Results 11,561-11,580 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware that 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. This now...

Written Answers — Vocational Education Committees: Vocational Education Committees (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: In arriving at my decisions on the location of headquarters of merged VECs, I considered a range of factors including the need to ensure the location of a VEC headquarters will, to the greatest extent possible, facilitate staff redeployment under a redeployment scheme within the context of the Croke Park agreement and the need to operate at lowest cost having regard to the accommodation...

Written Answers — Higher Education Grants: Higher Education Grants (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I regret that the information requested by the Deputy is not collated by the student grant awarding authorities.

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: An application for redundancy in respect of the person referred to by the Deputy was received by my Department on 9 September 2011. Redundancy applications are processed in date order of receipt. Every effort is being made to process these applications as quickly as possible. Applications received in December 2010 and January 2011 are currently being processed. The priority of the...

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Once a site has been acquired, the advancement of a building project will be considered in the context of my Department's multi-annual School Building and Modernisation Programme. However, in view of the priority being given to school applications for essential mainstream classroom accommodation to meet demographic demands which will be the main focus for capital investment in schools in the...

Written Answers — School Accommodation: School Accommodation (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The school to which the Deputy refers has applied to my Department for funding for the provision of a General Purpose Room. In accordance with the agreed criteria for the prioritisation of projects, the application was assessed and assigned a Band 3 rating. Given the current financial constraints within which my Department is operating, the position is that priority is being given to school...

Written Answers — Third Level Fees: Third Level Fees (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Currently under the terms of my Department's Free Fee Initiative the Exchequer meets the cost of tuition fees in respect of eligible students who are pursuing full-time undergraduate courses of study which are a minimum of two years duration in an approved higher education institution. The main conditions of the scheme are that students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Under Special Education's Assistive Technology Scheme, the Department provides funding to schools towards the cost of assistive technology for pupils in primary schools and special schools for personal computers and specialist software. However, funding is not provided towards the cost of communication devices. On 08 September 2011, a letter issued to The Principal of Nagle Rice Primary...

Written Answers — Weight of Schoolbags: Weight of Schoolbags (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: My Department issued Circular M35/05 in 2005 to highlight the potential health hazard of overweight schoolbags and to outline a range of local measures that could be put in place to help alleviate the problem. The circular referred to the recommendations of the previously published report of the Working Group on the Weight of School Bags. This report acknowledged that many of the solutions...

Written Answers — School Curriculum: School Curriculum (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: It is policy of my Department that all children attending primary and post-primary schools which are recognised by my Department should be taught Irish at a level appropriate to their ability unless otherwise exempted from the study of Irish in line with the provisions of Departmental circulars 12/96 for the primary sector and M10/94 for the post-primary sector. Children on the autistic...

Written Answers — School Curriculum: School Curriculum (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 131 and 132 together. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment advises that ICT is not a stand alone subject but rather a tool to be integrated into the teaching and learning of all subjects, and this is in keeping with international practice. The NCCA has developed an ICT framework for schools setting out the skills which students should acquire at...

Written Answers — Higher Education Grants: Higher Education Grants (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The processing of student grants is carried out by local grant awarding authorities: VECs and local authorities. The students in question should contact their grant awarding authorities to ascertain the position with their applications. The Deputy will appreciate that in the absence of all of the details that would be contained in a student grant application form, it would not be possible...

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I am pleased to inform the Deputy that this school building project commenced on site earlier this year.

Written Answers — Croke Park Agreement: Croke Park Agreement (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: In January 2011, my Department submitted a revised Action Plan for implementation of the Public Service Agreement in the Education Sector to the Implementation Body established by the Government to drive and monitor the Agreement's implementation. The Implementation Body published its first review of the Agreement in June 2011 which reviewed progress made and savings achieved in the first...

Written Answers — School Inspections: School Inspections (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I am pleased to advise the deputy that the Inspectorate of my Department is engaging in a continuing programme of reform and development of the range of inspection models that it employs, in fulfilment of its role under section 13 of the Education Act 1998. Recent changes to inspection procedures include: a significant reduction in the volume of documentation requested from schools; a...

Written Answers — School Curriculum: School Curriculum (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Textbooks for schools are generally produced on a commercial basis by educational publishers. My Department has no function in regard to the selection of textbooks. This is a decision made at local level by schools. It is the case that students would generally have purchased textbooks for maths in any event. My Department does not have an exhaustive list of textbooks available in...

Written Answers — Teaching Council: Teaching Council (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: As the Deputy is aware, the Teaching Council has a wide range of statutory functions and objects, which include the regulation of the profession, the promotion of teaching as a profession, the maintenance and improvement of the standards of programmes of teacher education and training and the professional conduct of teachers and the promotion of the continuing professional development of...

Written Answers — Vocational Education Committees: Vocational Education Committees (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The previous Government decided in October 2010 to reduce the overall number of VECs from 33 to 16 and agreed on the merger of particular counties. In June of this year, the Government confirmed a reduction to 16 but decided to revise the configuration agreed by the previous government. The new VEC structure fits with the Government's policy of reducing the number of agencies and is...

Written Answers — Pupil-Teacher Ratio: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 141 and 177 together. Class size data for all primary schools is compiled by my Department on an annual basis and is available on the Department's website. The most recently published data relates to the 2010/11 school year. The staffing schedule is the mechanism used for allocating mainstream teaching posts to all schools. It currently operates on the basis...

Written Answers — School Accommodation: School Accommodation (18 Oct 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I can confirm that the school referred to by the Deputy was approved funding for a resource room in July 2011. This resource room was in addition to a mainstream classroom approved earlier this year in January.