Teacher Registration and Qualifications [cpsma.ie]
- Published: 31 May 2010
The Minister for Education and Skills wishes to bring to the attention of schools and teachers the arrangements by the Teaching Council for the implementation of the European Council Directives on Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications, which were transposed into law by the Recognition of Professional Qualifications (Directive 2005/36/EC) Regulations 2008 (S.I. No. 139 of 2008). This statutory instrument sets out the manner in which professional qualifications obtained in one EU member State are recognised in all member States. For example, a teacher who has obtained qualified teacher status in an EU member State in compliance with the EU Directives is eligible to be registered as a teacher in this country, subject to certain conditions.
The 2008 Regulations provide for the imposition of compensatory measures by the competent authority to address shortfalls in qualifications that are identified as being substantial. Under the Regulations and the Teaching Council Act 2001, the Teaching Council is the competent/designated authority for the recognition of qualifications of teachers. For example, teachers who have acquired teaching qualifications in an EU member State whose professional education did not include elements considered necessary in the Irish school system (such as a qualification to teach Irish in the case of primary school teachers) may be required to make up the shortfall before being fully registered as a teacher by the Teaching Council. Generally, a teacher in this position will have the option to make good the shortfall(s) by passing an aptitude test or by satisfactorily completing an adaptation period. An adaptation period is defined in the Regulations as follows:
Full Story: www.cpsma.ie
Pupils win – no strings attached [timesonline.co.uk]
- Published: 30 May 2010
On June 7 the governors of William Farr comprehensive school, near Lincoln, will meet to discuss revolution. Like hundreds of other schools, it is being offered the chance by the government to take much more control of its own destiny.
Paul Strong, the head teacher, wants to turn the school into an independent academy, freeing it from local authority control. He wants more leeway over what it teaches, how it employs staff and how it spends state funds. Many other schools are looking at the proposals, billed as the biggest change in education for decades.
Sir Robert Balchin, pro-chancellor of Brunel University and an adviser on the plan, said: “This will at last give the kind of freedom to schools that has been unknown outside the independent sector for decades.”
Full Story: www.timesonline.co.uk
Coughlan in talks on school patronage row [sbpost.ie]
- Published: 30 May 2010
Education minister Mary Coughlan will meet the four TDs from the Dublin Mid West constituency this week to discuss the prospect of the country’s first Educate Together secondary school opening in the area.
The meeting will take place amid a turf war between Educate Together and County Dublin VEC over patronage of a new school planned for Clonburris in south Lucan. Educate Together sought unsuccessfully to be patron of the planned school, but the VEC was approved for the role.
However, the Department of Education is reviewing the decision.
Full Story: www.sbpost.ie
Mental health project aimed at pupils [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 29 May 2010
THE power of positive thinking is to be used in a project to see if improving the nation’s mental health and saving lives from being lost to suicide can be achieved by spreading the message to children in primary schools.
As part of her research for a PhD at University College Cork, Mary Spillane Buckley hopes 700 pupils aged nine and 11 can be taught how to cope with stressful situations and to see the glass as half full rather than half empty when things go against them. But as well as aiming to find out the benefits of positive mental health, the project could also raise vital funding to educate children in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
10 bullied pupils take complaints to top each week [herald.ie]
- Published: 29 May 2010
Parents are making an average of 10 complaints a week to the Department of Education about bullying in schools.
The figure takes no account of complaints made within the schools themselves, which do not have to be reported on to the department.
In the first four months of this year, parents went over the heads of the school boards of management and lodged 160 complaints directly with the Education Department. This compares with 438 complaints for the whole of last year.
Education Minister Mary Coughlan, who has released the figures, said she is anxious to support schools in tackling the problem and that a number of supports have been put in place.
Full Story: www.herald.ie
