Results 4,441-4,460 of 19,968 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (28 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: Please find attached requested data which is for academic year 2022–23, the latest year we have final data available. Data is taken from the Primary Online Database (POD), for those pupils enrolled as per the census date of 30th September 2022. As per data provided, 261 pupils, enrolled in Irish medium schools located in the Gaeltacht have indicated on POD that their mother tongue...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (28 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: Budget 2024 has provided for an unprecedented €10.5 billion investment in education, which includes an increase of €421 million in core current funding, as well as over €80 million in core capital funding. An additional €170 million is also being provided as part of Cost of Living and COVID-19 supports. These additional funds build on significant increases in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (28 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The project referred to by the Deputy has been devolved for delivery to Louth and Meath Education and Training Board (LMETB). The project is at Stage 2b of the architectural planning process. The Stage 2b report was submitted to the Department by the design team and is currently under review by the Department. Following this review and once approval of this report is sanctioned, the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (28 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: I can inform the Deputy that the Education Research Centre (ERC) develops Irish standardised testing on behalf of the Department. The ERC have estimated that the cost of developing the standardised tests would cost and estimated €1.85m. It would involve the recruitment of new staff and the tests would take a number of years to be completed. There are addition annual costs for the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (28 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The assessment of skills in spoken Irish forms an integral component of the overall language learning experience at Junior Cycle and occurs in a number of ways. Students' oral language skills are formally assessed through Classroom-Based Assessments (CBAs), the second of which is entirely based on students’ oral language competence. The CBA is linked to ongoing classroom exchanges and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training (28 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has advised that it allocates grant funding to public higher education institutions under the authority of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) from the Exchequer and the National Training Fund (NTF) in respect of their current expenditure. In 2024 the allocation, as per the 2024 Revised Estimates, is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Attendance (28 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 161,600 children, including over 135,000 pupils traveling on primary and post primary services, 19,800 pupils with special educational needs, and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine are transported on a daily basis to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (28 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: Eligibility for entry to the State Examinations is included in the Rules & Programme for Secondary Schools. A candidate who is not a recognised pupil of a post primary school but who is attending an approved course of study outside the state or who is attending a course of study organised under the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme, the Adult Literacy and Community Education...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Schemes (28 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The role of the school is to provide an appropriate education for all its students. A stable, secure learning environment and a diverse range of programme options are an essential requirement to achieve this goal. Schools have autonomy in choosing the resources and programmes that best support their work within their own school and their broader school community. There are a number of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The engagement referred to in the previous pq involves consultation with relevant stakeholders for delivering on the Government’s commitment for increasing multi-denominational provision. This will also involve consideration of how schools adopt good practice for providing for diversity of enrolment. In relation to this matter, the engagement is at initiation stage. Taking this into...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: In respect of existing schools the main funding mechanism for upgrades to playgrounds is the Summer Works Scheme (SWS). As the Deputy may be aware, the purpose of the Summer Works Scheme (SWS) is to enable individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works on a devolved basis and, ideally, can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice was first published in 2018. It provided a definition of wellbeing, and an overarching structure encompassing the existing, ongoing and developing work in the area of wellbeing in education. The vision and ambition of the Department of Education in relation to Wellbeing Promotion sets out to ensure that: - the promotion of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) of my Department provides a school-based psychological service to all recognised primary and post-primary schools nationally through the application of psychological theory and practice to support the wellbeing, and the academic, social and emotional development of all learners. The NEPS service provides access for all schools to:...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 189 and 190 together. My Department is deeply committed to ensuring that every child in Ireland receives the education and support they need to thrive, regardless of their background or circumstances. It is with this commitment in mind that we have embarked on a significant expansion of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme. In...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The Special Education Teacher allocation, allows schools to provide additional teaching support for all pupils who require such support in their schools and for schools to deploy resources based on each pupil’s individual learning needs. The Special Education Teaching allocation for each school has been reviewed for the 2024/25 school year, as per Circular 02/2024. Due to the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The purpose of my Department's Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream and special education classroom accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year and where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation or by available accommodation at other schools in the area. Investment and expenditure on PE Halls...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy may be aware, in order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit Data from the Department of Social Protection, and my Department's own school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers was approved a project under my Department’s Additional School Accommodation Scheme (ASA) for the provision of 2 SEN base and central activity room. A Stage 2b Report was received in quarter 4 of 2023 and is being reviewed by officials in my Department. At this stage, It is not possible to give a definitive timeline as to when this review will...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department received a request to amalgamate, from the schools in question, in June 2022. In March 2023 the school authorities were advised that the Department had no objection to the amalgamation, contingent on no capital funding being provided. The school authorities advised that their Boards of Management would give further consideration to the issue...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Early Childhood Care and Education (27 Feb 2024)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 197 and 218 together. The purpose of the Home Tuition Grant Scheme is to provide funding towards the provision of a compensatory educational service for children who, for a number of specific reasons, are unable to attend school. The terms of this scheme are set out in circular 24/2023 which is available at:...