Results 10,281-10,300 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (21 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: The Deputy will be aware that the home tuition scheme provides funding to parents to facilitate the provision of education at home for children who, for a number of reasons such as chronic illness, are unable to attend school. The scheme was extended in recent years to facilitate tuition for children awaiting a suitable educational placement. As the pupil in question is enrolled in a...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (21 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: The home tuition scheme provides funding to parents to facilitate the provision of education at home for children who, for a number of reasons such as chronic illness, are unable to attend school. The scheme was extended in recent years to facilitate tuition for children awaiting a suitable educational placement and also to provide early intervention for pre-school children with autism. A...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (21 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: The Deputy will be aware that the home tuition scheme provides funding to parents to facilitate the provision of education at home for children who, for a number of reasons such as chronic illness, are unable to attend school. The scheme was extended in recent years to facilitate tuition for children awaiting a suitable educational placement. A review in 2006 of a number of applications for...

Written Answers — Third Level Funding: Third Level Funding (21 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: Spending by my Department on Higher level education has increased dramatically in recent years. An amount of €783 million has been allocated to the university sector for 2007. This represents an increase of approximately €29 million over 2006 and an increase of €111m since 2005 to the university sector. The additional funding being provided in 2007 marks a continuation of the...

Written Answers — Public Service Contracts: Public Service Contracts (21 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: The information requested by the Deputy is being compiled in my Department and will be sent to him as soon as possible.

Schools Building Projects. (22 Mar 2007)

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 €3 billion. This has funded more than 7,800 individual school projects in the past seven years alone. The National Development Plan 2007-13 will involve...

Schools Building Projects. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: We are committed to delivering the two new schools for Laytown on schedule. Two portions of land were needed for this. I announced in October that a deal had been done for the purchase of the larger portion of land. The owner of that portion of land, which is needed for the development of the new school, has indicated he is very happy with the deal. A second, smaller portion of land was...

Schools Building Projects. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: There were two portions of land in question. With regard to the number of classrooms needed due to class size, every new teacher will obviously need a new class. Some 5,000 extra teachers have been provided in the past five years, which adds pressure, given there is a direct link between the reduction in class size and the provision of classrooms. Of those classrooms provided last year and...

School Curriculum. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: Only a minority of schools avail of the optional oral examination in the junior certificate at present. For example, the following oral examinations were undertaken in 2006: French — 506 oral examinations in 22 schools; Spanish — 80 oral examinations in six schools; German — 267 oral examinations in 14 schools; and Gaeilge — 335 oral examinations in 12 schools. With regard to the...

School Curriculum. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an Teachta as ucht na tacaíochta a thug sí do na moltaí seo because they are very significant proposals. It is the first time in 35 years that a change has been made in oral Irish. Naturally, I would love to see more schools offering the oral Irish examination at junior certificate level. I believe that many teachers are not aware it is an option in the first...

School Curriculum. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: There are proposals out there relating to that. I would like to think that a student attending school in Limerick, Thurles, or Offaly will get the same opportunity as one attending a gaeilcoláiste such as Coláiste Eoin Íosagáin or one in Galway or elsewhere, and that it would not just become the preserve of one group. That is what would happen if one ended up with a curriculum split in...

Regional Education Structures. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: I understand that the Deputy is referring to the action plan of the national forum on primary education, Ending Disadvantage. The forum was held in St. Patrick's College in Drumcondra in July 2002 and was planned by a national planning group representing all national agencies working in the area of educational disadvantage and parents living in designated areas of disadvantage. One of the...

Regional Education Structures. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: No. I fundamentally disagree with the proposal. The last thing we need is another 26 structures for education with administrative boards which would link into other administrative boards and to try to link agencies together. This would tie people up in knots going from one meeting to another. It would not serve any purpose whatsoever. It was part of a proposal made in 1995 or 1996 in a...

Regional Education Structures. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: The type of system we have is probably unique in the world. We have 4,000 schools, half a dozen management bodies — all of which have responsibilities — major agencies like the National Educational Welfare Board and the National Educational Psychological Service. The Department is also involved in the school completion programmes in all of the drugs task force areas, and in local...

Regional Education Structures. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: The best place for parents to get information is in their local school. That is as it should be. That is why the relationship between schools and parents is so important. The regional offices serve to make contact with people. The proposals outlined in that forum are wide ranging. They include regional structures with relative autonomy, authority, budgetary control, responsibility for...

School Curriculum. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: As the Deputy is aware, many positive developments in regard to the teaching of relationships and sexuality education, RSE, have taken place in recent years, and these have been further strengthened through making social, personal and health education, SPHE, a mandatory programme for junior cycle since September 2003. In addition, all schools are required to have an RSE programme at senior...

School Curriculum. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: The report which I launched is a useful resource, not just for the Department but also for schools by showing not alone their findings but also what works in different schools. Schools employ different models of delivering RSE as part of their programme. In some schools, it is done by the classroom teacher while others bring in professionals from the HSE. It will be interesting for schools...

School Curriculum. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: It is important to stress that the Department of Education and Science inspectors are obviously not there to inspect the HSE professionals. Rather they will consider the overall context of how the programme is delivered. The positive side of the report is that 90% of schools are teaching the subject at junior cycle. We will see 100% compliance when the SPHE curriculum arrives for senior...

School Curriculum. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: SPHE is currently a compulsory part of the junior cycle programme, and we will obviously inform all schools of guidelines in that regard.

Special Educational Needs. (22 Mar 2007)

Mary Hanafin: As the Deputy will be aware, the Government has shown an unrivalled commitment to ensuring that children and young people with special needs get the extra support they need to reach their full potential at school. We have dramatically expanded investment in special education in recent years, and we have improved access to the state examinations for young people with special needs. A range of...