Cutbacks hit pre-school children as research centre shut
- Published: 23 September 2008
By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent
THE latest education cutback is to close a centre developing vital Government policy and structures for pre-school education.
The Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education (CECDE) was set up six years ago to co-ordinate provision and policies covering nurseries, creches, playgroups, childminders, pre-schools and infant classes of primary schools.
It has eight staff and an annual budget of about €800,000, but it is understood the work will now be transferred to the Office of Children's Minister Barry Andrews.
The centre, based at St Patrick's College in Dublin, produced a quality framework for early childhood in 2006, launched by Mr Andrews' predecessor Brian Linehan, who, as Finance Minister, has ordered the reviews of costs in each department which likely led to this decision.
The centre's work will come to an end in the coming weeks and funding will be stopped in late November, the CECDE board was informed by letter on Friday evening.
"We regret the Government's decision as we're very proud of our work here, and we're trying to deal with this situation as best we can," said CECDE director Heino Schonfeld.
The centre has produced numerous reports and research publications on existing services and future policy and models of pre-school education. It was also charged with developing initiatives for children who are educationally disadvantaged or have special needs.
A spokesperson for Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe said that, with the centre coming to the end of its second three-year contract, it is timely to reconsider the structures set up to support early childhood care and education.
"While the centre's sanction will not be extended for a further period, it is envisaged that the work of ensuring quality education provision in pre-school services will be led by the early years education policy unit of the Department of Education in the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs," he said.
Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) general secretary John Carr said the decision showed complete lack of Government commitment to early childhood education.
"Quality early childhood education provides the basis for lifelong learning and is a critical factor in tackling educational disadvantage and upholding children's rights. All the centre's good work in laying the foundation to improve Ireland's abysmal record in pre-school provision has disappeared at the stroke of a pen," he said.
Ireland spent less of its education budget on pre-school than any other developed country in 2005, just 0.1% compared with an 8% average across 24 other OECD countries examined in a report published earlier this month. The Government's Early Start pre- school programme still runs on a pilot basis and has been extended to 40 areas.
School protests as staff numbers cut
- Published: 22 September 2008
By: Gordon Deegan
THE PRINCIPAL of a west Clare secondary school said yesterday that it was crazy that students were being denied the opportunity to study several subjects because the Department of Education "wants to save a few euros".
Principal of St Joseph's Secondary School in Spanish Point, Mary Crawford, was speaking after the department withdrew the salaries of two specialist teachers thereby affecting the provision of such subjects as music, metalwork, technical graphics, technical drawing and engineering.
After appeals, the department last week offered to fund 15 hours of teaching for exam classes.
However, the school has described this as "inadequate" as it will deny current first-, second- and fifth- year students the chance to take these subjects.
Ms Crawford said the school had also made a lengthy submission to the Office of the Ombudsman for Children over the department's decision. "We are going to fight this all the way. We have to keep this school viable in west Clare," she said.
In an open letter to Minister for Children Barry Andrews, the school's student council chairperson Sarah Donnelly asked: "Why does the Department of Education and Science not care about all the children of this school? What about our first, second and fifth years - who will teach them? Why has the Department of Education and Science treated some of our students differently? Can you as Minister for Children do anything to help?"
Ms Crawford said: "West Clare is a vibrant centre for traditional music and it would be odd if the local second-level school could not offer timetabled classes to those who are talented and eager to study music formally. And in a largely rural area metalwork/engineering is often the keystone of small local businesses and essential to farm maintenance.
"The school has a long tradition of offering these subjects to the local community; there is an expectation among parents and students that the school would continue to offer them and the students in second and fifth years who opted for these subjects are now gravely disadvantaged because their choices have disappeared." Confirming that a public meeting is to be held at the school next Friday, Ms Crawford said: "The withdrawal of these subjects will ultimately affect the viability of the school."
In its response to the department's offer of 15 hours, the school's board of management said the decision to axe both teachers and subjects was forced upon the school without any consultation or prior warning.
A spokesman for Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe said: "Teacher allocations at second- level schools are approved annually by the department in accordance with established rules based on pupil enrolment."
He said each school management was required to organise subject options within the limit of the approved teacher allocation.
Economist of flawed fees report is friend of minister
- Published: 21 September 2008
Ken Foxe Public Affairs Correspondent
Minister Batt O'Keeffe: 'Obviously, it's an embarrassment'
THE controversial academic commissioned to carry out the flawed study on the return of third-level fees for the Department of Education is the husband of education minister Batt O'Keeffe's personal assistant.
The Sunday Tribune has established that Dr Noel Woods' wife Katherine was first appointed as the then junior minister's personal assistant in August 2004.
She had also run his constituency office prior to that, sources said, and has stayed working with him since he became the minister for education. Dr Woods, who is a dental economist, estimated in a study "commissioned" by Minister O'Keeffe that the return of third-level fees could yield €530m to the exchequer.
However, it subsequently emerged that he had made a gross miscalculation and he was forced to revise the figures downwards to just €130m.
The Department of Education said no fee had been paid to Dr Woods and that the study was done as a personal favour for the minister.
But the unusual request backfired on Batt O'Keeffe when the enormous discrepancy in the figures was uncovered last week.
The two men have been close personal friends for nearly 20 years, both living close to each other in the minister's base in Ballincollig, Co Cork.
A departmental source said: "The report was given to the minister. This wasn't a formally commissioned report and no money was exchanged.
"He miscalculated and got them wrong. The minister does know him and he is a friend of his.
"He has not been appointed as an adviser to the minister. It's just a favour he did for him but instead of giving us a one-year figure, he gave us a four-year figure."
Dr Woods does not work in the Department of Economics at UCC having moved to the Centre for Policy Studies in the college. His area of expertise is in 'dental economics' and he was awarded a €300,000 grant last year by the Health Research Board to investigate remuneration in the "treatment provision of oral health".
Minister O'Keeffe said: "Obviously, it's embarrassing. There is no point in saying otherwise… when I read the figures, I thought they were high. But I didn't question the accuracy at the time … [it is] just one of those things, it happens and we move on from it."
The Higher Education Authority and a tax expert are also now preparing realistic projections for the Department of Education, O'Keeffe said.
Dr Woods' original analysis had stated revenue of between €220m and €530m was possible if fees for third-level students were brought back. However, the figures were subsequently downgraded to between €55m and €135m.
The projected revenue appeared faulty from the beginning as a similar estimate by the former education minister Noel Dempsey had stated that €15m was the most that could be earned by the reintroduction. Dr Woods said the mistake came about because he had overestimated the number of students entering college in each year.
What's half a billion between friends?
- Published: 21 September 2008
By: Claire Byrne
Batt O'Keeffe: you do the maths
Having been through a week where two economists told me that politicians don't know what they are talking about when it comes to numbers, it seemed karmic when a government minister who put his faith in a number cruncher was seriously let down.
The Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe, asked the University College Cork economist Dr Noel Woods to come up with the amount of money the government might make if third-level fees were re-introduced on a means-tested basis.
Dr Woods came up with projected figures, which he has since admitted were wrong ; in fact they were miscalculated by a mere €400m.
The economist simply got his maths mixed up and used the wrong base number to reach his conclusion. Minister O'Keeffe refused to believe that his trusty maths genius was mistaken, until the man himself confirmed the error.
What is more worrying? The fact that an economist didn't know how to multiply the right figures and come up with the right answer, or the frightening realisation that the minister wasn't savvy enough to realise that he hadn't just found a way to skim another half a billion from the taxpayers' pocket?
Special needs but no special funding
- Published: 21 September 2008
By Martha Kearns
The Epsen Act should bring special needs education into the 21st century but, with no resources from the government, its implementation looks uncertain.
Casey Naughton is just nine years old, but already he has fallen foul of the obstacles facing children in Ireland who have special educational needs.
The Offaly boy, who has a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome, was turned away from 23 schools after being expelled from his local school, Daingean NS, in February, for behavioural problems.
After an intervention by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Casey finally got a place in Charleville NS in Tullamore. A meeting took place last Friday at the school to discuss the boy's behavioural support needs. It is hoped that he can be integrated into a mainstream class this week.
However, the problems Casey faces in receiving an education are not over - and his situation is familiar to many parents, teachers and students across the country.
Ireland's provision of education for children with special needs has long been the focus of criticism. The integration of such children into mainstream education has been developing on an ad hoc basis since the 1990s, with many changes following court cases taken by parents of children with autism and other special needs.
Improvements made over the past ten years include an almost 300 per cent increase in the number of teachers supporting special needs in mainstream schools - from fewer than 2,000 in 1997 to almost 7,800 in 2008, according to Department of Education & Science figures.
But new, structured changes are now coming down the tracks, with the rollout of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (Epsen) Act. The Epsen Act 2004 was a groundbreaking piece of legislation which redefined special educational needs and enshrined the rights of children with such needs. It was welcomed on both sides of the educational divide.
However, teachers now fear that they will not be able to deal with the legal requirements the new act will impose on them - and they are sceptical about whether they will get the additional resources from the department to cope with the new responsibilities. These issues could put the implementation of the act in jeopardy.
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