Taking INTO into the breach [IrishTimes]
- Published: 05 April 2010
Sheila Nunan, incoming INTO general secretary, tells LOUISE HOLDEN about life in the ‘industrial washing machine’ ahead of Minister of Education Mary Coughlan’s address at the union’s congress
THE TWO most powerful people in Irish education are in Galway this week. Both women, both new to the job.
They step into the ring at the most fraught juncture in Irish teaching for decades. The new INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan faces the new Minister for Education Mary Coughlan in Salthill. The same minister is persona non grata at the ASTI conference down the road.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Teacher's pet [IrishTimes]
- Published: 05 April 2010
An insider's guide to education
- IT WAS ALL sweetness and light at last week’s meeting of the seven university presidents.The presidents of UCD and UCC (Hugh Brady and Michael Murphy) and the TCD Provost (John Hegarty) are still basking in those very positive comments about their graduates from Google . But some others are sitting less comfortably.
One positive decision at the meeting was that the seven universities should stop seeking out international student individually. Instead, they have agreed to work together.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Teachers to call for escalation of industrial action campaign [IrishTimes]
- Published: 05 April 2010
THE TEACHER union conferences will this week hear demands for an escalation of industrial action – including more school closures – as opposition to the proposed public service reform and pay deal intensifies.
Minister for Education and Skills Mary Coughlan will this morning underline the Government’s readiness to face down any industrial action. However The Irish Times understands she will also announce some easing of the moratorium on the filling of promotional posts in schools, when she addresses the TUI (Teachers Union of Ireland) conference in Ennis, Co Clare, tomorrow.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Intense pain that can make a child so desperate [IrishTimes]
- Published: 05 April 2010
A DAD'S LIFE: Bullying is a huge issue and we need to remain vigilant, writes ADAM BROPHY
PHOEBE PRINCE, an Irish schoolgirl whose family emigrated to the US late last year, killed herself on January 14th. Last week, nine teenagers, seven of them girls and three of them juveniles, were charged in connection with Phoebe’s death following a 10-week criminal investigation. The charges include statutory rape, violation of civil rights, criminal harassment, disturbing a school assembly, stalking as a youthful offender and assault with a dangerous weapon, believed to be either a bottle or a can.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Coughlan's curriculum [IrishTimes]
- Published: 05 April 2010
The new Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, faces a baptism of fire at this week’s teacher conferences but the education brief also gives her an opportunity to rebuild her political career. SEÁN FLYNN, Education Editor, gives her some advice
THE NEW MINISTER for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, spent most of last week buried in a mass of briefing documents prepared by secretary general Brigid McManus and her team of senior officials.
Coughlan is the first Minister for Education whose appointment has been branded as a political demotion since Michael Woods took the post in 2000. Since then, Micheál Martin, Noel Dempsey, Mary Hanafin and Batt O’Keeffe arrived in Marlborough Street as upwardly mobile politicians with reputations to build.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
