Spending cuts: Support services in danger but teaching jobs secure [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 17 September 2010
In addition, growing numbers of pupils will mean more teachers are needed , as the programme for government promises no further cuts to staffing levels for mainstream classes.
The Tánaiste told the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA) annual congress yesterday that schools will have to do more with less next year as she must find her share of the €3bn savings needed by the Government.
Coughlan tells education sector to prepare for cuts [IrishTimes]
- Published: 17 September 2010
MINISTER FOR Education Mary Coughlan has told the education sector to prepare for cuts in the forthcoming budget.
The sector will have to do more with less, she said, despite the projected boom in school numbers.
Ms Coughlan hinted that support and back-up services would be vulnerable to cost savings. But she also signalled there may be no more cuts in third-level staffing, over and above the cumulative 6 per cent cut which will be imposed on the sector by the end of 2010.
Ms Coughlan has little room for manoeuvre as she seeks cuts in the €9 billion education budget. Pay and pensions account for some 80 per cent of current spending, but the Croke Park deal and the agreement with the Greens to maintain class size means there is little scope for extra savings.
In the medium term, she said, there would continue to be significant constraints on the level of resources available for education.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
When is a school a business? …. Ask the VAT man!
- Published: 16 September 2010
The Director of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN), Seán Cottrell has asked the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners to clarify ‘Why national schools are not entitled to claim VAT refunds like any other business, despite the fact that the Department of the Environment specifically categorises schools as businesses when imposing water charges?’
Mr. Cottrell has also called on the Commission for Taxation to ‘re-examine the whole area of schools and their tax anomalies, particularly in relation to VAT. The failure to exempt schools from VAT threatens to further undermine our education system with an increasing number of primary schools slipping further into debt’.
IPPN research findings highlight that the average 100-pupil school is operating at an annual deficit of €6,000. This shortfall has to be fund-raised by hard-pressed parents, as teachers fight an uphill battle to maintain Ireland’s position at the forefront of education globally’ said IPPN President, Pat Goff in his new school year message to 3,300 primary school Principals. ‘In these difficult times, many schools are struggling to meet the day-to-day costs of basics such as phone, insurance and energy bills. The government’s failure to grant schools the right to claim VAT refunds is discriminatory and places significant additional pressures on already hard-pressed families’ continued Mr. Goff.
'National schools are not-for-profit organisations with the sole purpose of delivering primary education, and should be eligible for charitable status and exempt from VAT’ said the IPPN President. ‘In Australia, schools can claim back VAT and even in an EU country such as Denmark, schools are exempt from VAT by virtue of their tax policy’ continued Mr. Goff.
ENDS
Minister White launches Ireland's first national "Intercultural Education Strategy", 2010-2015 [education.ie]
- Published: 16 September 2010
The Minister of State for Equality, Integration and Human Rights, Mary White TD, today launched Ireland's first national Intercultural Education Strategy.
The Strategy, which has a five year lifespan, contains the ten key components and five high level goals of intercultural education, which form the basis of the Strategy’s implementation plan.
Based on the findings to emerge from the extensive research and consultations, a common plan has been proposed for all sectors of education.
Speaking at the launch of the strategy in Croke Park today Minister White outlined its aims.
'Put learners at its core by respecting the diversity of values, beliefs, languages and traditions in Irish society and to assist educators, whatever their setting, in creating a learning environment where inclusion and integration within an intercultural learning environment become the norm.’
The Minister acknowledged the good practice already found across all sectors of education,
'Through building on existing good practice and the experience and professionalism of our educators, I am confident that the aims of the Strategy can be achieved.’
Full Story: www.education.ie
Migrant strategy aims to make integration 'the norm' in classrooms [IrishTimes]
- Published: 16 September 2010
TEACHERS SHOULD create a more “intercultural learning environment” in classrooms and focus more on developing pupils’ English language skills during regular lessons.
These are two key proposals in a new Government five-year migrant education strategy, which aims to make “inclusion and integration the norm” and combat racism in schools.
No new funding is being allocated to deliver the strategy, which has been developed to respond to a significant rise in the number of migrants in the school system. New figures in the Intercultural Education Strategy 2010-15 show there was an 87 per cent increase in the number of immigrant children in the school system between 2002 and 2006.
In the 2009/10 academic year there were 28,422 migrant children attending second-level schools, 9 per cent of the school population. At primary level, there are 45,700 immigrant pupils out of a total student population of 476,000. British, Polish and Nigerians are the three biggest migrant groups at second-level schools.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
