Single-sex schools are targeted for teacher cut [Independent.ie]
- Published: 03 January 2012
THE Department of Education wants to target single-sex post-primary schools for a cut in teacher numbers.
It believes they have an advantage on the grounds that co-ed schools have more complex needs such as providing a range of subjects to cater for the interests of boys and girls.
Such a move would affect 248, or one in three of the 729 second-level single-sex schools.
Single-sex schools are almost exclusively run, or formerly run, by religious orders, in the voluntary secondary sector.
The question of singling them out for cuts was raised by the department in advance of the recent Budget.
But instead, the extra provision schools receive for guidance counselling and the general teaching allocation to fee-paying schools took the hit for next September.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
How to be the best parent you can be [IrishTimes]
- Published: 03 January 2012
Take a moment to look at your parenting skills and see if you can improve them in 2012, and make life easier for you and your family, writes SHEILA WAYMAN
IT IS the time of year when we reflect on our lives and resolve to try to do some things a little differently from now on – eat less, exercise more, grin and bear more frequent visits to the mother-in-law.
Considering that parenting “is the most important job we’ll ever do”, it makes sense to include it in the annual reappraisal of ourselves.
So we asked a panel of people who work with parents what they would like to see parents resolving to do – or do more of – in 2012.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Department of Education to monitor Facebook, Twitter [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 02 January 2012
THE Department of Education has added Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets to news sources that it monitors each morning.
Officials in Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s department have increased to over 160 the number of key phrases and names to be scanned across all news forums as a way of tracking what is being said and written about education.
The new service, to begin in mid-January, will mean any newspaper article or online item featuring the names of ministers at the department, education journalists and or any of the other key words will be e-mailed to senior Department of Education management by 9am on weekdays and before midday at weekends. They are also notified of radio or TV stories and debates on education, with the option of getting recordings or transcripts.
As well as issues specific to education and topical areas of policy, such as "class sizes", "prefab" and "third level", the list of key words supplied to tender applicants for the contract includes areas of wider government policy that may be relevant. These include: "quangos", "public sector reform", "national recovery plan" and "eGovernment".
The current system of press cuttings and monitoring radio and television is supplied separately by two companies at a total cost of almost €46,400 a year.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
Steer children to science, parents urged [Independent.ie]
- Published: 30 December 2011
PARENTS have been urged to steer their children away from traditional careers.
Old favourites like medicine, law and teaching should be abandoned in favour of science and technology, according to a leading higher education figure.
About 50,000 Leaving Certificate students are preparing to fill in their CAO application for college entry in September.
And parents have been told to take an active hand in their choices and steer them towards sectors where jobs are available.
With the CAO's February 1 deadline looming, Higher Education Authority chairman John Hennessy last night made a strong intervention to advise parents to persuade their children to consider technology, science and engineering.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Record numbers apply for Back to School payments [schooldays.ie]
- Published: 29 December 2011
A record number of parents have applied for the school footwear and uniform allowance this year, with payments set to total over 90 million euros.
The Irish Examiner reports the Department for Social Protection expects to process claims from nearly 200,000 families for 390,000 children, with the large volume meaning some applications were yet to be approved before Christmas.
Demand for the scheme has been so great it is now projected to cost around 10 million euros more than previously predicted.
Full Story: www.schooldays.ie
