THE DEPARTMENT of Education is to begin an audit to ensure the best use of all the school resources in the State.
Ireland’s: structure of the education system.
The move will heighten concerns among small schools about their future. There will also be unease that the audit could force some larger schools to amalgamate to create new-style education campuses.
The department was anxious to play down such fears yesterday, stressing that the audit was essentially a fact-finding exercise.
Ireland has close to 4,000 schools and Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn said yesterday this number, with a population of just four million, was very high by international standards.
THE DEPARTMENT WILL SEEK TENDERS FOR THE AUDIT SHORTLY.
Mr Quinn said: “We will take a number of traditional, regular, normal, provincial towns and do an inventory of what we actually have in that town.
“In many cases, the Department of Education has not got on a single sheet of paper what the educational infrastructural resources are of town A, B or C.
“No rational planner, no business organisation would contemplate making changes unless it knew what the actual physical resources and manpower resources were in that situation,” he told RTÉ radio.
“We have to undertake that kind of audit to see how best we can make the greatest possible productive use of the resources that we currently have.”
On small schools, Mr Quinn reacted strongly to criticism from Senator Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael), who accused him of engaging in social engineering. She said he was intent on undermining the fabric of rural communities by targeting small schools for rationalisation and she said he might be better off targeting the €100 million State subsidy paid to private fee-paying schools annually.
When she talked to her colleagues in the Fine Gael parliamentary party, they would be able to apprise her as to how she was misinformed, the Minister said.
Mr Quinn said many small schools were built at a time when pupils walked to school but now the “face of Ireland had changed” and the education system needed to reflect that. The arrival of traffic, whether it be heavy-duty agricultural traffic or domestic cars, made it “virtually impossible, certainly not safe, for young children to walk to school”.
He said the policy was to increase the number of pupils required for an extra teacher. Mr Quinn is awaiting the publication of a value-for-money report on small schools, and a discussion on how best to proceed will follow.
Small school: What’s going on?
THERE ARE 659 schools with 50 pupils or less; these have an average of 2.4 teachers and an average pupil/teacher ratio of 13:1. If these schools were amalgamated with others, 300 teacher posts would be eliminated. A recent report said savings of €18 million per annum could be achieved. There are a further 851 schools with 51-100 pupils. School mergers could yield annual savings of €9 million, according to the report.
Budget 2012 announced changes in how these schools would be staffed over the next three years.
Small schools will have to draw more pupils – or lose teachers. A school that got a third teacher once it had 49 pupils will need 51 next year and 56 in 2015. Some 100 posts will go this year and 250 over three years. Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn will publish a value-for-money report soon, probably next month.
Pieta House West (of Ireland) plan to help people with Suicide tendencies & self harm
According to the Central Statistics Office, 486 deaths in Ireland in 2010 were recorded as suicides. In light of these figures, a local campaign group is seeking to establish a service, Pieta House West, to help people with suicidal thoughts and those who self harm
Leading the group of fundraisers working for the Pieta House West project is local businessman John Concannon.
John is the founder of JFC Manufacturing, one of Tuam’s most successful businesses, who first saw the good work that Pieta House undertake during the filming of RTE’s The Secret Millionaire last year.
After witnessing their accomplishments first hand, John decided that the West of Ireland needed Pieta House’s help.
“To be totally honest with you, I had never heard of Pieta House until I was filming The Secret Millionaire,” admitted John.
“I got talking to a taxi driver who mentioned the house and the great work Pieta House does in Dublin. Once I saw the effect they have there I knew we needed to do something similar at home.”
The HSE have already given Pieta House West a site in Toghermore, Tuam and once the €250,000 promised by the Government comes through the good work can really start. “But that will not keep the facility going,” says John.
“We really need the backing of the people to keep the Pieta House West plan running.
“So far I have not had to ask one person to put their hands in their pockets. The amount of people and businesses that have already come to me offering their help has been phenomenal,” he says.
“I am no expert on the subject of suicide, but I know firsthand how devastating such a death can be to a family, village and community. If we have worries about someone we need to be able to ask the blunt question: ‘Are you okay or are you thinking of doing something.’ And if we have Pieta House West there is somewhere for people to turn. There is nothing worse than thinking ‘what if.’”
Working according to the mantra of ‘The Pieta Way’, which was developed by Joan Freeman, Pieta House aims to prevent of self-harm or suicide through its free treatment. Eight years ago, practising psychologist Joan opened the first centre in Lucan, and they already have four centres in the capital as well as one in Limerick.
“The first centre outside Dublin opened in Limerick only last year. In the first year they took in 500 clients, but already this year they are booked out and there is a waiting list.
“Joan’s system works. She has it all planned out down to the tiniest details, like the type of teacups in the house. But the way the whole facility works is amazing. Looking at it you wouldn’t know who is a client and who is a psychologist and privacy is also a major factor. The Toghermore house in Tuam has its own carpark and is nice and secluded. It is perfect,” says John.
“But looking at the figures, it is obvious that we need such a facility to service the counties of Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. If we were to get 100 companies in the area to help out with what they can it would be amazing. We have a social responsibility to help the vulnerable.
“All I hope is that we do not get cut off when the next review of government budgets comes up. Pieta House West can really make a difference; hopefully we will be given the chance to.”
Record numbers of Irish people seeking help with MABS money advice service
A record 7,593 new clients were dealt with by the Money Advice and Budgeting Service in the first quarter of the year, with personal loans the biggest problem.
More worrying is the profile of the majority of those seeking help — people aged between 26-40 — who because of the size of their mortgage repayments are struggling to repay loans, utility, and credit cards bills.
The figures from MABS show of the 7,593 people who contacted the state debt service, 6,162 needed mediation with creditors, with MABS helping to set up special accounts for 340 clients in partnership with credit unions.
The largest percentage of new contacts (3,349) were in the 26-40 age bracket, 2,662 were aged 41-60, 370 were 19-25, and 114 were over 60. Of the new contacts, 2,864 were people with mortgages, 1,300 lived in private rented accommodation, and 1,142 were local authority tenants.
The primary income of 4,409 seeking assistance was social welfare, while 2,093 were self-employed or earning a wage.
Pressure on MABS, which has more than 60 offices nationwide, continues to mount. It deals with about 7,000 new clients a quarter.
The latest waiting list figures from the end of last year show 1,676 people looking for a first appointment across the country.
Blanchardstown in Dublin had the highest number waiting for assistance — 122 waiting on average more than two months for an appointment. In Kildare, 120 had to wait for more than four months for their first appointment.
According to MABS, urgent cases, such as anyone threatened with a disconnection, legal proceedings for repossession, or a threatened eviction, can be prioritised.
Elsewhere, the number of people waiting for free legal aid is also spiralling.
To the end of January, 4,443 people were waiting for their first appointment with a solicitor — a 40% increase from Jan 2011.
Of 29 state-funded Legal Aid Board centres, 22 have a waiting time of more than four months.
People in Clondalkin, Tallaght, and Tipperary are waiting the longest, with delays of up to 10 months to see a solicitor.
According to FLAC, which is a separate body from the Legal Aid Board but which complements its work, the latest figures are “depressing”.
Meanwhile, the IMF has said that household debt reduction policies and mortgage write-downs can result in significant economic benefits.
The organisation said recessions and housing slumps are worse when preceded by a buildup of household debt.
In its World Economic Outlook report released yesterday, it said such policies can mitigate “excessive contractions” during such recessions
In the five years before 2007, the ratio of household debt to income in advanced economies rose by an average of 39%, to 138%, while in Ireland and certain other countries, debt peaked at more than 200% of household income.
“Because debt is acting as a brake on economic growth, it is important to unstick the brake,” said report author Daniel Leigh.
A Rare sighting of humpback whales off the Cork coast
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group has recorded the arrival of a newly documented humpback whale off the Cork coast, the first time the species has been recorded in the area at this time of year.
The animal (newly named as ‘HBIRL20′) was photographed and recorded on video along with another humpback whale by researchers aboard the MV Holly, a boat regularly used by the IWDG, off Toe Head, Co Cork, earlier this week.
Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feed in high latitude waters during the summer months, and can be found as far north as the Arctic Circle. Adult animals migrate south to warmer waters to breed and give birth in the winter.
IWDG’s Pádraig Whooley said the animals spotted off the Irish coast this week would be too young to migrate. One of the two whales spotted this week has remained in Irish waters for the winter and was sighted off Hook Head in January and February.
“They do seem to us to be small so they’re probably sub-adult or juveniles,” Mr Whooley said.
The IWDG has identified 20 humpback whales over the last 10 years but numbers in Irish waters remain low.
Due to over-hunting, the world’s humpback whale population fell by an estimated 90 per cent before the introduction of whaling moratorium in 1966.
“We’re probably looking at a remnant population that would have been many, many, times bigger probably ten to 100 times bigger than it is today.
“Humpback whales were the whale species that were impacted on most by commercial whaling for the very same reason that they are easy to study,” Mr Whooley said.
“They’re inquisitive, they’re curious whales. They will approach boats, they’re slow moving, they hug the coast line. Species like that are very attractive if you’re a whaler rather than very fast moving species that are way out on the shelf edge and are very wary of boats.”
Despite their low numbers in Irish waters, the group has recorded an increase in the incidence of humpback whales off the Irish coast in recent years.
“The good news is that they are coming back. We are seeing more and more humpback whales every year. Despite the fact that we are starting from a very low base the numbers are quite positive at the moment. It is actually a good news story that we are seeing them more and more and we’re seeing them in new areas every year.
Details of a talk entitled “Whales and Dolphins of the East Coast and Beyond” which is taking place in Wicklow and Dublin over the coming days are available on the IWDG website.
No comments:
Post a Comment