Budget 2010

wingnut

Looks like we will be loosing hours maybe a teacher as the LCVP class size is increased:

School Transport

• The 2011 estimate for school transport services is €180 million compared to an allocation for 2010 of €186 million. €4.5 million in savings will be secured in 2011 (rising to €17 million in 2014), through a combination of increases in charges and the implementation of measures identified in a value for money review of the school transport scheme. With effect from the 2011/2012 school year a transport fee of €50 per annum will be introduced for primary school pupils, with a maximum family charge of €110 applying. This charge is being introduced to ensure that school transport provided for eligible primary pupils is fully utilised. The annual charge for post-primary pupils will be increased by €50 from €300 to €350. The combined maximum overall family charge will remain at €650.

• Changes in the 2011/2012 school year arising from the value for money review will include:

o The distance criteria will be applied to all pupils attending primary schools and the exemption under the closed school rule will cease. This means that children who reside less than 3.2 kilometres (2 miles) from the school of attendance and who are availing of free transport to that school under the closed school rule will lose their transport eligibility;

o Services under the minimum numbers, either single services or which are part of double tripping arrangements, will be discontinued. A pick up density of pupils in a distinct locality on a particular route – increasing from the current minimum of 7 to 10 eligible children – will be required to establish or retain services.

• Further changes from the review, which will take effect from a later date, will include

1 The 2011 estimate for the Education and Skills Vote published today includes provision for FAS training and integration supports, Subheads G1 to G7, which were transferred to this Department from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation with effect from 1 May 2010. The estimate also shows the equivalent funding provision for these subheads for all of 2010.

o From the 2012/13 school year, eligibility based on the closed school rule (CSR) and the central school rule will cease for all new children entering primary schools. Existing primary pupils availing of transport under the CSR will retain transport eligibility for the duration of their schooling, provided the requisite distance is met;

o From the 2012/13 school year, the use of the catchment boundary system will cease for all new post-primary children. Eligibility for all new children entering post-primary transport will be on the basis of the nearest post-primary centre or school. Existing arrangements will remain in place for existing post primary pupils for the duration of their schooling;

o New arrangements will be put in place with Bus Éireann on a phased basis for the operation of the scheme. These will include arrangements for an increasing proportion of routes to be provided by private operators. From the 2012/13 school year, Bus Éireann will have full responsibility for the operation of the school transport system including responsibility for processing all applications for school transport or grants. Synergies between school transport, rural transport and Health Service Executive services will be further developed.

Schools

• €22 million in savings will be secured in 2011 though an average 5% reduction in funding grants to schools and Vocational Educational Committees (including mainstream and ancillary grants for schools), and including grants for Adult Literacy, Community Education, School Completion Programme, Youthreach. This will reduce capitation rates to those that applied to schools between 2007 and 2008. (There will also be a similar reduction in capitation rates payable in respect of Senior Traveller Training Centres, VTOS (Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme) and PLC (Post-Leaving Certificate) students). Details of the revised rates for each grant category will be issued to schools and VECs shortly. Reduced rates will also apply to ancillary and support services grants to reflect the reduction in pay that will apply to personnel who are paid from these grants, and who have not yet had the reduction applied to them, with effect from January 2011, e.g. school cleaners and caretakers.

• The 2011 allocation for teacher salaries of almost €3.85 billion takes account of €24 million in savings (rising to €98 million in 2014) to be achieved by reducing teacher numbers through a combination of measures. These measures will lead to a deferral of 150 extra posts and to a reduction of up to approximately 1,200 posts from September 2011 (approximately 700 primary and 500 post-primary posts) which, however, will be partly offset by the addition of an estimated 875 new posts due to demographics. The measures to reduce teacher posts include:

o Deferral of the provision of 150 extra teachers originally planned to be allocated at primary and post-primary level in September 2011;

o Changing the existing favourable pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) to the standard PTR for the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP). Currently, the allocation of teachers to the LCVP is on the basis of 1 teacher for every 17 pupils. This will be changed from September 2011 to the standard allocation basis of 1 teacher for every 19 pupils (or 1 teacher for every 20 pupils in the case of fee-charging schools). This measure will secure savings of approximately 200 posts;

o Standardising the staffing schedule for Gaelscoileanna to the same that operates for other ordinary national schools, the estimated yield from which will be some 50 posts;

o Withdrawal of Resource Teachers for Travellers posts at primary level so that educational teaching supports to Traveller students will now be provided on the same basis as other students in schools. Alleviation measures will be put in place for schools with a high concentration of Traveller children. At post-primary level teaching hours for Travellers will be withdrawn, again with alleviation measures for schools with high concentrations of Traveller children. This measure will secure savings of approximately 600 posts net.

o A phased reduction of 500 over four years in the number of Language Support Teachers, through a demand driven reduction and, if necessary, a change in allocation rules over the period of the plan. A first year reduction of some 125 posts is targeted with effect from September 2011;

o The redeployment of some 170 existing supernumerary posts in post-primary schools from September 2011;

o The removal of 47 primary rural co-ordinator teaching posts currently allocated to DEIS rural primary schools. All of these schools, however, will continue to receive other DEIS supports including financial support, professional development supports, school meals and school books supports;

o The withdrawal from September 2011 of 42 Visiting Teachers for Travellers posts, currently assigned to the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB). The School Support services, including the School Completion Programme and the Home School Liaison Service under the NEWB, will be adapted to undertake work with Travellers in the future.

• In line with the Traveller Education Strategy and the 2008 value for money review of Youthreach and Senior Traveller Training Centres (STTCs), integrated further education provision for Travellers will be implemented through the phasing out of STTCs by June 2012 and replacement places, prioritised for Travellers, being provided under the Back to Education Initiative (BTEI). This means there will be no new enrolments in STTCs from 1 January 2011.

• €10 million in savings will be secured from rule changes and efficiencies in relation to supervision and substitution arrangements in schools. This will include implementation of the flexibility measures provided for under the Croke Park Agreement whereby post-primary teachers will be available for an extra class period each week to cover for absent colleagues. There will also be a general tightening of the rules covering substitution.


Special Needs Assistants

• The 2011 allocation for pay for Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) will be approximately €350 million, compared to an allocation of €335 for 2010. The allocation provides for the full-year costs of SNAs appointed in 2010. While there will be no reduction in the SNA numbers in 2011 it is intended to place a cap on these numbers. The Department will in this regard work with the National Council for Special Education to develop a new system to manage SNA provision within the total numbers allocation. All schools will be advised of the new system.

spurious

Drugs Task Force funding is to be cut by 63%.
Educational Disadvantage Fund is to be cut by 60%.

This is what will hit us worst.
Complete bar stewards to hit the weakest section of kids in the country.

gaeilgebeo

spurious wrote: »

Drugs Task Force funding is to be cut by 63%.
Educational Disadvantage Fund is to be cut by 60%.

This is what will hit us worst.
Complete bar stewards to hit the weakest section of kids in the country.

Spurious, is this DEIS schools that will be hit hardest?

spurious

I know our DEIS person is in a bit of a flap. We've a meeting tomorrow to discuss what's happening so hopefully we'll know more then.

implausible

wingnut wrote: »

• an average 5% reduction in funding grants to schools and Vocational Educational Committees (including mainstream and ancillary grants for schools), and including grants for Adult Literacy, Community Education, School Completion Programme, Youthreach.

o Changing the existing favourable pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) to the standard PTR for the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP).

o At post-primary level teaching hours for Travellers will be withdrawn, again with alleviation measures for schools with high concentrations of Traveller children.

o A phased reduction of 500 over four years in the number of Language Support Teachers, through a demand driven reduction

o The withdrawal from September 2011 of 42 Visiting Teachers for Travellers posts, currently assigned to the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB). The School Support services, including the School Completion Programme and the Home School Liaison Service under the NEWB, will be adapted to undertake work with Travellers in the future.

Oh jaysus! My school has a high number of travellers and international students. We offer LCVP and have the SCP. They want to put the travellers under the SCP (which does make some sense), but are cutting the SCP, so our SCP officer is going to have to do way more with way less :eek: We're getting slashed. We're definitely going to lose teachers here.

E.T.

wingnut wrote: »

While there will be no reduction in the SNA numbers in 2011 it is intended to place a cap on these numbers. The Department will in this regard work with the National Council for Special Education to develop a new system to manage SNA provision within the total numbers allocation. All schools will be advised of the new system.

I'm really not liking this part. We've already had children assigned a full time SNA in the last 2 years, and then have this reduced within 1 month to part-time after a general SENO review. We've got so many kids sharing SNAs at the moment, I really can't see how on earth we'd be able to properly care for and educate another child with a qualifying need if they enrol next year.

killbillvol2

spurious wrote: »

Drugs Task Force funding is to be cut by 63%.
Educational Disadvantage Fund is to be cut by 60%.
.

Where did you see this?

spurious

On RTE:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1207/budget_education.html

Last thing on that page.

Miss Lockhart

spurious wrote: »

Educational Disadvantage Fund is to be cut by 60%.

Spurious, do you know what the Educational Disadvantage Fund actually is? Which schemes it funds?

I have been trying to find out but nobody seems certain.

killbillvol2

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

Spurious, do you know what the Educational Disadvantage Fund actually is? Which schemes it funds?

I have been trying to find out but nobody seems certain.

Likewise. There's no mention of it anywhere apart from that RTE report.

spurious

Nobody seems to know.
It's supposedly not DEIS, which runs to 2012 (?) but I suppose until we know what it actually is, it could be anything.

toothie

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think the Educational Disadvantage fund is separate from DEIS, and is allocated to non-deis schools who would have pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. A school I used to work in used this fund for paying for swimming lessons/school tours etc. for those children whose parents couldn't afford these costs. I'm extremely worried about these cuts. I work in a DEIS band 1 school with a very high number of traveller pupils and we are likely to be absolutely destroyed.

MrReal

Its about time the powers that be came to reality the drugs task force is not effective at helping people in addiction, they use a massive amount of money on education.
Dont think i am anti helping drug addicts and im not against education but for the drugs task force there name says to me fighting addiction helping addicts to kick the habit.
when i see the way they pour money into so called treatment for people in addiction it kills me.

they fund TRP type places were there are active drug users getting a chunk of money to turn up and do arts and crafts and reiki this is rubbish

i know of relapse prevention classes and 90% of the people taking the class are on methadone and taking benzos

maybe now this cut will shave the fat off the drugs task force might help them to help the addict in a real way not just to keep themselves in a job.

MrReal