Results 8,761-8,780 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin
- Special Educational Needs. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: It is the case that parents are choosing to send their children to the school with the good name and good record. I have some anecdotal evidence in my area of where some parents are paying to send their child of average or good academic ability to a fee-paying school while choosing to send their child with a learning difficulty to a different but non-fee-paying school. Those are the kind of...
- Special Educational Needs. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: I ask the Deputy to listen. Three cases were resolved at facilitation and eight were resolved locally. Twenty-two appeals were withdrawn and 25 went to a hearing and were not upheld. Many of them were sorted out at local level. The Deputy is correct that the second school which does not admit the child is the school that suffers under section 29 of the Act. This is all the more reason the...
- Special Educational Needs. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: Yes, they have to have been turned down.
- Computerisation Programme. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: The Government is determined to ensure that all students have the opportunity to achieve computer literacy and to acquire the necessary skills for participation in the information society. To this end, we have put in place significant investment and new initiatives to increase the number of computers in our schools, to provide a range of ICT training options for teachers, to improve the...
- Computerisation Programme. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: It is unfortunate that computers go out of date so quickly. Despite considerable investment in hardware in recent years, it can be difficult to keep it up to date. Our priority in the past couple of years had to be on networking and broadband â there was not much point in schools having computers if they did not have this connectivity. The existing broadband access is perfectly adequate...
- Computerisation Programme. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: The integration of ICT into schools is what is crucial rather than segregating it into a subject which inevitably in the case of the leaving certificate would become a choice subject. What is even more important is that teachers integrate it into their teaching and students into their learning. There is some good software now but it is more important that teachers have the training to be...
- School Meals Programme. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: The majority of the 412 schools participating in the school completion programme in 2006 operate breakfast clubs or other meal provision, in accordance with the nutritional guidelines issued by the Department of Social and Family Affairs. In addition to the funding provided through the school completion programme, the provision of school meals is primarily funded by the school meals...
- School Meals Programme. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: We do not mind what schools call these clubs. They can call them Internet clubs or whatever. If the meal is being provided, any positive way to get children into the clubs is all right with us and, I am sure, with the Department of Social and Family Affairs once the money is used properly. As the Deputy said, there are schools which offer lunch, or a dinner, as well as breakfast. Last...
- School Meals Programme. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: They did not offer me any. What I thought was a lovely idea was that they insist the girls sit down at properly set tables. They are not allowed to have books, games or anything with them so they must engage in conversation. They are learning basic table manners while at the same time communicating with each other rather than sitting in front of the television or a Game Boy with food on...
- Departmental Expenditure. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: My Department approaches the evaluation of its programmes and initiatives in a number of different ways. One of these is the formal Government programme of value for money reviews, formerly called expenditure reviews, in which my Department participates. The objectives of these reviews, which were introduced in 1997, are to analyse Exchequer spending in a systematic manner and to provide a...
- Departmental Expenditure. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: The best way to answer the question is to give examples of the evaluations that have taken place. Two of these were published during the summer, namely, the review of the supply teacher scheme for primary schools and the review of the small school and permanent accommodation initiative. These reviews covered two very different areas. It is easier to assess something like capital funding...
- Schools Building Projects. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: The Government is determined to ensure that every child is educated in a suitable and comfortable environment. Since 1997, great advances have been made in transforming school accommodation throughout the country through an investment of â¬3 billion. This has funded 7,800 individual school projects in the past seven years alone. This year we will spend â¬500 million on school buildings...
- Schools Building Projects. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: Some years ago, there was one annual announcement on school buildings, which took place at the beginning of the year, and no further announcements took place with regard to schools progressing. Given the number of different schemes currently in place, there have been perhaps eight different announcements so far this year.
- Schools Building Projects. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: No. Under my predecessor, one announcement was made at the beginning of the year.
- Schools Building Projects. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: We now keep money rolling constantly through the pipeline. It no longer applies that we must spend all capital funding within a particular year. It is a rolling capital envelope, so we can show that more and more projects are getting into the system. Given that 1,300 schools undertook modernisation projects this year, it is important they would be dealt with under a number of different...
- Schools Building Projects. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: There are 4,000 schools in the country, a number of which are in very old buildings which need to be preserved and protected. They too are entitled to the facilities they need. A new school coming on stream only gets permanent recognition after three years. Each school has to prove there is a need for it and that it will have the numbers. It will never be possible to give them permanent...
- Schools Building Projects. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: There are obviously difficulties with regard to the school in Limerick to which the Deputy referred. The OPW has been anxiously trying to source a site for it.
- Schools Building Projects. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: We have area development plans and strategic development zones, and we have made arrangements with county councils, particularly the county council in Fingal, where we will build 20 new schools in the coming years.
- Schools Building Projects. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: We have already made arrangements with Fingal County Council that school sites will be identified.
- Schools Building Projects. (28 Nov 2006)
Mary Hanafin: It will then be able to provide us with a site and we will be able to build sporting accommodation and community facilities which can be used by the school and the community. Those are the type of initiatives taking place. Only last week, the Taoiseach turned the sod for a new school in Adamstown where no house has been built yet.