Results 15,801-15,820 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin
- Special Educational Needs. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: The Department accepts they are disadvantaged which is the reason they have secured such high teacher-pupil ratios. Our objective is to encourage participation in the education system. The pupil-teacher ratio in one of the schools referred to is 6.9 to one. In light of the requests received, the Department asked the schools to submit details of individual cases. These have not yet been...
- Special Educational Needs. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: The Department is awaiting details from the schools and as soon as these are receivedââ
- Special Educational Needs. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: All the Department is asking for is details from the schools regarding who the children are and what they need. That information has not been received and as soon as it comesââ
- Special Educational Needs. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: I have met some of the relevant principals already.
- Schools Building Projects. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: The Deputy appears to have gone to Mayo. He will be aware, however, from responses to previous parliamentary questions that my Department has been actively pursuing the acquisition of a suitable site for the school referred to and I am pleased to inform the House that the property management section of the Office of Public Works, which acts on behalf of my Department regarding site purchase,...
- Schools Building Projects. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: Obviously we must wait until the site is legally tied down. The first priority for Deputy Cowley was to ensure we secured a site, a process which has been under way for some time. I am pleased to note a site has been identified and the only remaining issue is the exchange of contracts. Once this has been finalised, it will be possible to consider moving the school.
- Adult Education. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: I do not give preference to my own constituency.
- Educational Disadvantage. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 96 together. The information sought by the Deputy regarding participation for the identified areas is not collected by my Department. Since the introduction of free second level education, the average national participation in third level education among second level school leavers has grown from 11% to a current average of approximately 54%. The gap...
- Educational Disadvantage. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: I accept that when there are huge disparities in participation rates they must be addressed. We have some of the figures for Clondalkin that the Deputy referred to because of the distinct postal district and we were able to identify the Clondalkin-Neilstown area. I realise the numbers are lower but at least the trend is encouraging because the admissions rate went from 11% to 19%, which is a...
- Education Policy. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: The YES consultation process was launched in January 2004, when the discussion document, Your Education System, was published. The process has included a range of meetings, including 17 public meetings, at which people were invited to put forward their views on education. Written submissions were also invited by post and by e-mail. There has been a very considerable level of public...
- Education Policy. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: I was very conscious that when a process like this has been undertaken, which involved so many members of the public, it would be important for it to feed into policy making. The final report is not available and we do not even have preliminary findings from the process but what we have is the valuable views of the Irish public on education, which is the survey that has been published. That...
- Education Policy. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: The honest answer is that I do not know, but with the calibre of the trustees responsible for it, Dr. Garret FitzGerald, Dr. Pádraig Hogan, Dr. Barry McGaw from the OECD, Dame Geraldine Keegan, Ned Sullivan, Dr. Catherine Sweeney and Mary Davis, they will ensure that the process has integrity and that the report reflects what happened. Some the findings and views in the report, such as those...
- Education Policy. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: I do not believe there will be any proposals and I will not accept any presented to me. There are no recommendations in the report, which simply reports on a consultation process which took place. The report ascertained the views of people who attended public meetings and the views of the public. There will be no proposals or recommendations to be accepted.
- Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 16, 22 and 100 together. Major improvements in school staffing have been made in recent years with the hiring of more than 5,000 additional primary teachers. This represents the largest increase in teacher numbers since the expansion of free education. The annual estimated value of the additional expenditure on these posts is over â¬200 million. In...
- Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: This would have been the case in the past.
- Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: The staffing schedule applies to mainstream schools throughout the country, with the most disadvantaged schools receiving more favourable treatment.
- Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: I expect at least 200 and possibly up to 300 teachers to be deployed next year.
- Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: If any school informs me that it does not have sufficient room for an extra teacher, I will advise it to wait until the next year if it does not wish to take on the new teacher.
- Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: I suggest that schools would be happy enough to take on extra teachers even if they do not have the space for them. Of course, it will place capital demands on schools, which we have anticipated. We will be forced to build more classrooms as the schedule is reduced. This will take place in the context of the capital programme. However, if any school does not want its extra teacher and would...
- Order of Business. (15 Dec 2005)
Mary Hanafin: In-service courses.