Leaving Cert staff shortage plays havoc with Irish orals
- Published: 04 February 2009
Leaving Cert staff shortage plays havoc with Irish orals
Wednesday February 04 2009
The oral part of the Leaving Certificate Irish examination could be disrupted next month over a shortage of examiners.
The warning has come from a letter by the State Examinations Commission which says there is also a shortage of examiners to undertake oral tests in Spanish and Italian.
The orals are due to be held from March 23 to April 3 and it is understood the Commission needs a further 40 examiners for Irish.
"The inevitable consequences of not having sufficient examiners for 2009 is that it will not be possible to examine all candidates during the scheduled examining period," says the letter.
It adds that this will: "undoubtedly cause disruption to schools and candidates in their preparations for the other components of the 2009 Certificate examinations".
The letter says that if there are insufficient examiners, priority may be given to students in schools from which applications have been received from teachers to carry out the tests.
"The candidates in the remaining schools may then have to be scheduled to have their tests as examining resources become available after the scheduled two-week period for the tests."
The Director of the National Association and Principals and Deputies (NAPD) Clive Byrne said the Commission was anxious that experienced examiners be available and he would encourage schools to assist by releasing teachers.
Reluctance
However, it could not be assumed that the shortage was caused by any reluctance on the part of the school authorities but because teachers, particularly in urban areas, were not satisfied with the financial arrangements for undertaking the work.
It is understood the most serious shortages are in the greater Dublin area where teachers earn less for travel and subsistence as they are not travelling long distances nor staying overnight near an exam centre.
The commission's letter discloses that the Department of Education and Science has agreed to provide substitute cover where teachers are released for orals and practicals in other schools. It says the initial response to its letter has been positive.
However, even if the orals proceed as normal, there are further fears for the practicals which will be held as part of the Leaving Certificate in May.
Normally teachers were freed up in their own schools to ensure the smooth running of the practicals. Substitution has traditionally been made available as well where teachers were taking students on geography or science field trips are related to the exams. But that's no longer the case.
Instead, substitution has to be provided from the limited number of hours now made available to schools.
The fear is that schools will have used up their substitute hours by the time the practicals get under way. "We would not be able to manage if three teachers were missing when the practicals begin," said one headmaster.
- John Walshe
FG man risks school fury
- Published: 04 February 2009
FG man risks school fury
Source: Irish Independent
Monday February 02 2009
FINE Gael's education spokesman is facing the wrath of party colleagues after calling for amalgamations of many small primary schools, writes John Walshe.
Brian Hayes said a quarter of the country's 3,200 primary schools had four or fewer teachers and "economies of scale" should be introduced.
But he acknowledged that his call for amalgamating small rural schools was not likely to find favour with his fellow TDs.
He aired his proposals at the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) conference in Killarney, where many delegates made it clear they were also opposed to merging small schools.
IPPN director Sean Cottrell said small schools were viable, but some should operate in clusters, with one board of management and shared services.
The three-day conference "Primary Education -- Who Pays?" heard an acknowledgement from Green Senator Dan Boyle that there was a shortfall in state support for primary education.
He said people had been let down on spending promises, but that the money was simply not there.
School television channel launched [Mayo News]
- Published: 03 February 2009
Source: Mayo News
By: Anton McNulty
THE first school television channel to be implemented in Ireland was officially launched in Davitt College in Castlebar last week and it is expected that the channel will be rolled out to up to 500 schools across the country before the end of the year.
The new channel, which is called 'Life Channel' and is run by a UK-based production company, will broadcast messages on school activities on two television screens as well as advice on healthy living, anti-bullying and sport reports. Davitt College were chosen by Mayo VEC to undertake the three-year pilot programme, which will cost €8,000, and the screens were installed in the school at the beginning of the year.
The format of the channel was launched by Tony Blair in February 2007 and since then 1,000 schools across the UK have availed of the service. Mr Paul Vitali, Director of the Life Channel, explained at the launch that the channel was about promoting health and wellbeing and they hoped to roll out the channel to other schools around the county. He said new information will be downloaded onto the television screens every month and there will be opportunities for the school to relay information about school activities and the curriculum.
"The channel is not about television, it is about producing content that will promote health and wellbeing amongst the students in the schools. We hope to train the schools to upload their own content about issues in the school such as the curriculum. Davitt College is the first school in southern Ireland to have the Life Channel installed and we hope to have it rolled out to 500 schools in 2009 in Ireland alone. We are ready to install the channel in other schools in the area and we have spoken to VEC CEO [Katie Sweeney] about the long-term situation," he said.
Mr Vitali explained that the Life Channel has over 1,000 archived material items which Davitt College will be able to download and use whenever they want to promote a certain issue. He said they were keen to embrace distance learning and said they hoped the channel would promote twinnings with other schools and bring schools from different cultures closer together.
Mr Ioseph McGowan, the Principal of Davitt College, said the channel had huge potential and explained that they had started making their own programmes to show on the channel. He explained that the programme was installed at the start of the year and already they had recorded and shown football matches on the screens and a film-maker from England had shown them how to make programmes.
"The channel has huge potential and will become more attractive for the students when we start making our own programmes. At the moment we are mainly using the pre-produced material, which consists of short messages on issues like anti-bullying, obesity and drug use. It is very useful in getting messages across to the students because no matter how often you speak to them on the dangers of smoking, a short professionally-produced programme which shows the damage has a much stronger effect on them," he said.
School transport scheme costs rise sharply [Irish Independant]
- Published: 26 January 2009
Monday January 26 2009
source: Irish Independant
ALMOST 1,000 taxis and other wheelchair accessible vehicles are used to bring special needs students to schools every day.
But the Government is targeting the rapidly rising costs associated with the area in a bid to slash the bill for school transport.
New figures show that the number of taxis used for special needs students jumped from 386 in 2006 to 662 last year, while the number of wheelchair accessible vehicles used rose from 239 to 303.
Over the same period, the cost of escorts for special needs students went up from €9.77m to €14.89m, while grants to parents to assist them to make private transport arrangements for their children rose from €3m to €3.37m.
About 9,000 special needs students avail of free transport every day. A new Value for Money Review will look closely at the cost of bringing them to school. About 27pc of the total €196m budget for school transport goes on special needs students.
The figures emerged after the Irish Independent revealed how the HSE has spent more than €122m ferrying patients and staff around in taxis and minibuses over the past five years.
In 2003 more than €18m was spent on transportation. However, this jumped to €31.6m last year -- a 73pc increase.
The new study for special needs students' transport will look at encouraging greater use of mainstream services, where possible.
Another is attending the nearest suitable school -- at present some special needs students and their escorts are transported long distances at considerable expense.
Minister of State at the Department of Education Sean Haughey, who set up the audit, said that the total cost of the scheme in 1997 was under €50m but had gone up substantially since.
Scheme
The scheme, which was set up in 1967, carries about 140,000 pupils each school day; 55,000 of whom are in the post-primary sector, 76,000 are primary pupils and the remainder are pupils with special needs.
Bus Eireann operates the scheme on behalf of the Department of Education and Science. A total of 3,227 buses and taxis were used last year.
Mr Haughey stressed that there was no threat to the future of the scheme. He acknowledged that savings would be looked for but refused to speculate on what these might be.
However, it is expected that discussions will be held with Bus Eireann on the issue of greater flexibility in terms of the size of buses used to see if savings can be made by making greater use of larger buses.
- John Walshe Education Editor
Part-time teachers to get back-pay by November [Irish Independant]
- Published: 26 January 2009
Monday January 26 2009
[Source: Irish Independant]
ONE thousand part-time teachers who were underpaid for seven years will be refunded by November, the Department of Education has confirmed.
While the final cost of paying out seven years of arrears is unknown, the Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has previously estimated that the bill could be as high as €45m.
It is thought that the Government must find cutbacks in other areas, or await the November budget to obtain the money to repay all 1,000 teachers.
Last night, a spokesman for the Department of Education confirmed that about 1,000 part-time schoolteachers had applied for refunds since the Irish Independent revealed last summer the massive bill facing the Government and taxpayers.
Already, two teachers have obtained €35,000 and €55,000 in arrears after taking their case to the Rights Commissioner, which found the Department of Education had been in breach of laws which protect part-time workers.
The Department of Education also confirmed that a new payroll will be introduced in September to pay part-time teachers and ensure that the errors of the past seven years are not repeated.
Arrears
As the arrears payments will be made through the new payroll, all statutory deductions such as tax and PRSI will be made, according to the department spokesman.
"The details necessary to place the teachers on the payroll system have been received from approximately 1,000 teachers," he said.
Under the 2001 law, part-time teachers are entitled to be paid the same as their full-time colleagues to reflect their qualifications and experience.
But the department has been paying them as if they were newly graduated teachers who have qualified with a pass degree, as opposed to the honours degree the majority of teachers obtain.
To date, the department has been unable to quantify the extent of the bill it will have to pay because it never kept a payroll record for temporary teachers.
Last year, the Irish Independent published details of a briefing document prepared for Mr O'Keeffe, which stated: "many of the teachers are likely to be entitled to be on a higher rate of pay than is currently paid to them and are due arrears of salary. . .
"By not paying the appropriate rate of salary to the teachers concerned, the department could be found to be acting unlawfully."
- ine Kerr Political Correspondent
