Tag Archives: minister for education

A LACK of secondary school places in Ennis is causing “untold anguish” for local pupils and families. That’s according to Clare TD Joe Carey who has called on Education Minister Norma Foley to address the lack of secondary school places in Ennis “as a matter of urgency”. Deputy Carey spoke out after he was contacted by several distressed parents in recent days whose children have still not received placements in schools in the Ennis area. The local Fine Gael TD has repeatedly made representations on the issue in recent years. But he warned the problem has gotten worse and is creating “a most disturbing situation for pupils’ mental health and well-being”. Deputy Carey this week wrote to Minister Foley urging her to intervene in the crisis. He also attached a letter on behalf of 10 local primary school principals in which they expressed “very serious concerns” for the well-being of students who are still without placements. The deputy said, “The lack of secondary …

A €2.25 million injection to boost Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Skills development, with additional summer camps for second level students being developed, as well as up to 700 additional places on ICT courses has been announced. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) will write to higher education institutions to seek proposals for three calls: · Additional ICT Summer Camps for second level students, · Additional undergraduate places on core level 8 full-time courses · A call for full-time level 9 MSc computing courses. Making the announcement, Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton said, “A goal of the Action Plan for Education is to build stronger bridges between education and the wider community, support learners to make informed career choices and enhance our capacity to meet national and regional skills needs. “We want to give student’s access to higher education people and spaces to help stimulate their interest and understanding of what computing and ICT is all about. Through summer …

The ASTI Standing Committee and TUI Executive Committee today (Friday) decided that a second day’s strike action over the Junior Cycle dispute will take place on Thursday, January 22. The unions also decided, if necessary, to take an additional day of strike action, the date to be announced. Both unions, which represent 27,000 second level teachers, have a strong mandate for industrial action following ballots of membership. A first day’s strike action took place on December 2. The executive bodies of both unions also agreed that they are prepared to meet with Dr Pauric Travers with a view to facilitating constructive engagement that might help to resolve the impasse. The Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan stated on Wednesday that she intends to request that Dr Travers consult with both sides, and the unions see this as a positive development.

Clare primary schools are set to receive a funding boost to carry out small-scale repairs, with the announcement of the 2014 Minor Works Grant by Education Minister, Jan O’Sullivan. “Every primary school in Clare with permanent recognition will receive a small amount of funding to carry out small capital or improvement works to the school, with payments issuing to schools next week,” Deputy Michael McNamara in welcominig the announcements. “This funding will help schools make improvements to their school buildings and grounds, and invest in their furniture, and IT and sport equipment. Each school will receive a payment of €5,500 per school, and a further €18.50 per mainstream pupil, or €74 per pupil with special needs. The grant is worth €6,425 for a 50 pupil school and more than €11,000 for a 300 pupil school. “I know from speaking to parents and principals from across Clare of the efforts made to fundraise to cover minor repairs in recent years and …

THE  National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) has called on the Department of Education and Skills to undertake an audit of all school’s PE facilities and fitness programmes. This follows a statement from Education Minister Ruairi Quuinn that no audit of PE facilities or resources in post primary schools has taken place, nor are there any plans to carry out such an audit.The minister was responding to a parliamentary question from Deputy Denis Naughten, on whether there are sufficient PE teachers, resources and facilities available in schools and if any audit had been carried out. Commenting on the reply,  Clive Byrne, director of the NAPD said, “I am surprised by the minister’s response to that parliamentary question. Earlier this year a Department of Education and Skills’ ‘Lifeskills’ survey stated that the vast majority of post primary schools are not meeting the recommended time allocation of two hours per week for P.E. The survey also found that more than 90% …

FOR the last 40 years, children have been receiving education in prefabs at St Conaire’s Primary School but that’s coming to an end this week. A new extension has been built, removing the need for them. Speaking on Monday, headmaster Peter Walsh gave some details of the new extension. “We’re opening it on Thursday. There’ll be three new classrooms and I suppose we’ll have been 60 and 70 children there, about 22 or 23 in each room. They’ll be replacing three prefabs that we had rented for about seven years.” He said he is very pleased with the standard of the new classrooms. “They’re fantastic, built to the highest spec. They were designed by Paul Conway and built by Dermot Custy Construction. They’re excellent. They have the best of insulation and they were designed for modern education needs. They were designed to fit an awkward site as well, so there was a lot of work done between the school and …