merrion street

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn today addessed the TUI conference in Tralee.

As with the INTO and ASTI conferences, the Minister outlined the challenges ahead...

I am anxious to ensure that all of the education partners are in no doubt of the very difficult road that lies ahead and I equally want to share my perspective with you.

There are issues that concern you as individuals but also issues that come from your concern about education provision and particularly how schools and colleges are resourced and it is appropriate that they are aired and debated

The Minister then spoke under the following headlines.

EU/IMF

I am not going to pretend that that the resources available for education can be improved, that the new Government can reverse earlier decisions that you may be critical of, or indeed to pretend that further difficult measures can be avoided.

The bottom line is that Ireland has to reduce its expenditure on public services and that means further difficult and painful decisions.

I may agree with you that we should not have reached this space but that being said we must deal with the reality of our current position.

We all need to come to terms with the extent to which our reliance on EU/IMF funding means that we operate with reduced economic sovereignty.

Public Service

I want to thank you for the very valuable support, encouragement and stability that you provide in the daily lives of children in your care at a time of great uncertainty.

You do so in the best traditions of public service.

I also want to take this opportunity to stress my own personal commitment to the concept of public service and to the role of the public servant in the life of this country.

More than ever it is vitally important that those of us in a position of political leadership affirm the contribution of public servants to the wellbeing of this country.

The recovery plan provides for a net reduction in teacher numbers in 2011, notwithstanding the need to provide additional posts to meet demographics.

The detail on the measures involved was outlined in the 2011 budget.

These budgetary measures have been notified to schools and will proceed as planned to take effect from September 2011.

The recovery plan also provides for consultation with the education partners in relation to how best to achieve a further reduction in teacher payroll costs from 2012.

In the coming weeks my Department will be inviting the TUI along with the other relevant partners to work on identifying such savings.

Literacy and Numeracy

As I said yesterday and I will say again the issue is not about whether teaching methods have been adequate in the past or entering any blame game.

Rather what we have to do is work collectively to ensure we do much better in future.

I am heartened and impressed by the response to my Department’s invitation for submissions on the draft literacy and numeracy plan.

I look forward to the finalisation of the plan in the coming months.

In talking to you today I want to stress that improved literacy and numeracy outcomes are a challenge for schools and teachers at all levels and for all teachers in all schools.

Higher Education

Your members have much to be proud of in relation to the institute of technology sector, where the distinct ethos and mission has been of huge importance to Ireland’s social and economic development in recent decades.

As Irish society continues to evolve, we need to ensure that the higher education system remains dynamic and responsive to its changing environment.

Strengthening mission diversity and supporting the development of a network of strong performing institutions can help to enhance the quality and responsiveness of the overall system.

I believe that there is strong merit in the development pathway that has been laid out in the strategy for the creation of a small number of technological universities.