Tánaiste met with anger but escapes intact [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 07 April 2010
THE Tánaiste arrived into a dragon’s den of more than 700 angry primary teachers first thing yesterday but managed to escape without swords being drawn.
The Garda escort she received into the packed hall in the Galway hotel proved unnecessary, although Mary Coughlan could have been forgiven if she had a sense of foreboding as she rose to her feet.
The appearance of around 100 placards slating Government policies on public service pay and bailing out the banks, failed to faze the new Minister for Education and Skills, however, as she proceeded through a 25-minute speech which did little to appease the anger of union activists.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
Candidates shun principal jobs [Independent.ie]
- Published: 06 April 2010
THE number of teachers willing to take on the top job in primary schools is dropping dramatically, with many schools being forced to re-advertise to attract candidates for the post of principal.
And researchers last night predicted this trend will continue and that the pool of well qualified staff willing to take on principalships will shrink even further.
In 1996, the average ratio of applicants for every post of primary school principal was 5.5, but this has now dropped below an average of two applicants per post. In some cases, initial advertisements attract no applicants.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Coughlan to ease ban on key jobs for teachers [Independent.ie]
- Published: 06 April 2010
EDUCATION Minister Mary Coughlan is to partially lift a jobs ban on key teaching roles which threatens to close schools this autumn.
In her first significant decision since taking over the education portfolio, the Tanaiste will soften the Government's stance on the controversial issue.
She has agreed to a "limited alleviation" of the ban on filling key middle management posts in schools.
Secondary schools have already lost 900 assistant principal posts in the past year and hundreds of additional post- holders will retire this summer.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Pressure on pupils as stress levels are growing [Independent.ie]
- Published: 06 April 2010
HALF of all 15-17-year-old students experience moderate to severe stress, an alarming new study reveals.
The poll of 1,400 secondary students across the country has painted a worrying picture of the mental pressures pupils are feeling in schools.
It reveals higher levels of eating disorders, body-image problems, self-harming, alcohol and substance abuse among young people.
"Many of these worrying conditions develop in slavish imitation of some of the less-worthy aspects of a media-obsessed worldwide celebrity culture," Dr Mike Power, project leader with the Mater child and adolescent mental health service, told the Irish Independent.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Finally putting the foot down [Independent.ie]
- Published: 06 April 2010
IT is incredible, after all that has happened, that banks have been overcharging customers to the tune of tens of millions of euro, either through sloppy carelessness or wilful maximising of profits, or a combination of both.
At a time when banks' activities have fallen under unprecedented scrutiny and suspicion, the biggest of them all mistakenly charged business account rates to 40,000 personal account customers and will be paying back the money for the next 14 months.
Quite simply, nobody in the bank noticed.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
