Results 18,301-18,320 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

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 announcement I made was that we were going to reform after 25 years of stalling. That was a political announcement and I took responsibility for it. I said it at the ASTI conference last and, in so far as I was heard, at the conference this year I am open to discuss in detail the speed at which we travel, the best way to get there and the rest of it as long as no one has a veto on 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: The Senator does not have to compliment me on it because I did not write it.

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 put it to the Senator this way, because I got a lot of response to the teachers' conference in regard to the reception which I do not think did anybody any good, there are 87,000 registered teachers, registered in the Teaching Council. They were registered for the first time, following legislation passed in 2006. We do not do education reform on the trot, or very quickly, in this...

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

Ruairi Quinn: All the other education partners and the wider community are broadly in favour of reform of the junior cycle. The two teachers' unions have a mandate from their members not to engage. I think some may have suspected that I was going to make some kind of concession at the conferences. We have established a working group, which the teachers' unions attend. They are engaged but are not...

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 refer to a briefing by Dr. Alan Wall and the delivery of CPD to teachers over the past number of years in different forms. The format in which it was delivered to English teachers in this instance, because that is the cohort group about whom we are talking, was that a year before the process started, they got one day, based on the likely changes, and then one day on a yearly basis, as they...

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 respond as quickly as I can. We are all trying to achieve the same thing. Change is always difficult, particularly when we have gotten used to doing things in a particular way. In response to Deputy Griffin, there is constant assessment going on in our education system. Kids are assessed in terms of literacy and numeracy at different stages right through primary school and now...

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 respect the Deputy as a professional. The question is whether one turns the assessment into a judgment that is used for third-party purposes by a student. There is deep concern about that issue. It is not the case that we do not have assessment until the leaving certificate at the end of 14 years. Assessments for 14 year olds will now be part and parcel of the process and it will be...

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 here nearly two hours. I am more than happy because I am learning all the time from what is being said. I am at the disposal of the committee and it is up to the Chair to decide. There is no reluctance on my part in that regard, as members will have seen over the past couple of years. I have heard very clearly what Deputy O'Brien has said and I recognise that he is reporting...

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

Ruairi Quinn: Eighty percent of the entrants into initial teacher education are girls.

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 should ask herself that question.

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 matter is with the Teaching Council, which will make a recommendation. All I said at the conference was that I was in favour of it because I feel we are not performing as well in mathematics comprehension compared with other countries as shown in international surveys.

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 already encouraging people.

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

Ruairi Quinn: Now the Senator is talking.

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 changing the whole way initial teacher education is being delivered over the four years. There are suggestions to the effect that there should be a greater concentration on mathematical teaching during that four-year period. The requirement for higher-level maths is one of many suggestions. There is no single solution for any of these issues; it is a mixture of all of them.

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 ask Mr. Hislop to deal with that.

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 will get the Deputy a full breakdown of the €4.5 million.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Textbooks (14 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: My Department does not collate statistics on the use of ebooks by schools. The use of ebooks is an operational matter for each Board of Management and my Department is not involved. The Professional Development Service for Teachers (Technology in Education) which promotes and supports the integration of ICT in teaching and learning in schools, is available to advise schools on the adoption...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions Assistance (14 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: There are currently no plans to establish a phone helpline. However, resources for assisting students with applying for university and other third level courses will be kept under review. Currently, up to date comprehensive information for learners wishing to access information and make informed choices on further and higher education programmes is available on Qualifax.ie, Ireland's...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (14 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are recruited specifically to assist in the care of pupils with disabilities, in an educational context. They may be appointed to a special school or a mainstream national school to assist school authorities in making suitable provision for a pupil or pupils with special care needs arising from a disability. The first priority is that the care needs of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Guidance Counsellors (14 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Since September 2012 guidance provision is now provided from within the overall staffing allocation of the school. This gives schools greater autonomy to determine how they deploy their teaching resources across the competing needs of the school. The surveys quoted by the Deputy focused on guidance counsellors and in particular on the time spent by them, in a one to one setting, giving career...