Results 11,821-11,840 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Special Educational Needs (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has advised all mainstream schools of their special needs assistant, SNA, allocations for the 2011-2012 school year. SNA provision in special schools is currently being reviewed. Some 475 of the total 10,575 SNA posts available are being retained in order to allocate them over the coming school year in cases such as emergency, appeals,...

Special Educational Needs (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes.

Special Educational Needs (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes.

Special Educational Needs (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy is correct in his analysis. Special schools are being reviewed by the NCSE. As I indicated to Deputy Crowe, the school in County Kildare forms part of that review. A decision may well be made to allocate to it an additional resource from the pool of 475 to which I referred. I am not entirely sure what is the practice, but I will inform myself with regard to it. However, there...

Third Level Education (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The reality of the economic situation and the public expenditure corrections which must be made present challenges to the higher education sector. Future demand for participation growth must be reconciled with limitations on public resources and a need to protect and enhance core quality. The nature of these difficult trade-offs is described in the national strategy for higher education to...

Third Level Education (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: These index measurements are being looked at internationally as education becomes a more globalised phenomenon. The further people are from an educational institution like a university, the more likely they are to look at an index or a guidebook when considering that institution, just as they do with all other products and services. There are a number of determining factors in the QS...

Third Level Education (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: There is a big debate in this area. I belong to a political and ideological tradition that believes that all high earners should pay high levels of income tax at the upper level. That system catches everybody. The money can then be redistributed. That is one way of doing it. Participation in third level education has increased, in terms of overall numbers, since fees were abolished in...

Professional Development (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I understand this question refers to the professional development service for teachers. The policy pursued when teacher support services are funded by my Department is that services are provided through the medium of Irish to teachers in Irish-medium schools. These services do not differentiate between categories of schools, but they do respond to differentiated need. The professional...

Special Educational Needs (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is responsible, through its network of local special educational needs organisers, for allocating special needs assistants to schools. The NCSE has advised all mainstream schools of their special needs assistant allocations for the current school year, taking into account the care needs of qualifying pupils attending the school. It is...

Special Educational Needs (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I will look into that matter for the Deputy. Public representatives on all sides of the House are petitioned by constituents who have genuine concerns about their children and the allocation of teaching hours. There are just under 10,500 special needs assistants in this country - the number is limited by the reserve - and they service approximately 18,000 pupils. It is a matter for schools...

Third Level Education (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: International league tables need to be interpreted with caution. Their focus on individual institutional performance does not reflect overall system quality. However, I recognise that they are referenced by international investors, employers and students as a marker of quality across systems. As such, they cannot be ignored. It is encouraging that four Irish institutions are in the top...

Third Level Education (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: It was, in effect. This question should have been taken with the other question about international league tables.

Third Level Education (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Speaking from memory, Trinity is still in the top 100. UCD has slipped just over. It is in 120th place or thereabouts. I would have to check the records.

School Staffing (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The decision to withdraw all resource teacher for Travellers was taken by the previous Government in the last budget. The economic situation means that difficult decisions have had to be taken and implemented in order to make expenditure savings and to ensure that teacher numbers remain within the public service employment control framework. Traveller pupils who are eligible for learning...

School Staffing (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I accept what Deputy Crowe stated and the spirit in which he has articulated it. We need to have a discussion on this because at a time when there were plenty of resources, money going in that direction was not having the necessary outcomes, in other words, the retention of Travellers on the scale necessary going through the secondary school system. I encountered this in Galway in February...

School Staffing (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I do not have that information to hand. I will look into it and I will be in touch with Deputy Smith.

Written Answers — School Accommodation: School Accommodation (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I can confirm to the Deputy that I am aware of the accommodation needs of the school to which he refers. My Department is in the process of acquiring, subject to planning, a site in Midleton which is suitable for the construction of a new school building. Last June, planning permission was received for a school building on the site. However, the grant has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála...

Written Answers — School Textbooks: School Textbooks (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I recently met with educational book publishers, representatives of parents' organisations and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul regarding the cost of textbooks. Subsequently, the publishers devised a voluntary Code of Practice and, while I welcome the Code, I believe that more should be done to reduce the price of textbooks. Accordingly, I have proposed to the publishers: that the price of...

Written Answers — Vocational Education Committees: Vocational Education Committees (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Earlier this year, the Government decided to maintain the reduction in the overall number of VECs from 33 to 16 decided by the previous government, to revise the configuration of VECs and to approve in principle the consolidation of the existing VEC legislation. I hope to have the approval of the Government within a matter of weeks for the publication of the General Scheme of an Education...

Written Answers — School Curriculum: School Curriculum (22 Sep 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The literacy and numeracy strategy acknowledges the importance of applying literacy and numeracy across the curriculum, including in learning history which, I agree, promotes both critical and analytical thinking. The deputy's question may arise in the context of debate in relation to junior cycle reform. The NCCA's mandate includes reviewing the current junior certificate and advising on...