Minister urges parents to stand for management positions [educationmatters.ie]
- Published: 05 September 2011
Over 3,200 primary schools around the country will hold elections next month for 22,000 positions on their boards of management.
Members of school boards work in an entirely voluntary capacity and receive no financial remuneration for their input.
The current 4-year term for members of school boards ends on November 30 – although representatives may stand again if they so decide. The new boards will take up office on December 1.
As the elections loom, Minister Ruairi Quinn is keen to raise awareness among parents about their entitlement to help in the management of children’s education and the opportunities available to them in this regard.
Full Story: www.educationmatters.ie
DES Circular 0053/2011 [education.ie]
- Published: 05 September 2011
Supporting education, not teachers’ salaries [sbpost.ie]
- Published: 05 September 2011
Last week, school pupils around the country returned through the gates after the long - among the longest in Europe - summer holidays.
They return to schools under renewed financial pressure, funded by a department facing further cuts in funding, part of a government that must reduce its spending.
Public services throughout Ireland will come under extreme pressure in the months and years ahead. That is part of our adjustment from boomtime to reality, and a legacy of an ocean of money thrown at public services with little thought for improving their quality. Most of the money went on higher wages for existing public servants.
But those are the mistakes of the past and they won’t be fixed in one swoop. They will be corrected by a painful process which will take years. What is vital in the educational field is that the squeeze on funding does not affect the quality of education offered to children.
Full Story: www.sbpost.ie
Struggling parents face eight-week delay for school aid [Independent.ie]
- Published: 05 September 2011
STRUGGLING families seeking financial help as their children head back to school face a wait of up to eight weeks.
More than 1,000 applications are continuing to flood into welfare offices each day -- long after pupils have already returned to classrooms across the country.
The Department of Social Protection confirmed it may be November before the current claims are processed due to the high volume of parents seeking aid.
Meanwhile, primary school teachers have been "turning a blind eye" to pupils coming in without a uniform.
A spokesman for the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said a number of principals have noticed children returning without uniforms as their parents are under severe financial pressure.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Struggle for parents to pay exclusive school fees [Independent.ie]
- Published: 04 September 2011
WHEN Ken Lee's marriage broke down, his teenage son's schooling was an unexpected casualty. Legal fees mounted. The family home in Stepaside in south Dublin was up for sale. Last spring, he struggled to pay the fees for their son's private school in Ranelagh.
Daragh, now 18, was a pupil at Sandford Park, an exclusive boys' day school where annual fees were €7,200. The Lees had paid more than half the fees but €2,782 was still outstanding when Daragh returned to school after the summer break.
Daragh was to have sat his Leaving Certificate that year. On August 26 last year, the first day of term, he turned up for school but was sent home again shortly afterwards, according to evidence later given in court.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
