Results 18,281-18,300 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments Data (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware that there are seven primary schools, of varying patronage, servicing the Greystones/Delgany area. The question of enrolment in individual schools, including the schools in Greystones/Delgany, is the responsibility of the managerial authority of these schools. For the Deputy's information, the following table sets out the level of junior infant intake for each of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Bodies Data (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: For the Deputy's information, under the Public Service Reform plan the following were identified for rationalisation or merger the following actions have taken place. The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology and Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences were merged in March 2012 to form the Irish Research Council (IRC). The IRC has been established...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff Remuneration (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: There are two cohorts of recently recruited teachers who are on reduced pay scales as compared to those who entered teaching prior to 2011. Firstly, as part of the measures which were introduced to restore order to the public finances, salary scales for all recruitment grades in the public service (including teachers) were reduced by 10% for new entrants. This applies to new entrant teachers...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Legal Cases Data (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I can confirm that the information requested by the Deputy is currently being compiled and will be forwarded to him as soon as it is available.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff Data (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The information that is available in relation to the age profiles of teachers paid on payrolls operated by my Department is being compiled at present. I will arrange for the information to be forwarded to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Ministerial Travel (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I currently do not have any official foreign travel planned. Minister of State, Ciarán Cannon, T.D. has the following official travel planned: In May 2014 he will travel to Brussels to attend the EU Education Council meeting. In June 2014 he is expected to travel to Paris to address the 34rd Ashoka Global Summit, a forum in which leaders and entrepreneurs will look at ways to create...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to come before the committee and update members on the progress made to date on the implementation of the JCSA. I spoke to both Houses on these reforms shortly after the framework was launched in October 2012. I was very pleased that both Houses unanimously endorsed them. I also explained why I was making changes to junior cycle. Research, and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I will go through them quickly in the order in which I took notes on each contribution. There will be a little bit of repetition. I will provide some facts first. The change to the junior cycle has been on the cards for the past 25 years. The attempt to get the intermediate and group certificate merged into a new junior certificate was supposed to come with a change in the way the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: We want to change the current education standards. That is what this is all about. Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell mentioned rote learning. Some things must be learned by heart but students do not have to memorise a prepared answer to an anticipated question. We have to learn multiplication tables, history dates and the significance of 1914 etc., and that is carried in a person's memory...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The Senator used the phrase "rote learning".

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: It is a generic title applied to learning answers prepared by a teacher for anticipated questions. When we use rote learning, that is generally what is being referred to. Senator Moran spoke about competition between schools within towns, and this is something we could discuss. At an operational and professional level I would love to be able to sit down with my officials and teacher unions...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: There is a lot of expertise in the area of moderation, assessment, learning and pedagogy. I will outline one of the reasons we are changing, using as an example the area we are talking about, secondary school teachers. It is a highly unsatisfactory situation when a bright boy or girl, the star pupil - I am thinking of schools right across the country - leaves secondary school, goes to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes, I have.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I have already said why the short courses are not compulsory. It was felt that this was too much to ask at the present time, so we have made it voluntary, through nobody's fault. The Haddington Road agreement concerned public sector pay, in the main, and had nothing as such to do with education. One particular union found itself in a position in which it was reconsidering its attitude to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: There has been all sorts of talk on the margins of different meetings. As regards a formal exchange of views, the answer is "No," because the union representatives have not been empowered by their members to engage ad infinitum. I hope I will say this accurately, because there are representatives present from the two unions involved. My understanding is that the unions are still at the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes. The Department is open to and aware of all of these possibilities. If we get engagement, we will be prepared to explore ways in which we can address teachers' concerns. I recognise that people have legitimate concerns which are genuinely held. It is not some kind of negotiating position. These are legitimate and genuine concerns for many teachers. They are afraid of coming under...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I am glad Deputy Griffin has raised the matter, because it has not been discussed. At the moment it will be a school certificate, similar to first year exam results or the report at the end of first, second or fifth year. Transition year does not have an exam in the same way. Many people have raised the concern that different certificates would not have the same standing - in other words,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I have listened to, and heard, that genuinely held and conscientiously held opinion. I am open to suggestions about how we can eliminate the perception of a school at one end of the town and the school at the other end of the town.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I have never lost trust in the teachers and teaching profession, institutionally and from a personal point of view, having had three children of different abilities who have gone through the education system. I say this respectfully as a matter of record rather than opinion. The two secondary school or post-primary teaching unions have been opposed in principle to any change in this area...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Implementation of Junior Cycle Student Award: Minister for Education and Skills (13 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: We are prepared to talk about the co-ordinating posts for subjects. We have already raised the issue with the management groups but we have no one to talk to about this.