Results 2,221-2,240 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn
- Other Questions: School Curriculum (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: No, they are not. They welcome the changes.
- Other Questions: School Curriculum (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I am prepared to continue to talk with teachers.
- Other Questions: School Curriculum (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I have.
- Other Questions: School Curriculum (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: We will continue to talk. It is not six months but nine months away to next September when first year students will come to do the new curriculum in English and English alone. In June 2017 they will do a paper that will account for 60% of their marks, a paper that will be set by the State Examinations Commission and that will be marked by the State examinations examiners, and will roll on...
- Other Questions: Book Rental Scheme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I thank Deputy Clare Daly for her comments. In deference to the time and the fact that answers have been given already, I will respond to her last point, which is very interesting. We are in the middle of a transition from paper to electronic format. I would encourage schools to do this and we will try to co-ordinate it. Because of the universality of the different systems under which one...
- Other Questions: Springboard Programme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: Springboard is a specific initiative that strategically targets funding of free part-time higher education courses to enable the unemployed who have lost jobs in sectors in which employment will not return to previous levels, such as construction, to upskill or reskill in areas where there are identified labour market skills shortages or employment opportunities. That is what Springboard is...
- Other Questions: Springboard Programme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I do not have the precise detail, but it is our intention to learn from the experience of Springboard. Where there are lessons that can be applied to change the system and consequently improve it, of course we will take them on board. That is why the gap between and February and June is necessary - to see how we can make a good system better.
- Other Questions: School Curriculum (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy for his question and note his deep interest in this subject matter. The first meeting of the national working group on junior cycle reform took place on Friday last, 17 January. I would have loved it to take place on the last Friday in June of last year but, unfortunately, one of the unions involved found itself on the other side of the Haddington Road negotiations and...
- Other Questions: School Curriculum (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has been trying for the past 25 years to reform a curriculum which, by general consensus amongst the educationalists, including many teachers, is no longer fit for purpose in the 21st century. One of the blockages to implementing the desired reform was the cost and complexities associated with a new form of assessment for a State...
- Other Questions: Book Rental Scheme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I am prepared to examine the scheme at the end of the year, but I will have to do so within fixed resources. I have €5 million per year for the next three years and an annual book grant of €7 million. The Deputies opposite have the same option as me of investigating whether we have complete information. If a school has a full book rental scheme up and running, it may not get...
- Other Questions: Book Rental Scheme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy for his comments and I am broadly supportive of his suggested approach. I will raise the matter with the officials in my Department to investigate whether we can get information on any discrepancy between schools that are benefiting from this initiative, on the one hand, and those which are struggling to improve current schemes, on the other, with a view to achieving...
- Other Questions: Book Rental Scheme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: About whom are we concerned in the context of fairness? I am concerned about parents in poor areas and kids in poor households whose parents simply do not have the wherewithal to buy the books they need. That was my starting point in the measurement of fairness. I acknowledge that it was a choice and, in some cases, parents have put their hands deep into their pockets following the...
- Other Questions: Book Rental Scheme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: It appears to be unfair and I can see how they would feel that. However, for the past 15 years the newspapers have run back-to-school stories about the cost of uniforms and books.
- Other Questions: Book Rental Scheme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: We have started to do something about this.
- Other Questions: Book Rental Scheme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: If I secure additional resources I will attempt to equalise the position, but Ireland is not a fair society, and in the days before the crisis hit some schools could raise money for book schemes of various kinds. The Deputy and I have visited such schools, but not every school was able to do this. I am trying to introduce fairness for every parent and child and this is the first step on...
- Other Questions: Schools Guidance Counsellors (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I recognise what the Deputy has said and I am familiar with the statistics he quoted. When I am - or my successor is - in a position to increase the number of guidance counsellors in a school, I will happily do so. I would not return to the situation where guidance counsellors were outside the quota and could only be deployed for certain purposes by the principal and leadership of a school....
- Other Questions: Schools Guidance Counsellors (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: Yes.
- Other Questions: Schools Guidance Counsellors (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I have noted what the Deputy has stated and I will bear it in mind when the next budget comes to be discussed.
- Other Questions: Book Rental Scheme (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 131, 133, 137 and 154 together. The matter has been dealt with and I can only repeat what I stated, that I responded to a request from parents to reduce the cost of sending children to school. They identified two areas, namely, books and uniforms. I will leave the issue of uniforms aside because I have asked for a survey to be conducted in this regard and...
- Other Questions: Value for Money Reviews (21 Jan 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I intended no disrespect to Deputy Ó Cuív in regard to the efforts he made to contact the Department or to emulate Mr. Storey. I simply said that I do not recall such a request being brought to my attention, but I could be wrong on that. I do not blame anybody else, but I do not recall such a request. I get many requests, as no doubt the Deputy did also as a Minister. I will...