Robert McCartney: SF worry over poor Protestant pupils is rich [belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
- Published: 06 July 2011
Sinn Fein has shown a “touching sympathy” for the educational plight of Protestant children in north Belfast.
Their poor performance in the 11-plus is blamed on the selection principle. Sinn Fein claim that if selection and the grammar schools were abolished, these children would educationally flourish. “Nothing” could be further from the truth.
Educational researchers all share the view that the poor performance of children in deprived areas is overwhelmingly caused by socio-economic conditions.
Other relevant factors are the quality of teaching at primary level and a lack of educational aspiration among many parents who do not even enter their children for the examination.
Full Story: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
All school bus options studied, minister claims [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 06 July 2011
EVERY option to avoid cutting places on school buses in rural communities has been considered and Bus Éireann’s €16.7 million fee for running the system is no "pot of gold", junior minister Ciarán Cannon has claimed.
He was urged by Kerry South Independent TD Tom Fleming yesterday to listen to proposals from private bus operators, parents and teachers who believe changes to the school transport scheme can be avoided. Among those taking effect next autumn and in 2012 are an extension of the distance families must live from some schools to qualify for school transport and an end to eligibility criteria in communities where hundreds of rural schools merged in the 1960s and 1970s.
Mr Fleming told the Oireachtas Select Sub-Committee on Education that the loss of transport services is causing huge worry. These were raised at a public meeting in Listowel last week attended by Mr Cannon, and due to be aired at a similar meeting in Galway next week.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
Primary heads ‘at breaking point’ [belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
- Published: 06 July 2011
Primary school principals are at breaking point and buckling under the pressure of dealing with dozens of live issues, a leading Northern Ireland head teacher warned today.
In a hard-hitting article for today’s Belfast Telegraph, Harry Greer said a shortage in funding for primary schools is the main cause of underachievement among secondary school pupils.
Mr Greer — a member of the Northern Ireland Primary Principals' Action Group (NIPPAG), which campaigns for increased Government funding in the primary sector — said that Education Minister Caitriona Ruane needs to do much more to demand better funding for primary school children.
Full Story: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
State wants schools from religious orders for redress costs [IrishTimes]
- Published: 06 July 2011
THE GOVERNMENT is to ask religious congregations named in the Ryan report to transfer ownership of schools to the State to make up a shortfall in its contribution to the €1.36 billion redress bill for victims of clerical sexual abuse.
Properties currently rented to the State will also be sought in lieu of cash or other payments, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn said yesterday.
The Ryan report, which investigated the abuse of children in institutions run by 18 religious congregations, recommended they pay half the total redress costs, a figure set at about €680 million.
To date the congregations have offered €348.5 million, or roughly a quarter of the redress bill, faced by the taxpayer to compensate victims of abuse and to cover legal costs. This offer fell “well short, by several hundred million” of what the orders should bear “towards the cost of institutional residential child abuse”, the Minister said.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Minister Frances Fitzgerald to Outline Vision for New Children’s Dept to Oireachtas Committee [oireachtas.ie]
- Published: 05 July 2011
The plans and priorities for the newly established Department of Children and Youth Affairs will be analysed at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, tomorrow (6th) at 3:30 pm in Committee Room 4 of Leinster House.
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald TD will make her first address at the Committee. She will be questioned by members regarding her proposals for the Department and on which issues she intends to give priority.
Some of the topics which are likely to be addressed include;
- Plans to establish a new childcare agency separate from the HSE
- The status of the Children’s referendum
- Putting the Children First guidelines on a statutory footing
- Progress with moving responsibility for children and youth affairs from the Department of Health.
