Temporary teachers to have wages cut by third [IrishTimes]
- Published: 14 June 2010
MORE THAN 100 secondary-trained teachers working on temporary contracts in primary schools may have their wages cut by up to a third when new regulations are introduced by the Department of Education in September.
And many more secondary-trained teachers who take on primary substitution work may also be affected.
In the last 10 years as pupil number grew, teachers trained for secondary schools have been filling the growing demand for staff at primary schools.
However, an increase in the numbers of primary teachers being trained and an increase in the pupil-teacher ratio has meant secondary-trained teachers are no longer needed at primary level.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Evaluation role for pupils and parents [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 14 June 2010
PUPILS and parents are to have a stronger input into Department of Education assessments on the work of their schools, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has announced.
The move to take views beyond those of each school’s parents’ association follows consultations with the National Parents Council-Primary (NPC-P) about ways of improving contributions to whole school evaluations (WSE) carried out by department inspectors.
The Education Minister told the NPC-P annual conference she has approved reforms to the WSE process that will see the introduction of confidential parental and pupil questionnaires.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
Playground 'shag bands' spark fears over early sexualisation [Independent.ie]
- Published: 13 June 2010
TO parents they are simply innocent, brightly coloured friendship bands their daughters and sons like to wear.
But in the slang of the school playground they are known as 'shag bands' with all the disturbing connotations such a crude term implies.
Each colour band indicates a physical act, ranging from a yellow band for a hug to blue or black ones which represent a willingness to indulge in more serious sexual behaviour. If a schoolchild snaps the rubber band, the wearer is supposed to carry out the physical act represented by that colour.
Aine Lynch, of the National Parents Council (NPC), says that the 'shag band' phenomenon popular with pre-teen children is symptomatic of the early sexualisation of Irish children.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Primary target should be literacy [Independent.ie]
- Published: 13 June 2010
You can't miss the fact that the country is in chaos, rudderless, and lurching from crisis to crisis. We're shouting about the dysfunctional health service, and the Governor of the Central Bank is telling us that the economic mess is entirely of our own making, stemming from incompetence and greed, and nothing to do with international factors.
But there's another crisis staring us in the face, and it's sowing the seeds of a disaster that will undoubtedly knock us for six once the economy has recovered (if ever), when we'll be looking to the quality of the available workforce.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Bullying linked to child suicides [belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
- Published: 13 June 2010
Charity Beatbullying said of 59 cases of child suicide reported in the national media between 2000 and 2008, 26 were definitely connected to bullying.
But research suggested up to 78 out of the 176 official total of suicides in the age range were actually victims of bullying.
Full Story: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
