Results 11,141-11,160 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Government announced as part of Budget 2012 that, pending completion of the public service-wide review of allowances, changes to teacher qualification allowances were being made with immediate effect. These changes affect new allowances payable to both existing teachers and to new appointees in the future. Under Budget 2012 teachers appointed before 5 December 2011 are not paid an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The information sought is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Contracts (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The ceiling of 22 hours that the Deputy refers to does not apply at primary level where the standard school week is 28 hours and 40 minutes and the weekly class contact time is 25 hours. Class contact time for pupils at post-primary level is 28 hours per week. Full-time teachers are generally timetabled for up to 22 hours per week which equates to about 33 class periods per week. An...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Departments Learning Support Guidelines, which are available at www.education.ie, recommend that an individual profile and learning programme should be devised for all children who are receiving supplementary teaching from a learning-support teacher. Schools are encouraged to use individual education plans through policy guidance, support, and training. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Contracts (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The details of the redeployment arrangements are published on my Department's website. The fundamental purpose of redeployment is to ensure surplus permanent teachers are redeployed into vacancies in other schools. My Department does not provide for the redeployment of retired teachers. Following the completion of the redeployment process, all remaining short term vacancies are filled in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff Training (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The staff training and development budget at my Department covers the cost of training and development for officials in the administrative, professional, technical and service grades. Spending is targeted at the priority business needs of sections and divisions in order that the staffing resource at my Department continues to develop their skills in key areas which include: financial...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Contracts (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware that under the Education Act 1998, legally, all schools are managed by school Boards of Management, on behalf of the school patrons or trustees, and it is the Board of Management that employs the teachers at the school. Accordingly, whereas I provide funding and policy direction for schools, neither I nor the Department have legal powers to instruct schools to follow...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The person to whom the Deputy refers is employed as a teacher with effect from 1 September 2012. There is no record of the person to whom the Deputy refers being paid on my Departments payroll prior to 1 January 2011. Accordingly, the terms of Circular 0040/2011 apply. Circular 0040/2011, published in June 2011 and available on my Department's website, outlines the application by the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: My Department provides for a range of placement options and supports for schools which have enrolled pupils with special educational needs in order to ensure that, wherever a child is enrolled, s/he will have access to an appropriate education. The enrolment of a child in a school is a matter in the first instance for the parents of the child and the Board of Management of a school. My...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware that the Department of Education and Skills recently terminated the contractor's obligation to complete the works at St Anne's National School in Ardclough, Co Kildare. The Department is liaising with the school authorities and has instructed the Design Team to commence work on procuring a completion contractor to complete the works. Subject to no issues arising, it...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Redeployment (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The core function of the redeployment panels at primary level is to enable the redeployment of teachers who are surplus in one school to another school that has a vacancy. Under the panel arrangements, the most junior eligible permanent teacher in a school with surplus teaching staff is placed on the panel for redeployment to another school. Responsibility for running schools on a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating Resource Teachers and Special Needs Assistants to schools to support children with special educational needs. SENOs also make recommendations to my Department where assistive technology support is required....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Applications (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The school referred to by the Deputy was allocated funding on a devolved basis in 2004 for the provision of an Autistic Unit. A devolved project allows individual school authorities the means to address their accommodation and building priorities with a guaranteed amount of funding and gives them day to day control of their building project. It is a central tenet of the devolved schemes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: My Department has asked the school, referred to by the Deputy, for further information relating to its application for significant additional funding for the provision of an ASD unit. When this information is received, the application will be assessed and a decision in the matter will be conveyed to the school authority.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Government announced as part of Budget 2012 that, pending completion of the public service-wide review of allowances, changes to teacher qualification allowances were being made with immediate effect. These changes affect new allowances payable to both existing teachers and to new appointees in the future. Under Budget 2012 teachers appointed before 5 December 2011 are not paid an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Council of Ireland (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Teaching Council is the statutory body with responsibility for registering teachers. The Council's 2009 Registration Regulations set out the criteria for registration. I am advised by the Teaching Council that currently there are just under 4,340 teachers registered on the basis of qualifications in mathematics.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations Issues (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: There are some 723 post primary schools. A total of 691 schools had candidates entered for Higher Level Mathematics in 2012. There were 696 in 2011, 711 in 2010, 697 in 2009 and 699 in 2008. Note that in some cases while a school may be willing and able to offer Higher Level Mathematics, there are no students who wish to take the course or the examination at Higher Level. While the State...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations Issues (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The full information which the deputy has requested is not available. However, chapter 9 of "PISA 2009: Results for Ireland and Changes Since 2000" which was published by the Education Research Centre in June 2012 outlines student performance on the various item types. This is available at:http://www.erc.ie/documents/pisa2009main_nationalreport.p df. In addition, the Education Research...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Residential Institutions Issues (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 452 and 453 together. As part of its response to the call for additional contributions following the publication of the Ryan Report, the Christian Brothers proposed to transfer school playing fields and associated lands, including that at Summerhill, Nenagh, to an independent and separate education trust to be jointly held by the Government and the Edmund...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training (18 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I have accepted the recommendations set out in a report commissioned by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on the structures of initial teacher education. The purpose of the report, which I requested, was to identify new possible structures to improve initial teacher education in Ireland so that it is comparable with the best in the world. The international panel of education experts...