Church and state finances are dependent on assets’ true value [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 28 October 2011
THE Department of Education has spent over €38 million buying school sites from organs of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
The vast bulk of the trades (€29m) have taken place since 2000 and have involved diocesan authorities, parishes and religious orders.
The overall figure does not include another €2.9m worth of sites which were transferred to the department by the Sisters of Mercy as part of its contribution to the initial redress indemnity deal.
Figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that 56 schools formerly run by either religious orders or diocesan authorities were sold to the state since the mid-1970s.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
Ralph Fiennes blames Twitter for 'eroding' the English language [Independent.ie]
- Published: 28 October 2011
ENGLISH actor Ralph Fiennes said that social networking sites such as Twitter are dumbing down the English language.
Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival awards in Old Street, London, the actor said that modern language "is being eroded" and blamed "a world of truncated sentences, soundbites and Twitter."
"Our expressiveness and our ease with some words is being diluted so that the sentence with more than one clause is a problem for us, and the word of more than two syllables is a problem for us," he said.
Fiennes, full name Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, said that students at drama schools were especially suffering thanks to social networking sites.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Adair NS pupils must wait for new bus service [corkman.ie]
- Published: 27 October 2011
THE parents of pupils at the Adair National School in Fermoy have been told they will have to wait until next month to find out if their bus service is to be reinstated.
Since the start of this term parents have had to find alternative means of getting their children after the Department of Education instructed Bus Éireann to pull the service.
This, despite a claim by management at the school that it did in fact fulfil criteria laid down by the Department regarding the number of pupils eligible to avail of the service.
It had been hoped that a concerted campaign by parents and staff at the school to reinstate the service was about to bear fruit after their case went before an appeals board last Thursday.
Full Story: www.corkman.ie
Transport operators launch EU challenge over school transport system [thejournal.ie]
- Published: 27 October 2011
AN ASSOCIATION of transport operators will today launch a complaint at EU level about how Ireland organises its school transport system.
The Coach Tourism & Transport Council, which represents bus companies operating under the School Transport Scheme, says the Department of Education is in contravention of EU laws by awarding some contracts to Bus Éireann – without the state-owned operator having to tender for them.
The council says Bus Éireann’s profits from the services are sent to its Expressway division – which is a commercial service, divorced from the funding that Bus Éireann receives to provide other services.
Full Story: www.thejournal.ie
Reading test 'a waste of money' [mirror.co.uk]
- Published: 27 October 2011
The Government's new reading test for six-year-olds is a waste of taxpayers' money that will fail to identify youngsters' needs, literacy experts have warned.
In an open letter to Education Secretary Michael Gove, they say they are "deeply concerned" about the test, and call on him to reconsider its introduction.
The letter has been signed by David Reedy, the immediate past president of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, with support from others including Philip Parkin, general secretary of the education union Voice, John Coe, chairman of the National Association for Primary Education and Rona Tutt, chair of the National Literacy Association.
Plans for a reading test for six-year-olds were announced by the Department for Education (DfE) at the end of last year, amid concerns that children with poor reading skills were slipping through the net.
Full Story: www.mirror.co.uk
