School bus charge for primary pupils [educationmatters.ie]
- Published: 09 December 2010
From autumn 2011, parents of primary school children will face an annual school bus charge of €50 per child, to a maximum of €110 per family.
Last year, An Bord Snip Nua had proposed an annual charge of €500 for all school bus passengers. While the €50 charge imposed in Budget 2011 may seem modest in comparison to this, it is regarded by parents as one more cost in a long list.
“The families being hit with school bus charges are the same people losing out on child benefit payments and paying higher taxes,” said Áine Lynch, chief executive of the National Parents' Council Primary.
Meanwhile, second level students using the school bus service will see a rise of €50 in their annual payment, bringing it to €350 a year with a maximum charge of €650 per family.
School transport will continue to be free for children with special educational needs and for children of families with medical cards.
From September 2011, a minimum of 10 eligible children will be needed to establish or keep services, compared with seven at present.
Full Story: www.educationmatters.ie
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 09 December 2010
Education Correspondent Niall Murray says Mary Coughlan is a firm believer that overhauling teacher training rather than cutting class sizes is key to reversing falling literacy and numeracy standards.
IT’S no small coincidence that Mary Coughlan revealed Department of Education plans to overhaul teacher training late last month, knowing that this week the world would learn how much literacy and maths standards are dropping.The shocking figures in the OECD’s latest encyclopaedia on student performance will do nothing to improve the impression of our education system, particularly with the multinational sector on which the Government is relying for jobs growth.
Perhaps we were all fooled by the teacher unions’ insistence that class sizes are what’s most needed to improve student achievement, when reform of teacher training courses were being recommended in reports commissioned by the Department of Education in the early part of the last decade.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
Government withdraws one of few supports left for Irish Medium Schools [into.ie]
- Published: 09 December 2010
The INTO described the proposal in the National Recovery Plan to remove teaching posts from Irish medium schools as a blatant attack on the Irish language. According to the INTO, provisional figures show that over thirty jobs will go from a small number of gaelscoileanna with some schools losing two teachers.
The union said the proposal would increase class sizes greatly in many of these schools.
A spokesperson said the direct impact of the proposal would be to increase class sizes drastically in many schools. “All the research shows that class size matters when children are very young. This decision will increase class sizes for young children.”
Traditionally smaller gaelscoileanna have a more favourable staffing schedule than other schools. The INTO said this could easily be justified on a number of grounds. “Pupils in Irish language schools learn through the medium of Irish, even though for the majority of them, Irish is not the language of their home. There is also a lack of resources to support Irish language education. In addition, almost all of the affected schools are in substandard school buildings which the ESRI concluded affects curriculum implementation. Others are also in disadvantaged areas with DEIS status, which further overburdens their capacity to effectively implement the curriculum.”
The INTO said the decision would pose significant employment difficulties for the teachers concerned. Although the teachers are covered by the Croke Park Agreement which rules out compulsory redundancies, many schools in the Irish medium sector lack a redeployment scheme. This will mean that the affected teachers are in limbo at the present time.
Full Story: www.into.ie
Hundreds of schools still closed [IrishTimes]
- Published: 08 December 2010
EDUCATION: HUNDREDS OF schools will remain closed today as freezing conditions are slow to clear.
More than 660 schools were forced to close yesterday in Northern Ireland and a similar number are expected to remain closed today.
The North was badly hit with heavy snowfall on Monday.
Minister for Education Caitriona Ruane defended the decision by several hundred school principals to close their schools, citing the need to safeguard children.
Her remarks followed a litany of complaints by parents on local radio shows that teachers were closing schools while other workers continued as normally as possible.
“We are fortunate to have very dedicated and professional teaching staff who will do everything to ensure children do not fall behind in their studies,” Ms Ruane said. “I appreciate the inconvenience this can cause for parents but know that they too put the safety of their children first.”
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Results black mark for our system, says Quinn [IrishTimes]
- Published: 08 December 2010
REACTION: THE ORGANISATION for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) survey results are a “shocking indication of how our education system fails to perform at the most basic levels”, Labour’s Ruairí Quinn said last night.
Labelling the results “a black mark” for the Irish education system, he said Ireland is now ranked outside the top 10 developed countries in terms of reading, science and maths.
“Incredibly, the class of 2010 is the first generation of Irish students not to have a better standard of literacy than their parents.”
General secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation Sheila Nunan said above-average OECD scores over the last decade had led to some complacency at official level.
But she said teachers were not complacent about standards.
Ms Nunan said significant changes over the past decade could not be ignored.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
