of these is the effect a cap on the number of special needs assistants (SNAs), introduced last December, is going to have in the new school year.
Fellow parents, while sympathetic, may be just grateful it is not their concern. But it is.
Aside from the moral and legal imperatives of inclusive education, if children with special needs are not supported sufficiently in mainstream schools, the detrimental effects are felt by all the other pupils. Through no fault of their own, children with special needs may be disruptive or take up an inordinate amount of a teacher’s time if there is not a “shadow” there to assist and restrain where required.
As part of the National Recovery Programme, it was announced last December that the number of SNAs was being capped at the existing level of 10,575 whole-time equivalent posts. This has caused individual problems since but the real test of how the cap is going to be managed will come in September.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Until we change the Constitution, we are failing to protect our children [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 22 March 2011
DID the Archbishop of Dublin throw down the gauntlet to the Government last week?
Why would he of all people do that? And why would he choose the issue of children’s rights to do it?
He was speaking to the Mater Dei Institute, on the subject of relations between Church and State. Interestingly, he chose to emphasise at the beginning of his speech that he wasn’t suggesting in any sense that the new government was more anti-church than the previous one. He then went on to give something of a lecture to the new Minister for Education (whom he didn’t name) about the need for continued pluralism in our school system.
Now, I would have thought that if there was one politician in Ireland you don’t need to lecture about pluralism, it’s Ruairi Quinn. However, as the archbishop makes clear, when he is talking about pluralism he means the pluralism inherent in maintaining the Catholic ethos in our school system.
Fair enough, I reckon — what else would you expect a Catholic archbishop to say? But haven’t things come to a strange pass when a Catholic prelate needs to make an argument like this one in defence of Catholic schools: "But pluralism in educational provision is not an easy task to realise. Simply providing greater choice will not guarantee true pluralism. People may use pluralism in school choice to choose to opt out of pluralism. The temptation will always exist for parents to choose a school precisely because it is not pluralist, because there are no disadvantaged or marginalised children."
Like Ruairi Quinn, I believe in pluralism, and in choice. I’ve always believed that parents should be able, within reasonable limits, to send their children to the school of their choice. But in Ireland still today there are thousands of schools, primary and secondary, who use "membership of the Catholic faith" as a core selection criterion for admission. I don’t see anyone trying to force that to change.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
Schools drop the ball [IrishTimes]
- Published: 22 March 2011
Primary schools that do not take responsibility for PE teaching do the children a disservice, writes BRIAN O'CONNELL
DOES IT matter that some primary school students will not experience physical education (PE) classes with their teachers? The phenomenon of contracting out the teaching of physical education to such sports organisation as the GAA or the Football Association of Ireland has become common in schools across the country.
The Irish Sports Council, in co-operation with sports bodies and local sports partnerships, developed a national Buntús Primary Schools Initiative in recent years through which additional supports such as training, resource cards and equipment, are provided to help teachers and others introducing young people to sport, and to complement the curriculum.
Concerns are now being raised that many teachers are not getting the experience they need to maintain a confident approach to PE teaching.
This may mean that PE gets less emphasis at primary school. Studies by Dr Catherine Wood of the school of health and human performance at Dublin City University, found that on average primary school pupils get just 46 minutes of PE teaching weekly.
The habits formed in school years can have a significant impact on children’s attitude to health and fitness for the rest of their lives. Many children, though, are not learning these habits from teachers and PE times are increasingly seen as not a part of the regular school curriculum.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Non-English speaking pupils failed by schools [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 22 March 2011
SCHOOLS need to improve how they cater for pupils whose first language is not English, a review by the Department of Education has found.
But it says that rather than focusing solely on dedicated language teachers, greater focus and training for all staff is needed, particularly at second-level.
The cost of increased resources for language services for newcomer children rose from €10 million a decade ago to around €140m in 2009 in response to rising immigration. Around 10% of primary students are non-Irish and slightly fewer at second-level, where there are more than 24,000 such students.
At the same time the number of English as an additional language (EAL) teachers rose from 260 to more than 2,100, and account for the vast majority of the cost of catering for these students.
Every school was allowed up to two EAL teachers up to 2007 when an upper limit of six staff was sanctioned, but the original cap was reinstated due to cutbacks in 2009, meaning service losses in around one-in-six second-level schools.
However, the Department of Education value for money review, which included an examination of EAL services in 45 schools, recommends a new method of allocating resources.
The effectiveness of EAL resources was found to be greater in primary schools, largely due to the fact that younger pupils are more receptive to language learning; primary teachers are trained to teach language, pupils have just one class teacher rather than many subject teachers, and constraints are placed on second-level schools by timetabling and demands on teachers and students relating to exams.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
