Quality education 'will bring us through crisis' [Irish Examiner]
- Published: 06 March 2009
Source: Irish Examiner
by Niall Murray
THE promotion of teacher quality through pay and training can help Ireland rebound, the chairman of the National Competitiveness Council said yesterday.
Don Thornhill, a former Department of Education secretary general and former chairman of the Higher Education Authority, said although reform is never easy, it is essential all educators maintain high levels of commitment.
"Our ability to take maximum advantage of the eventual upswing in the global economy will be enhanced if we can continue to raise the quality of education," he said.
Mr Thornhill told an event organised by the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) that Government policy should make attention to teacher quality vital at all levels.
"Excellent teachers guide student learning, and not just pure content delivery, they stimulate a spirit of enquiry and a desire to learn more," he said.
He said the Government can make teaching a prestigious profession by ensuring good pay and conditions, attracting the best people into the job and ensuring effective teacher selection, education and training. He said continuous professional development and improvement, and responsiveness to parents and students, were also hugely important.
The conference was organised to highlight the importance of education in Ireland's recovery.
O'Keeffe doesn't know how many schools using prefabs! [Sinn Féin]
- Published: 05 March 2009
Source: Sinn Féin
Speaking today in the Seanad Sinn Féin Education Spokesperson Senator Pearse Doherty relayed his outrage that the Minister for Education does not know how many schools across the state are using prefabs.
Just this week the Department of Education confirmed to Senator Doherty's office that it does not have a complete list of all primary and secondary schools using prefab buildings; it just has data collected from a sample survey of 900 schools. Shockingly there are over 2,605 prefab units being used in the 900 schools surveyed.
Speaking from Leinster House the Donegal Senator said:
"It is outrageous that the Minister for Education does not know how many of our schools are using prefabricated units. Educating our children in prefabs is a problem. But how can this problem be solved if the Minister himself does not know the full extent of it?
"What we do know from the Department's survey is that there are over 2,605 prefab units in the 900 schools surveyed. Loretto primary school in Gorey has 20 prefab units, 19 of which are rented. Lurghybrack School in Donegal has 13 prefabs; ten of these are also rented. And Holy Cross NS Tramore has 18 prefabs, 17 of which are rented. What is also astonishing is the number of prefabs being used that date as far back as 1998. So despite the unprecedented wealth of the Celtic tiger years Fianna Fáil failed to invest this wealth back into our education system.
"Over the last three years €113 million has been spent on prefabs with the Minister projecting a further spend of €48 million this year. The reality is that thousands of children across the country will have spent their entire education in substandard education. Their experience could and should have been very different.
"How exactly does Fianna Fáil intend to build a knowledge economy if it sees no benefit in investing in the most fundamental tools of early education such as school buildings and teacher pupil ratios? As it stand 254 teaching posts will be lost as a result of the government's decision to increase class sizes and up to 1,000 positions in primary schools will be lost as a result of the recent cutbacks. The fact is there are some public services that should be no go areas when it comes to cut-backs. Education is one such area.
"In addition the Minister also confirmed in his response to another Sinn Féin Parliamentary Question that all maintenance and upkeep of prefabs must be funded from the school's already deeply inadequate capitation grant.
"Sinn Fein believes education is a priority. In government we would frontload infrastructure projects such as a school building programme using monies from the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF). Legislation is going through the Dáil and Seanad this week to pump €7 billion of the Pension Reserve Fund monies into flailing banks. In government Sinn Féin would use this money to properly invest in Ireland's future."
Class size increase means five primary schools to lose teachers [The Argus]
- Published: 04 March 2009
Source: The Argus
By Margaret Roddy
Wednesday March 04 2009
Five local primary schools are set to lose mainstream teachers due to the increase in class sizes set out in the budget.
St Malachy's NS, St Joseph's, Avenue Road, Scoil Mhuire na nGael, Bay Estate, Scoil Eoin Baiste, Fatima, and Stonetown NS, are all on the provisional list of schools due to lose teachers from September published by the Department of Education last week.
In total, eleven schools in Co Louth will lose teachers, while six will gain. The Dundalk schools expected to get an additional teacher are CBS Primary, St Malachy's Boys and Kilcurry NS.
However, INTO Dundalk branch secretary Ann McCabe warns the likelihood is that schools will lose even more teachers.
' These figures are for mainstream classroom teachers and not for the language support teachers,' she explained.
A survey carried out by the INTO last autumn indicated that over 30 teachers will be lost in Dundalk schools, and she expected that this will be the case when details of the cuts in language support teaching is confirmed.
The increase in the pupil/teacher ratio means that if there are currently 27 pupils in a class, the school will lose a teacher and the pupils be dispersed in with other classes.
For some schools, this could result in children being taught in classes of over 30 pupils.
The loss of language support teachers will have a severe effect on local schools, many of whom have a large number of international children on their rolls.
- Margaret Roddy
Comment: Rural schools will suffer most from cutbacks [The Kerryman]
- Published: 04 March 2009
Source: The Kerryman
GOVERNMENT cutbacks in education under this year's controversial budget are nothing less than an attack on the very fabric of rural Kerry.
Finally set out by the Department of Education this week after months of fearful anticipation by principals across the county, the cutbacks will see 15 teaching posts lost to Kerry's primary schools come September next. What might seem a relatively small number of teaching posts on paper appears as an extraordinarily harsh measure against the county's least-empowered demographic on closer inspection - our children.
It is our rural children who will likely suffer most under Minister Batt O'Keeffe's efforts to shore up the State's dwindling revenues. These are the boys and girls we expect to populate rural Kerry in years to come; the greater part of our county that is struggling for years now to maintain its traditions amid ailing economic factors. The irony inherent in the Minister's cutbacks are not lost on rural Kerry. In an effort to address the national economy through cutting back spending on primary education, the Minister has assuredly set the scene for economic woes to come in the countryside. No matter how well the nation bounces back from the current crisis, the insidious effects of the education budget will continue to be felt most keenly across the county.
In small schools with few teachers, each post lost increases class size by far more than that ostensibly set out in the budget, where it is planned to increase classes by one pupil (from one teacher per 26 pupils to 1/27). In practice, however, class sizes in rural schools will balloon come September next. Coolard Principal Maurice O'Mahony, speaking this week to The Kerryman, said he will be in charge of 31 pupils next year as well as running the entire school.
While urban primaries are no less affected, by their very numbers they are in a somewhat better position to absorb the effects of the cutbacks. Struggling to attend to each and every pupil while trying to impose discipline on an expanded classroom, rural teachers fear for their ability to deliver the same standard of education, in accordance with the curriculum. As Douglas NS Principal, Dolores Johnston, said this week: "It's the rural schools that are being hit worst. Larger schools in the towns can absorb the effects much better." Kerry is today distinguished by sending the highest number of students to third level, proportionately, of any county in Ireland. It's a proud distinction we will likely soon lose if the government proposes any further cuts to one of the most important parts of our infrastructure.
Rural schools facing struggle as teachers set to lose jobs [The Kerryman]
- Published: 04 March 2009
Source: The Kerryman
By KEVIN HUGHES AND DÓNAL NOLAN
Wednesday March 04 2009
SMALL rural national schools are being hit hardest by Government cutbacks as teacher allocations for next September - based on increased class sizes under the '09 budget - highlighted this week.
Among the most alarming examples is the mid-Kerry area of Cromane/Glenbeigh where three national schools within a ten-mile radius are to lose a teacher each.
Curraheen NS, Scoil Réalt na Mara in Cromane and Douglas NS narrowly missed a pupil quota, meaning that the teacher-pupil ratio will be drastically enlarged as a result.
Curraheen NS in Glenbeigh missed the pupil quota by just one pupil; instead of 16 children in each class there will now be 24, a burden that is exacerbated due to cut backs also seen in special needs provision.
Principal Helen Murphy says that the school will now struggle to fully implement the revised school curriculum. "In a multi-class situation children must be taught Mathematics, Irish and English appropriate to their class, age and ability and there is less time for children who need extra support."
With 50 pupils expected next year the school intends yo appeal.
Meanwhile, in Douglas NS they're also a pupil short and are due to become a two teacher school also as a result. Principal Dolores Johnston says that parents are outraged at the cuts. "They are absolutely appalled, as are we, and we have all been up to Cork and Dublin to make our voices heard. It's the rural schools that are being hit worst. Larger schools in the towns can absorb the effects much better."
A few miles away, Scoil Réalt na Mara, Cromane was just two pupils short of the requirement for a fifth classroom teacher. The school's average class size will rise from the current 23 to 30 next school year and school principal Seán Ó Seachnasaigh says this will have a knock-on an effect on the quality of teaching and learning in the schools . "We will have lost a teacher by September 30 next, just when we need her most as we expect to have at least six pupils in excess by that time," Mr Ó Seachnasaigh stated.
In North Kerry, the staff size at Coolard National School is to be reduced by one from five to four teachers. Principal Maurice O'Mahony says the school will find it extremely difficult to cope with the reduction. "I'm a teaching principal and I'm now going to have 31 pupils in my class next September between fifth and sixth class, which is the same size class I had when I started teaching in the mid 70s. It will make my job considerably more difficult between teaching the increased number of children and administering the needs of the school."
Most galling, according to Mr O'Mahony, was the fact that schools were caught completely unawares by the cutbacks. "Last September we were satisfied we had enough, in 114 pupils enrolled, to retain our staff size but the cutbacks were brought in in October. Had we known about it beforehand we would have been in a position to increase our enrolment by admitting pupils at the minimum school-going age of four from the locale."
"While the impact is across the board, bigger schools would be in a better position to absorb the changes by dividing pupils across many classes. It's certainly the smaller rural schools that will feel it most," he said.
- KEVIN HUGHES AND DÓNAL NOLAN
