IPPN

Schools to be allowed flexibility in making up lost days [Independent.ie]

Published: 15 January 2010

SCHOOLS will be allowed flexibility in making up time lost due to the severe weather -- and the mid-term break and Easter holidays are safe.

Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe said yesterday that he did not want to be "dogmatic" on the issue of replacing lost days.

All 4,000 schools throughout the country were closed last Monday, most have lost at least three days and many had to shut for even longer as thawing snow and ice gave way to other problems.

Full Story: www.independent.ie

More waste on prefabs [finegael.org]

Published: 15 January 2010

Ninety-five separate prefabs in 59 schools nationwide have been rented for at least ten years or more according to information exclusively revealed by Fine Gael Education Spokesperson Brian Hayes TD.

Deputy Hayes received information on the numbers and cost of prefabs from the Department of Education through a series of Parliamentary Questions showing that the cost to the taxpayer in 2009 alone was €1,174,785.05 for these 95 prefabs.

“The juggernaut of waste from Batt O’Keeffe and his Department trundles on.

Full Story: www.finegael.org

Axe to fall on special-needs jobs [Independent.ie]

Published: 15 January 2010

HUNDREDS of special-needs assistants (SNAs) will get their P45s in the post within the next few weeks, the Irish Independent has learned.

While some of these will be able to get work in other schools, many will end up without jobs.

The assistants who face the sack immediately work in schools where it has already been decided that their services are no longer required. In addition, a value-for-money audit that is under way is understood to be nearing completion. It will recommend a stricter implementation of the criteria that led to the appointment of assistants, resulting in the loss of an estimated 1,200 posts.

Full Story: www.independent.ie

Prefabs a 'shocking waste of money' [IrishTimes]

Published: 15 January 2010

The cost of using 95 prefabs classrooms rented for at least ten years by schools last year was over €1 million according to figures released by Fine Gael today.

The party’s education spokesman Brian Hayes said the prefabs are being used in 59 schools nationwide at a cost of €1,174,785 to the taxpayer in 2009 alone.

Mr Hayes said the Department of Education told him in response to a series of parliamentary questions that it spends an average of €12,000 per annum renting each prefab.

He said: “This means that, in the majority of cases, over €120,000 has been spent by the Department of Education to date in renting out just one prefab for a school over the past ten years.

“In virtually all of these cases, the State could have built at least one or two classrooms for the money it spent renting out temporary accommodation over the period.

Full Story: www.irishtimes.com

O’Keeffe vows to help schools recoup lost days [IrishExaminer]

Published: 15 January 2010

EDUCATION Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s officials have met teachers representatives about recouping lost class days for exam students after the icy weather led to school closures.

Mr O’Keeffe revealed a number of schools remained shut but efforts were also being made to examine how teachers could help make up the lost school days.