Results 4,301-4,320 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Deputy will be aware that I recently announced that a pilot of a new model for allocating additional teaching resources to schools to support children with special educational needs, as recommended by the National Council for Special Education, will take place in 47 schools during the 2015/16 school year. Following a selection process designed to ensure that as full a range of schools...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The project to provide permanent accommodation for the school to which the Deputy refers is currently at Stage 2a (Developed Design) of the architectural planning process. Planning permission, fire certificate and disability access certificates have all been obtained. The project will shortly progress to completion of Stage 2(b), which includes the preparation of tender documents. Arising...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Summer Works Scheme Eligibility (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that the works to which he refers would fall to be considered for funding under my Department's Summer Works Scheme (SWS). The purpose of the Scheme is to devolve funding to individual school authorities to facilitate schools carrying out small and medium scale improvement works that will upgrade existing school facilities. It is open to the school to apply for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Applications (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The needs of the College will be considered in the context of budgetary resources and having regard to competing demands.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Applications (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I can confirm that the school to which the Deputy refers submitted a major application for a large scale extension. The current status of all applications, including for the school in question, may be viewed on my Department's website at www.education.ie. As the Deputy will appreciate, due to the competing demands on my Department's capital budget imposed by the need to prioritise the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The project to which the Deputy refers is at an advanced stage of the tender process and my Department is currently awaiting receipt of the Supplementary Tender Report from the Board of Management and its Design Team. Subject to no issues arising it is envisaged the project will proceed to site very shortly thereafter.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The major school building project referred to by the Deputy recently completed the Design Team Appointment process and entered Architectural Planning at Stage 2A which is the developed design stage. My Department has already secured planning permission for the project using in-house Architectural resources. The Design Team will work on the basis established under that planning permission to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The 1999 Primary School Curriculum provided that, where Irish is the first language being taught in a school (as in the case of Gaelscoileanna or in schools located in the Gaeltacht), there should be four hours instruction per week, and 3 hours per week where there is a shorter day for the infant classes. Where Irish is the second language being taught, the suggested minimum timeframe is 3.5...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Departmental Circular 0025/2012 provides that students in Irish-medium schools should have access to an Irish lesson every day. Under the new Junior Cycle, Irish will be designed for a minimum of 240 hours of timetabled student engagement each over the three years. This is not a maximum or target time, and is intended to give schools flexibility to plan a Junior Cycle programme that will...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The key points to note in relation to Junior Certificate are that 29,100 candidates sat the Higher level examination in 2015 – an increase of 1,740 on the candidature for 2013. 21,678 candidates sat the Ordinary level Paper in 2015 – a decrease of 1,567 candidates from 2013. 1,217 candidates sat Foundation level in 2015 - a decrease of 171 candidates from 2013, showing a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There was a significant policy change implemented from 2012 which significantly increased the proportion of marks assigned to the Irish oral component of the Leaving Certiifcate. The oral examination is now worth 40% of the total marks, compared to 25% formerly. 46,565 candidates presented for the Leaving Certificate Irish examination in 2015 compared to 43,647 candidates in 2013. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1362 and 1363 together. The information requested by the Deputy is below. Academic Year* Exemption Description JUNIOR CERTIFICATE TRANSITION YEAR LEAVING CERTIFICATE TOTALS 2014 IRISH : PUPIL FROM ABROAD 3,480 1,169 4,772 9,421 2014 IRISH : PUPIL WHOSE PRIMARY EDUCATION UP TO 11 YEARS OF AGE WAS RECEIVED IN N.IRELAND OR ABROAD 1,087 276 1,390 2,753 2014...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Internal Audit Unit (IAU) of my Department is an independent unit which reports directly to the Accounting Officer (Secretary General). The IAU carries out its work in accordance with its Charter and has a staffing level of four. The Unit operates on the basis of risk-based auditing in accordance with the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) The International Standards for the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Contracts Data (22 Sep 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy is aware, there is an existing requirement for all Government Departments to publish quarterly details of payments totalling in excess of €20,000 to private companies for services each Department procures. mAccordingly, details in respect of my Department's expenditure in excess of € 20,000 on an annualised basis is readily available on my Department's website: In...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Aistear Curriculum Framework (16 Jul 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: My Department, in conjunction with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, launched a new Aistear / Síolta Practice Guide. This Practice Guide distils the key principles of Aistear, the national early childhood curriculum framework, and Síolta, the national quality framework for early years services. It is intended to be a practical guide for early years practitioners...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Establishment (16 Jul 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The site reservation to which the Deputy refers is for a primary school and not a post-primary school as referred to in the Deputy's question. School planning is carried out on the basis of defined geographical areas known as school feeder areas. The demographics of an entire feeder area are taken into consideration when determining additional or new school accommodation needs. The basis for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Data (16 Jul 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 640 to 642, inclusive, together. I wish to advise the Deputy that all schools have been allocated additional teaching resources to cater for children with high incidence special educational needs, including Specific Learning Disability (SLD), of which dyslexia is one such Specific Learning Disability. All mainstream Primary schools have been allocated...

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

Jan O'Sullivan: The project to provide permanent accommodation for the school to which the Deputy refers is currently at Stage 2a (Developed Design) of the architectural planning process. A tender exercise for a replacement Consultant Mechanical & Electrical Engineer has just been completed. The newly appointed Replacement Engineer will engage with the other members of the design team to complete...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Programmes (16 Jul 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department's priority for the remainder of this Dáil is the implementation of the relevant commitments in the Programme for Government, published in 2011, and in the Statement of Government Priorities 2014-2016, issued by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste in July 2014.

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

Jan O'Sullivan: 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 (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. The criteria by which SNA support is...