10% of substitute posts filled by retired teachers [eircom.net]
- Published: 19 October 2010
Fine Gael criticised the practice at a time when thousands of newly-qualified teachers cannot find a job and called on Education Minister Mary Coughlan to free up all casual and substitute teaching hours for unemployed teachers.
Party education spokes- man Fergus O'Dowd was told by the minister, in reply to a parliamentary question, that almost 400 retired teachers were paid for substitute work in primary and second-level schools.
The data relates to the school year up to September 30 but does not include substitute work in around 240 vocational sector schools or work not yet claimed for by schools.
At primary level, the 302 retirees paid for substitution duties represented around 8% of teachers for whom claims were made by schools last month.
"How can the Education Minister Mary Coughlan credibly stand over a policy of giving retired teachers jobs while thousands of newly-qualified teachers can't get one? The practice of employing retired teachers for substitute work has gone on unchecked within the education system for too long," Mr O'Dowd said.
Full Story: news.eircom.net
'Retired' teachers back at work as graduates sign on [Independent.ie]
- Published: 19 October 2010
MORE than 300 retired teachers were employed in primary schools last month, despite up to 1,000 recent graduates being unable to get a job.
The retired staff were back in the classroom as substitutes at a minimum of €195.33 per day.
The primary teachers' union, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), has renewed its call on schools to ensure that newly qualified staff get priority for filling any vacancies.
INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan said yesterday that part of the problem was that unemployed teachers had no way of knowing where a vacancy arose, while the schools also needed to know how to contact them.
Retired teachers, by contrast, would be well known to the school.
The union has now called on the minister to establish panels of supply teachers on a regional basis so that available vacancies could be matched with teachers seeking work.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Special needs assistants signalled to be focus of cuts [IrishTimes]
- Published: 18 October 2010
CROKE PARK AGREEMENT: FURTHER CUTS in the number of special needs assistants (SNAs) are signalled in the new plan for education.
The Department of Education document – prepared as part of the Croke Park deal – says the 90,000 people working in the sector face dramatic changes to improve its overall efficiency, flexibility and capability.
But the document stops short of giving details of cuts in the education sector or the likely savings which will accrue from the new measures.
On special needs, the plans says a report to identify “perceived deficiencies” in systems will be published shortly. The report is being compiled by school management bodies, employer representatives and the department. The plan also says that a notice will issue to schools shortly, outlining new rules agreed as part of the Croke Park agreement.
This will require the more flexible deployment of close to 10,000 SNAs within schools to “respond to work demands and to cover absences by SNA colleagues”. It also says “where work demands arise during non-instruction days, school management will continue to have discretion to deploy staff to appropriate SNA duties”.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Walsh urges halving Irish language budget [Independent.ie]
- Published: 17 October 2010
The amount of time spent teaching Irish in schools should be slashed and 'smart economy' subjects such as maths, science or even Chinese should be taught instead, according to an influential educator.
Dr Edward Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick, has proposed that the €1.2bn a year spent on teaching the Irish language in schools should be halved.
Dr Walsh is advocating that half the resources should be diverted into teaching pupils international languages, particularly Chinese, French and German.
Dr Walsh, a well-known critic of the Department of Education's policy on the national language, has frequently proposed making Irish compulsory for only three years, making room on the curriculum for other languages.
Furthermore, he suggests that within the narrower spending limits reserved for teaching Irish "we should broaden the teaching of the language to include Irish culture. But let those who are not enthusiastic about Irish drop out after primary school. We should bring them to the well."
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Rental bill for prefab schools adds up to €24m a year [Independent.ie]
- Published: 15 October 2010
THE children of commuters are stuck in costly rented prefab schools in satellite towns where massive population explosions occurred, new figures obtained by the Irish Independent reveal.
Towns outside of Dublin have some of the highest number of rented prefabs, which come with an annual bill of €24m, despite today's cheaper construction costs.
In Kildare, there are 116 prefabs with rental bills of €1.6m, while Meath has 125, at €1.9m.
The bill for schools in Co Louth, the smallest county in the country, has risen from €1.18m to €1.37m in line with the number of prefabs increasing from 78 to 91.
This comes at a time when the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) estimates it can build a permanent classroom for €125,000.
In contrast, a prefab has been costing as much as €106,258 to purchase or around €14,000 per year to rent.
But the Department of Education insists it has managed to slash the bill for renting prefabs from a staggering €53m in 2008 to €24m this year. Compared to 2008, when 266 new prefabs were rented, only 23 new rental contracts were signed in 2010.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
