Emergency talks aim to avert chaos in schools [Independent.ie]
- Published: 05 March 2010
URGENT talks are taking place to avert school chaos in the autumn when teachers step up their work-to-rule.
Figures revealed yesterday show that primary and secondary schools have already lost more than 1,100 middle-management positions at assistant principal and special duties level.
Many more are likely to disappear in the summer following an expected surge in retirements.
Teacher unions have ordered members not to undertake any duties carried out by teachers in these middle-ranking posts who retire and are not replaced.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Staffing and Panel [DES Circular 0021/2010]
- Published: 05 March 2010
The DES has released Circular 0021/2010 Regulations Governing the Appointment and Retention of Teachers in Primary Schools for the School Year 2010/2011.
There’s no cure for ‘difficult’ boys [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 04 March 2010
YOUR feature on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on February 22 needs some cautionary notes.
When a newly-defined "condition" affects nearly 10% of the population (in this case boys), it is probably not an illness but a part of the range of behaviours that was considered normal in the past.
Parents must not be coerced down this road as they have been in the US. There are many historical figures who would certainly have been "diagnosed" with ADHD. Mark Twain is a certainty. And I’m sure if you remember your school days, as I do mine, you know the boys who would have been given this label in the past. Most of those I knew harnessed it to become successful and well adjusted – even if the "treatment" of the day was to be beaten to pulp.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
50% more men go into teaching [guardian.co.uk]
- Published: 04 March 2010
The number of men applying to become teachers leaped by almost 50% last year, figures revealed today.
And the total number of would-be trainees increased by more than a third, fuelled in part by career-changers reconsidering their jobs in the light of the recession.
The changing profile of the teaching applicant comes after years of calls for more men to go into the classroom, particularly in primary schools, to provide role models for young boys.
Full Story: www.guardian.co.uk
On International Book Day, poorer Irish children bottom of literacy leagues [labour.ie]
- Published: 04 March 2010
As Irish schools celebrate International Book Day across the country, the stark reality of the literacy standards in our poorer communities stands as a damning indictment of our inability to empower our most vulnerable children with the most fundamental of tools - the ability to read.
The cold fact is that 30 per cent of children that live in disadvantaged areas have basic reading problems, a statistic which is an embarrassment in a country which is so quick to celebrate its literary heritage.
Full Story: www.labour.ie
