Education: Jobs, buildings, class sizes and special needs threatened by cuts [belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
- Published: 17 December 2010
Massive cuts to the education budget mean a radical rethink of how services are delivered in Northern Ireland is needed, it has been warned.
Sammy Wilson’s draft Budget this week revealed a £67m reduction in education spending over the next four years.
Educationalists are warning the impact of this will be felt right across the vast sector.
Despite assurances from Education Minister Caitriona Ruane, there are fears frontline services will take a big hit, with grim predictions of compulsory redundancies for teachers, classroom assistants and other educational support staff.
Bureaucracy, which eats up around 40% of the annual budget, will also have to be streamlined in some way.
And schools that are already running deficits because of the lack of pupils may be forced to continue operating at a loss despite many not being fit for purpose — raising the unpopular prospect of returning to the controversial Public Private Partnerships arrangement to generate revenue for new infrastructure.
Ulster Unionist education spokesman Basil McCrea said: “Education will be hit particularly hard.
Full Story: www.belfasttelegraph.co.ukEducation cuts will result in lower standards [tribune.ie]
- Published: 17 December 2010
If we can assume that the main reason why governments increase investment in education is to improve the end result, namely higher standards of knowledge and skills, then is it not also fair to conclude that if a government reduces its investment in education, then this will have the opposite effect.
Seán Cottrell
Irish Primary Principals' Network
Safety concern for pupils in 40-year-old prefabs [IrishTimes]
- Published: 17 December 2010
A SMALL rural primary school has been using two prefabs as main classrooms for more than 40 years, the Dáil has heard.
Fine Gael’s Dan Neville has raised the case of Nicker national school in Co Limerick on a number of occasions and has appealed to Minister for Education Mary Coughlan to put the proposals for extensive refurbishment and an extension into the next school building programme.
Mr Neville said the prefabs for the 94-pupil school “are in very poor condition and in no way represent an appropriate environment for the safe and successful education of children”. School numbers are expected to increase to 120 within the next four years.
There were difficulties with changes in the weather when “very warm or very cold weather make these classrooms very uncomfortable and unsuitable for teachers and pupils”.
The Limerick West TD said another, smaller prefab bought some years ago was being used by the school’s learning support teacher.
Mr Neville highlighted problems with toilets in a separate building at the rear of the main school building. “It is totally inappropriate that children must go out into the open when using the toilets.”
Land for the new school had been bought for €23,650. The school had raised enough funds to provide the “specified local contribution” for the necessary capital works, but the board of management would be equally happy if funding came from the devolved grant scheme.
Mr Neville appealed to the Minister to “prioritise this school in the next school building programme”.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Red tape stops pupils from using school bus [Independent.ie]
- Published: 17 December 2010
PILES of paperwork are preventing three children with special needs from getting on a school bus outside their door every morning.
Layers of red tape are forcing the Health Service Executive (HSE) to pay for a taxi to bring a 12-year-old, who is in care, to and from school every day.
The parents of the other two pupils have to bring their children back to their old address every morning so they can get a bus to school.
The problem has been blamed on the bureaucracy involved in applying for school transport for children with special needs.
Schools have to go through the same paperwork all over again when an existing pupil changes address.
Because two of the pupils in question qualified for school transport at their old address, they may still avail of it, but their parents have to bring them back each day for pick-up and collection.
The three students, pupils at Scoil Chiarain special school in north Dublin, ran into obstacles when they changed address this year.
The Glasnevin school caters for 133 pupils, aged five to 18, who live in the north Dublin area.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Tánaiste promised funds that did not exist [IrishTimes]
- Published: 16 December 2010
TÁNAISTE MARY Coughlan made a commitment to give the nationwide Your Country, Your Call (YCYC) competition Government funding of €300,000 even though her then department did not have the funding in its budget.
The enterprise competition was initiated by Dr Martin McAleese, husband of President Mary McAleese, with the aim of finding two projects that would create prosperity and jobs for Ireland.
Documentation from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation – where the Tánaiste was minister until March this year – says a commitment “clearly appears to have been given at political level”.
“However, no additional funding has been made available to the department to provide such support,” a briefing note to the department’s secretary general and assistant secretary says.
The documentation, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also indicates the issue was “bounced around” the department. An e-mail from a staff member at the micro-enterprise policy unit to the office of Ms Coughlan’s successor, Batt O’Keeffe, said the unit had no role in the matter. Chairman of Your Country, Your Call, Lawrence Crowley, met Ms Coughlan in September 2009.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
