Results 13,821-13,840 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

School Curriculum. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: I am supportive of promoting the respect and responsibility of young drivers for themselves and others in transition year.

School Curriculum. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: It is a fair point to ensure the theory matches the practice. The difficulty is how to do that, especially where a driving course is taught to a 15 year old in transition year who must wait two years before he or she can get behind the wheel of a car. I am anxious to do whatever I can within the education system to support the work of other Departments to protect young people. I am...

Departmental Bodies. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: The relocation of DIT, which is spread over 30 different sites in Dublin, to a 65-acre campus in Grangegorman is a major priority for the Government. The move will enable the institute to provide better academic and support services for its nearly 20,000 students. It will also allow for much greater academic and social interaction between students of many different disciplines, providing a...

Departmental Bodies. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: The agency comprises two persons appointed by the Minister for Health and Children, one of whom is a Health Service Executive officer; two persons nominated by the DIT president — the nominees come from the governing authority on which the students' union is represented; one person nominated by the city manager of Dublin City Council; one person who is a resident of Grangegorman; one member...

Educational Disadvantage. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: No school has been informed it will lose the resources it has received under existing schemes for tackling disadvantage as a result of the introduction of the new delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, initiative. The new school support programme is aimed at providing even more resources for the most disadvantaged schools. Schools that did not qualify for the new programme will...

Educational Disadvantage. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: Not only were schools not told that they would not lose, they were specifically told in a letter written to every school that participated that there would be no loss in 2006-07. I am surprised to hear that a school is questioning the survey because it was the schools that provided the information. The survey was independently based and assessed and spot-checked to ensure that the information...

Educational Disadvantage. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: I deal with the facts.

Educational Disadvantage. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: It is not flawed.

Educational Disadvantage. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: The variables listed are those for the primary school. The variables for second level schools are as follows: medical card data for junior certificate candidates; junior certificate retention rates by schools; junior certificate examination results aggregated by school level, based on the student's performance in the seven subjects in which he or she performed best; as well as leaving...

Educational Disadvantage. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: One of the problems with disadvantaged schools is the drop-out rate. Retention would indicate that there is a low drop-out rate.

Educational Disadvantage. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: Every school that participated in the survey was informed in writing that no school would lose any current resources for 2006-07. The schools were also informed that beyond that they would receive resources in line with the level of socio-economic disadvantage in each school. Rural schools are not compared with urban schools as there is separate category for the rural schools. There is a big...

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: Major improvements have been made in staffing at both primary and post-primary level in recent years. Next September there will be 4,000 extra teachers in our primary schools, when compared with 2002. Not only is the average class size in our primary schools down to 24, but there is now one teacher for 17 pupils at primary level, when resource teachers and so on are included. Children with...

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: I reject the claim that the quality of education or teaching has disimproved. Students are certainly not suffering in that regard. There is no doubt that the 4,000 extra teachers employed in the system could have been deployed to reduce class size but the Government chose to prioritise children with special needs, who had been forgotten for many years, and disadvantaged schools. That is why,...

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: While I cannot treat County Kildare any differently to the rest of the country, that county and other developing areas have special status and will receive allocations based on a pupil-teacher ratio of 28:1 from September. We envisage that a further 500 teaching posts will be created next September because of enrolment increases and schedule changes. That increase will make a significant...

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: As regards disadvantage, each school provided and interpreted its respective information. Questions on local authority housing were asked and some schools may have included local authority housing waiting lists because they were familiar with the particular circumstances of their students. In the coming school year, there will be no justification for classes of 33 or 34 students where a staff...

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: A decision by a school to pack in more children is not sufficient reason for the Department to allocate an extra teacher.

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: Schools are aware of their allocation and the physical space available to them. If it is a question of physical space, €500 million is being spent on school buildings this year and, through the permanent initiative, schools can build extra classrooms. Teachers have to be allocated fairly and objectively and we are prioritising developing and disadvantaged schools and special needs students....

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: There is absolutely no evidence to support the Deputy's claim.

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: I am grateful to the Deputy for his confidence in my plans for teacher allocation over the next few years but he should also be aware that we have plans for individual areas.

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (25 May 2006)

Mary Hanafin: I never hear anybody acknowledging that there is one teacher for every 17 primary school students.