Results 12,961-12,980 of 19,618 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The Department is aware of some local pressures and demand for additional post-primary school places in a number of school planning areas across the country, including Trim. However, it is important to note that where enrolment pressures arise, it may not be as a result of lack of accommodation but may be driven by the following factors: - Duplication of applications – pupils have...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations. In view of this I have forwarded your query to the State Examinations Commission for direct reply to you.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations. In view of this I have forwarded your query to the State Examinations Commission for direct reply to you.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: I wish to confirm that my Department received an application for capital funding in 2021 for a new sports hall, from the school referred to by the Deputy. The purpose of the ASA scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom and Special Education Needs (SEN) accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school’s...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, a major building project to construct a permanent school building for the school in question is included in the Department's school building programme. The first phase of the new school building is due to be completed in Quarter 3 of 2022 and it is intended that it will be ready for occupation for the 2022/2023 academic year. The Department understands that...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: SNAs carry out a very significant role in supporting pupils with a broad variety of care needs, and I am extremely appreciative of this work. The 72 hours working requirement of SNA’s has been in place since 2005, forming part of the SNA contract of employment, as agreed with unions. Under the terms of the standard employment contract agreed in 2005, SNAs were required to be...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: Under the Teaching Council Acts 2001-2015 the Teaching Council is the body with statutory authority and responsibility for the regulation of the teaching profession in Ireland including the registration of teachers in the State. The Teaching Council registers teachers in line with the requirements set out in the Teaching Council Act 2001-2015 and the Teaching Council (Registration)...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The number of students admitted to primary concurrent and consecutive programmes of initial teacher education (ITE) in state-funded higher education institutions (HEIs) is determined annually by my Department, having regard to teacher supply and demand issues, and available resources. At post-primary level, while no caps or targets on numbers are usually set, in recent years HEIs have...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The third National Access Plan (NAP) for Equity of Access to Higher Education (2015 – 2019; extended to 2021 following a review)was launched in December 2015 to ensure that the student body entering into, participating in and completing higher education at all levels reflects the diversity and social mix of Ireland's population. The Plan identifies the target groups that are currently...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: Officials in my Department have identified a number of legal agreements in place between me as Minister for Education and the Patron of the school to which the Deputy refers. Due to the legal nature of these documents my Department is currently in contact with the other parties to these agreements regarding their release. My officials will follow up with the Deputy to advise him of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations. In view of this I have forwarded your query to the State Examinations Commission for direct reply to you.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Refurbishment (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The building project to provide a new building for the school referred to by the Deputy recently commenced on site with a contract duration of 18 months. Subject to no issues arising works should be complete in Quarter 2 of 2023. The estimated cost is just over €19m including VAT.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Welfare Service (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: Based on the mid-point of the current Educational Welfare Officer and Senior Educational Welfare Officer salary scales, the estimated cost in 2022 of increasing the number of educational welfare officer posts by 25 and for increasing the number of senior educational welfare officer posts by 10 is in the region of €2.45 million. This figured includes associated non-pay costs.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Administration (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) of my Department provides guidelines and resource materials for schools to enable them to deal with certain traumatic events which can adversely affect pupils and school staff. The publication "Responding to Critical Incidents: NEPS Guidelines and Resource Materials for Schools’ outlines how schools can plan for crises. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: Decisions to hold mock examinations are taken by individual schools. The format of these examinations varies from school to school and not all schools run mock examinations. Neither my Department nor the State Examinations Commission has any role in relation to the setting, running or marking of mock examinations.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The permanent school building project for the school referred to by the Deputy has been assigned to my Department’s Design & Build delivery programme. This delivery programme uses a professional external Project Manager to progress the project through the relevant stages of architectural planning, tender and construction. A pre-planning meeting with the Planning Department of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 331 and 345 together. An incremental credit application for prior service has been received in my Department from the teacher referred to. My Department receives a large volume of applications every year. Officials from my Department process incremental credit applications in date received order. It is anticipated that the teacher's application will be...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The project to which you refer has been devolved for delivery to Donegal Education and Training Board (DETB). I am pleased to inform you that the pre-qualification process for the project was recently approved by my Department. DETB will now continue with the tender process for appointing a contractor. While at this early stage it is not possible to provide a timeline for completion of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: The school to which the Deputy refers was approved funding under my Additional Accommodation Scheme to build 2 mainstream classrooms, refurbishment of existing 2 classrooms, 2 SET rooms, Principal's Office, Staff Room/General Office, Store, and Staff/Disabled Shower WC. This project is devolved to the school authority for delivery. I can confirm that my Department received a Stage 3 Tender...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (30 Nov 2021)

Norma Foley: Languages Connect, Ireland’s Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education aims to increase and diversify the range of languages taught and learned. As set out in the accompanying Implementation Plan, four new leaving certificate curricular languages were introduced from September 2020 – Mandarin Chinese, Lithuanian, Polish and Portuguese. These new languages will be examined...