Results 3,001-3,020 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training Provision (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Under the Teaching Council Act, the Teaching Council, as statutory regulator and standards body for the teaching profession sets criteria and procedures for probation of newly qualified teachers, since 1 September 2012. Newly qualified teachers are required to undergo a period of post-qualification professional practice before they may be fully registered with the Teaching Council. In the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Appointments to State Boards (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 582 and 583 together. The information requested on the number of appointments made to State boards, including details relating to chairpersons appointments, is outlined in the following table. Eleven of the relevant Chairpersons appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection between March 2011 and November 2015. Under...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Commencement of Legislation (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The information that the Deputy has requested is set out in the following table. Act Sections yet to be commenced Details Teaching Council Act 2001 Sections 7(2), 39, 41-47, 60, The provisions which are not yet commenced relate to two areas, fitness to teach and continuing professional development Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2007 Sections 1,2,4, 6-8. Section 1 relates to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Agencies Funding (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: In 2012, the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) merged with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) and is now known as the Professional Development Service for Teachers (Technology in Education) - PDST-TIE. My Department has provided in excess of €25m to the PDST-TIE (formally NCTE) since 2009. Funding for the years in question is set out as...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative (MLPSI) was introduced into 550 primary schools in September 1998. It involved the introduction of Italian, Spanish, German and French for 5th and 6th classes. The MLPSI was a pilot scheme with an annual budget of approximately €2.5m. The decision to end the MLPSI was taken in the context of a very challenging budgetary environment...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Irish Language (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Guidance on the use of CLIL (content and language integrated learning) will be included in the materials being developed by the NCCA to support the implementation of the new Primary language curriculum for infants to second classes. This will be introduced to primary schools from September 2016. In fact, the new curriculum for language was launched on line at www.ncca.ie last Tuesday. A...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As part of the revised Junior Cycle, a short course has been prepared by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in Physical Education, and has been available for schools since September 2014. A draft Senior Cycle P.E. framework has been designed by the NCCA to provide schools with a framework within which they can design a P.E. programme for those students who do not...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Management (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There are limited alleviation arrangements in place for schools that are acutely affected by the impact of the moratorium at Assistant Principal level. These arrangements are mainly focused at post-primary level. However, it is fair to say that before the moratorium, notwithstanding the fact that one out of every two teachers held a management allowance the workload issue and the pressures on...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There are no plans at the moment to include the topic of farm safety in the primary school curriculum. Education and information about farm safety is provided by the Health and Safety Authority who have a specific area on their website (www.hsa.ie) that aims to promote safe practice in agriculture and forestry.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: My Department officials have been progressing the accommodation requirements of the school to which the Deputy refers on an ongoing basis. The school is located in rented pre-fab accommodation on land rented by the Department for this purpose in Douglas, Cork. Many factors impact on the delivery of suitable school accommodation, including the availability of suitable options in an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Living Wage (17 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The data requested by the Deputy is not collected or collated by my Department. There are over 3,700 individual employers in the education and training sector and it would require a disproportionate amount of time and administrative resources to gather the data sought by the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Research and Development Funding (16 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 147 and 148 together. Under Innovation 2020 a new competitive fund to support researchers to undertake project-based frontier research, and to develop as Principal Investigators, is to be established by the Irish Research Council. Funding will be awarded on the basis of the excellence of the research proposals, assessed through a rigorous and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Council of Ireland (16 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Under the Teaching Council Act, the Teaching Council is the body with statutory authority for the registration of teachers. Teachers are registered under The Teaching Council [Registration] Regulations 2009. As the statutory professional standards body for teaching in Ireland, the Council is of the view that all teachers should be first and foremost qualified and registered as teachers...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Summer Works Scheme Expenditure (16 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that commensurate with the level of funding available for the Summer Works Scheme, applications, including that from the school referred to by the Deputy, will be assessed on a top down basis in accordance with the prioritisation criteria outlined in the governing Circular Letter for the Scheme. This Circular Letter (0055/2015), is available on my Department's...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (16 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Deputy will be aware that the Report of the Advisory Group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector was published in April 2012. The Report recommended a review and updating of the Rules for National Schools and in particular, Rule 68. As acknowledged in the Report, there is an overall context that many of the Rules are outdated and have been overtaken in whole or...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (16 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I can confirm for the Deputy that the building project for the school in question will be constructed on the school's existing site. The project is currently at an early stage of architectural planning and the stage 1 initial sketch design report was recently furnished to my Department for review. Upon completion of this review and subject to no issues arising, the project will be...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (16 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The stages of architectural planning referred to by the Deputy arise from my Department's design team procedures for the procurement of major capital projects. These are necessary to comply with Department of Finance guidelines which require that capital projects be fully designed prior to going to tender. They also ensure proper cost management of capital projects and facilitate compliance...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (16 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: 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 Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support, which is set out in my...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Applications (16 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: When considering whether a student meets the conditions to be assessed independently of his or her parents, grant awarding authorities are obliged to satisfy themselves beyond doubt that an acceptable degree of proof of independent living in the relevant period has been submitted by the grant applicant. In exceptional circumstances, where it is not possible to produce such proofs of residence...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (16 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: My Department provides for a range of placement options and supports for schools which have enrolled pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in order to ensure that, wherever a child is enrolled, they will have access to an appropriate education. Children with ASD may be enrolled in a mainstream school and can attend all mainstream classes. In such cases these children will receive...