September 2009
INTO in the News
Waterford branch of INTO host meeting - Waterford Today
30th September 2009
The Waterford City Branch of INTO hosted a joint meeting in the Tower Hotel , on Tuesday last of Principals and Deputy Principals from Waterford City, Dungarvan, West Waterford and South Kilkenny primary schools. The meeting was addressed by Ms. Sheila Nunan, incoming General Secretary of the INTO...
Schools see language support teacher numbers dwindle – Longford Leader
30th September 2009
Schools in some parts of Longford have lost English language teachers in recent months with some seeing their student to teacher ratios double because of Government cutbacks...
The Frontline – RTE
28th September 2009
Pat Kenny hosts a debate with Colm McCarthy, economist, and workers from both the public and private sector on the merits of The McCarthy Report...
Lunchtime - Newstalk
28th September 2009
Sheila Noonan (Incoming General Secretary, Irish National Teachers’ Organisation) discusses the possibility of strike action against public sector pay cuts, as it relates to education.
Two teachers' unions set to merge - BBC Northern Ireland News
28th September 2009
Two of Northern Ireland's main teachers' unions have established formal links for the first time. The Ulster Teachers' Union and the Irish National Teachers' Organisation have formed a new board...
Immigrant students paying the price for cuts to language posts - Irish Independent
28th September 2009
Primary schools with large numbers of immigrant children are suffering badly because of the loss of English language teaching posts...
Cutbacks slash teaching posts - Irish Examiner
28th September 2009
Two out of three primary schools have lost English language teaching posts as a result of Government cutbacks, a teachers' union survey has found...
Teacher unions warn of industrial action over education cuts - Irish Times
26th September 2009
The prospect of strike action by teachers over the winter increased yesterday as both the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) and the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) stepped up opposition to education and pay cuts...
Unions warn of industrial action - Irish Independent
26th September 2009
Teaching unions yesterday warned of industrial action over the proposed pay and education cuts...
Primary teachers to be balloted on industrial action if talks fail - Irish Examiner
26th September 2009
Primary teachers will be balloted for industrial action if partnership talks break down, their union leader told a conference for principals yesterday. The Irish National Teachers' Organisation is in discussions with the Department of Education in an effort to avoid further cuts to education staffing and services. General secretary John Carr warned that comments by Taoiseach Brian Cowen this week that the 2010 budget might be used to impose further pay cuts on public servants has all-but brought the curtain down on partnership.
INTO to ballot for action if talks break down - RTE News
25th September 2009
Primary teachers' union INTO says it will ballot teachers for industrial action, up to and including strike action, if talks with the Government break down...
Student numbers to hit the million mark as cuts kick in - Irish Independent
25th September 2009
Rising numbers will put huge strain on dwindling resources.
Student numbers will hit the one million mark for the first time next year...
Morning Focus - Clare FM
24th September 2009
Sean MacMahon (INTO member) discusses a meeting of teachers’ unions taking place to discuss government cutbacks.
News at One - RTE Radio One
23rd September 2009
Latest INTO campaign against cutbacks in schools – Interview: Sheila Noonan (INTO)...
Pupils pray more than EU classmates - Irish Independent
23rd September 2009
Irish primary pupils spend more time praying than their classmates in the rest of Europe, and far less time playing. Our schools rank top of the European class for the percentage of teaching time officially devoted to religious education, but bottom, with Turkey, for time allocated to physical education...
Cutbacks on agenda at teachers’ meeting – RTE News
23rd September 2009
Primary schools managers and teachers’ union representatives were due to discuss the impact of the cutbacks on schools today, as well as further threats of cuts to the sector...
Morning Ireland - RTE Radio 1
23rd September 2009
Primary school managers and teachers' union representatives will discuss the impact of the cutbacks on schools at a meeting today...
Schools meet to outline opposition to new cuts - The Kerryman
23rd September 2009
A major groundswell of opposition against proposed cuts to primary education is mounting in Kerry as school heads came together in Killarney this week for their first countywide meetings...
Hard work at home - Irish Times - Supplement
22nd September 2009
For every parent who breathes a sigh of relief when their child starts back at school in September, there is an equal number who grit their teeth at the resumption of homework...
INTO Welcomes €14m cut in spending on school prefabs – Sunday Tribune
20th September 2009
The Department of Education has cut spending on prefabs for schools by €14m...
'Enough is enough! - Carlow Nationalist
18th September 2009
A frustrated father has pleaded with a local primary school to stop asking him for money. The man, whose daughter attends school in Carlow town, has spoken out about the spiralling costs of sending a child to primary school and is publicly pleading with the school to stop asking parents for money...
Developers made millions on schools - Irish Independent
16th September 2009
Property developers cleaned up on school sites during the boom years. New figures show the State paid almost EUR40m to buy just eight primary school sites in the Fingal area of Co Dublin - with most of the money going to developers...
Schools facing tough times in coming year - Enniscorthy Echo
16th September 2009
While it was a traumatic time for the hundreds of children on their first foray into the world of education, for the teachers and staff it is also a worrying time. The stark reality of the budget cuts to education only became apparent this week as the primary and secondary schools began the new school year...
Graduate teachers cannot find posts in Ireland – Irish Examiner
11th September 2009
Applicants look to Britain, Dubai, New Zealand
Newly-qualified teachers are applying for jobs in Britain, Dubai and New Zealand with up to half of this year's graduates unable to find temporary or permanent posts, according teachers' unions...
Cuts start to take effect in local schools - Longford Leader
11th September 2009
Two weeks into the new term and schools are already feeling the pinch.
Schools across the county are facing bills running into hundreds of thousands of euro as a result of swingeing cuts...
700 Leitrim children in classes of over 30 pupils - Leitrim Observer
11th September 2009
Almost 22% of the 3,389 pupils in Leitrim primary schools last year were taught in large classes of over 30 students, while nearly half of the county's smaller schools are under threat of being amalgamated...
New statistics show huge hike in class sizes across county - Connacht Tribune
11th September 2009
More than one in three primary school pupils were in classes of up to 29 students across the county in the last academic year, according to figures released by the Department of Education this week...
Kildare has biggest class sizes - Leinster Leader
10th September 2009
The number of children crowded into primary school classrooms throughout County Kildare remains stubbornly high.
According to the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) the average class size in the county is 26 - the joint highest in Ireland...
School stays open despite major swine flu outbreak - Irish Independent
10th September 2009
A rural national school at the centre of the first serious outbreak of swine flu is to remain open, health officials said last night. HSE doctors will this morning advise parents on safety measures at the 134 pupil Laragh National School in Co Cavan following the outbreak, which it is feared has left 18 children ill with the virus...
Ireland AM - TV3
10th September 2009
Sheila Nunan (INTO) and Aine Lynch (National Parents Council) discuss the issue of Ireland's classroom sizes which are among the largest in the EU.
Irish Classes among largest in Europe - Irish Times
9th September 2009
Ireland continues to under-invest in education compared to other OECD states, while class sizes here remain among the largest in Europe...
Education spending worse than suggested' - Irish Examiner
9th September 2009
Ireland’s poor investment in education relative to other countries is actually worse than was suggested in a major comparison of international statistics published yesterday, teacher unions have claimed...
How crowded classes mark our schools down against the rest of the developed world- Irish Daily Mail
9th September 2009
Class sizes in Ireland are among the largest in the developed world, a global study has found...
Irish are top of the class sizes - Mirror
9th September 2009
Irish primary school class sizes are some of the largest in the world, a new report has revealed...
New school year brings primary teachers job losses in Athlone area - Westmeath Independent
5th September 2009
As the new school year for primary schools in Athlone got underway this week, education cutbacks are being felt throughout the region...
Special-needs teachers to avoid axe in new cutbacks - Irish Independent
4th September 2009
Special-needs teachers may be spared the axe in the next round of staff cuts in the public service, the Irish Independent has learned...
Teachers' fury as 20% of Cork kids are taught in a class of 30 or more - Evening Echo
4th September 2009
Pupils in at least one fifth of primary school classes across Cork are being taught in classes of 30 children or more. The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) has warned that figures published by the Department of Education and Science clearly show a problem of over-crowded classes in Irish primary schools...
Primary classes are second most crowded in Europe - Irish Daily Mail
4th September 2009
Primary school children are being crammed into classes that are the second most crowded in Europe after Britain...
Crisis looms as class sizes to increase - Mirror
4th September 2009
The Irish National Teachers Organisation said yesterday Ireland is on course to have the most overcrowded classes in Europe...
Commuter-belt schools have the biggest classes - Evening Herald
3rd September 2009
Students in the commuter-belt primary school students are suffering from the biggest class sizes...
One News - Clare FM
3rd September 2009
The INTO says Ireland will have the largest class sizes in Europe by the end of the school year.
Six One News - RTE One
3rd September 2009
One in five primary school pupils are being taught in classes of more than 30 according to figures from the Department of Education.
One in five in primary classes of over 30 - Irish Times
3rd September 2009
One in five primary school pupils are in classes of over 30, according to new Department of Education figures published last night. In all, over 92,000 Irish schoolchildren are in classes of 30 plus, making Irish classrooms the second most overcrowded in the EU...
RTE News
3rd September 2009
Class sizes above European average. One in five students in Irish primary schools was in a class of more than 30 pupils last year.
Morning Ireland - RTE Radio 1
3rd September 2009
One in five pupils in Irish primary schools were in classes of more than 30 pupils last year according to new data released by the Department of Education the figure is expected to rise this year as a result of budget cuts and teacher allocation.
One in five in primary classes of over 30 - Irish Times
3rd September 2009
One in five primary school pupils are in classes of over 30, according to new Department of Education figures published last night. In all, over 92,000 Irish schoolchildren are in classes of 30 plus, making Irish classrooms the second most overcrowded in the EU...
Commuter belt pupils suffer most from large classes - Irish Independent
3rd September 2009
Commuter-belt children are squeezed into the biggest classes in Ireland. One in five primary pupils are in classes of 30 or more...
Warning as 20% of primary pupils in classes of 30-plus - Irish Examiner
3rd September 2009
Almost one-in-five primary pupils were still in classes of 30 children or more last year, but teachers have warned this could rise significandy if the Government adopts the McCarthy Report proposals...
Nine News - Dublin's 98
3rd September 2009
One in five primary school children are in classes of over 30.
Anger at loss of special classes - Irish Independent
2nd September 2009
Worried parents yesterday warned that disadvantaged children would suffer under widespread special needs cuts as the new school year began...
State failing to invest in our young says report - Mirror
2nd September 2009
The government is not investing enough in chil- dren during the vital early years, a report claimed yesterday...
We spend less on children than most OECD countries - Irish Independent
2nd September 2009
Ireland spends less on its children than the average in the developed world - and the under-sixes fare worst of all...
Batt out of hell in black September - Irish Independent
2nd September 2009
It is being billed as the toughest "back to school" season in living memory. Class sizes have been increased, senior teaching posts remain unfilled, and a whole range of activities scrapped as schools feel the full force this month of swingeing Government cut- backs...
Concerns over school children left unattended - Irish Examiner
1st September 2009
Parents have called for urgent action to ensure children are not left unattended outside schools before or after classes...
Forty-six girls under age of 15 gave birth last year - Irish Examiner
1st September 2009
According to the annual statistics for 2008, 46 girls under the age of 15 gave birth last year, two of whom had one child already. The highest number of babies were born to women aged 30-34, at 25,414. The average age of women giving birth was 31.1 for the last quarter of 2008, almost a year ' older than a decade ago...
Cash-hit parents flock to charity for help - Irish Independent
1st September 2009
Record numbers of parents are contacting St Vincent de Paul for help to meet back-to-school costs…
HSE clarifies rules on swine flu pupils - Irish Times
1st September 2009
The siblings of a child who develops swine flu will be able to continue to attend school even though their sick brother or sister will have to remain at home for seven days…
Ireland ranked 11th in Europe for confirmed swine flu cases – Irish Independent
1st September 2009
Ireland has recorded the 11th highest number of confirmed swine flu cases in Europe…