Union: Investment education 'vital' [belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
- Published: 05 October 2010
Marking Unesco World Teachers Day, the heads of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) said education was central to economic recovery.
Jack Keane (ASTI), Hugh Gibbons (IFUT), Jim Higgins (INTO) and Bernie Ruane (TUI) pointed to a recent report from global economic think tank the OECD, which said spending on education was essential.
They said in a joint statement: "The message is clear. Compromise education and you not only compromise the future life chances of an entire generation, you put economic recovery in jeopardy."
Full Story: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Cloverhill NS report ‘unfair’ and ‘too soon’ [roscommonherald.ie]
- Published: 05 October 2010
THE PRINCIPAL of a national school outside Roscommon town, which has been heavily criticised for the “poor” quality of teaching and its lack of vision by departmental inspectors, this week said that the evaluation was “unfair”, “unfortunate” and “too soon”.
The board of management and staff of Cloverhill NS, which is located five kilometres outside Roscommon town, came in for heavy criticism from Departmental inspectors following a whole school evaluation in November 2009, details of which were published last week.
In the report the 17-pupil national school was found wanting across a number of areas, including the “poor” quality of in-school and pupil management and assessment, school planning, and the teaching of English, maths and geography.
Full Story: www.roscommonherald.ie
Only 78 of our schools have fast web link [Independent.ie]
- Published: 05 October 2010
A NEW high-speed schools broadband programme will transform Irish education, the Government maintained yesterday -- but only 78 of the country's 4,000 schools enjoy the fast link.
Communications Minister Eamon Ryan announced yesterday -- not for the first time -- a €13m scheme that has delivered 100-megabit-per-second broadband to 78 second-level schools, a speed equivalent to what big multi-nationals use.
But almost 700 more second-level schools will have to wait up to two years for it to be extended to them. And more than 3,200 primary schools have no timescale as to when they can expect it.
Speaking at St Colmcille's Community School, Knocklyon, Dublin, yesterday, Mr Ryan said the jobs of the future would be in the digital economy and children needed to be confident and comfortable in the use of technology.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Parents back more public information on schools [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 04 October 2010
Only half of those surveyed believed schools give parents enough information about how their children are doing, although improved reporting guidelines have been offered to schools since the research was carried out.
While there is stronger support for more information about second-level schools, the strongest support was for comparisons between schools to take account of the resources that are available to them. This idea was favoured by 87% of more than 1,500 people aged 15 or older who took part in the study by Thomas Kellaghan and Michael Daly, published in the latest volume of the Irish Journal of Education.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
94% Of Children Avail Of Free Pre-School Place [clareherald.ie]
- Published: 04 October 2010
The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Barry Andrews, T.D., has announced that 94 percent of eligible children for the free pre-school year are now availing of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme.
63,000 children joined the pre-school year in September - an increase of 10,000 compared to January, when the scheme was first launched.
The number of pre-school services participating in the scheme has also increased from approximately 3,800 in January 2010 to 4,200 this September.
Commenting on the numbers the Minister said, “awareness, interest and participation in the free pre-school year has been exceptional. From a standing start just nine months ago, over 94 percent of children in the year prior to going to junior infants are attending a pre-school service. Given that other children are availing of their pre-school year through the Early Start programme, in special services for children with special needs, Traveller pre-schools and under the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) scheme, it is estimated that some 97% of children are availing of a free pre-school place”.
Full Story: www.clareherald.ie
