Minister Joe McHugh has been accused of stonewalling an Oireachtas Committee for a year-and-a-half on the future of third-level education.

The legislation had been due in Committee State in the coming weeks but this has now been deferred to allow the Oireachtas education committee to further scrutinise.

According to the Oireachtas Education committee, “a school’s religious ethos should not be allowed to influence teaching of sexuality and relationships” and it has decided that the present RSE (Relationships & Sexuality Education) programme delivered in our primary and secondary schools is “narrow and outdated” and needs a complete overhaul.

More than a third of parents are still getting into debt in order to cover back-to-school costs for their children, with books and uniforms the biggest expense families face as they prepare for September.

Generic uniforms and gym gear should be introduced in schools to reduce costs for families, an education committee recommends.

The DEIS scheme, grant systems and other supports currently in place to assist disadvantaged students are inadequately addressing inequality, an education committee has found.

Safeguards must be put in place around the use of reduced timetables, which are a “daily reality for many vulnerable students” that disproportionately affect the most marginalized, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

School secretaries, represented by Fórsa trade union, have outlined their experience of poor pay and uncertain short-term contracts to a hearing of the Oireachtas Education Committee.

John McCarthy Campaigners say the Government must tackle what they are calling Ireland’s HIV crisis.

Education Minister Joe McHugh has warned that building failures of the kind that caused the closure of a number of schools around the country and remedial works at others may warrant criminal investigation.

The seven universities are taking their campaign for increased funding beyond Leinster House by seeking public support for a petition to back increased funding for higher education.

Free accommodation is to be provided, along with a €186,000-plus salary, for the president of Ireland’s first technological university — but the location will only be decided after the person is selected.

Future increases in school budgets should be linked to enforcing the voluntary nature of any contributions from families to running costs, Fianna Fáil’s education spokesman has said.

The resignation of the chief executive of the Higher Education Authority 18 months after being appointed should be of concern to Education Minister Richard Bruton.

A Government decision on how to boost funding for third level is unlikely for at least another year as an economic analysis of options put forward two years ago will not now begin until 2019.

Decisions and action are needed before a stalemate on higher education funding leads to further impact on students, the author of a key 2016 report to Government has warned.

Ireland has held its position in an international ranking of higher education systems despite public investment failing to match expanding third-level enrolments.

Making religion an optional subject for students at hundreds of second-level schools has forced trainee teachers to look for work abroad, an educationalist has warned.

Psychologists are to advise the best way to support teenagers at a Co Cork school where female students’ names were put on a ‘rape list’ in the boys’ toilets.

Education Minister Richard Bruton is under fire for creating a year-long delay in resolving the third-level funding crisis.

The Government has been accused by teachers’ leaders of ‘fake news’ over suggestions that unions did not prioritise pay equality for newer entrants to the profession in last year’s pay talks.

University College Cork paid nearly €4.5m to 39 suppliers for goods and services in one year without going through proper procurement, new accounts have revealed.

Significant investment in maintaining standards will be vital if more assessment methods are used for the Leaving Certificate, TDs and senators have heard.

The future of island schools should be supported with extra staff and funding to attract additional teachers and students, an Oireachtas committee recommends.

A debate about more than just student loans is needed to advance decisions about funding third level, says a university president.

The Government will need to restore pay equality for teachers, pay retired teachers more to come back to school or employ panels of teachers to bridge gaps in substitution cover, TDs and senators have heard.

Education Minister Richard Bruton is under pressure to provide the extra staff to allow students to be offered alternative subjects, in place of religion, at hundreds of second-level schools.

Radical reforms of how third-level colleges share public investment will have little effect unless the Government decides soon how to deal with a funding crisis in the sector, the experts who designed the reforms have warned.

Many teenagers look to older folk as mentors to guide and assist them in becoming mature adults. The winners of the West Cork Garda Youth Awards do things the other way around, advising, helping and inspiring people of all ages.

Six institutes of technology have been well placed in a world ranking of top third-level science and technology colleges.

A fully taxpayer-funded third-level system should be urgently decided on by the Government, thousands of students insisted at a national protest.

After years of cuts, consultation, reports and deliberations, politics has done nothing to stem the third-level funding crisis, writes Education Correspondent Niall Murray 

The pay gap between college graduates and others is far wider in Ireland than in most European and other developed countries.

Investment in universities is crucial to take advantage of opportunities arising from Brexit, an expert has said as Irish colleges maintain a steady position in the latest world rankings.

Employers are to be given a greater say in the use of the National Training Fund (NTF) which the Government wants them to contribute more to, Education Minister Richard Bruton will announce today.

Children with special needs are unable to attend the school deemed most suitable for them as they do not qualify, under strict rules, for school transport.

Third-level student representatives are urging political support for a Dáil motion that calls for rejection of income-contingent loans.

Legal powers should be created to force schools to set up special classes for children with autism, TDs and senators told Education Minister Richard Bruton.

The opposition of most schools bodies to a proposed Ombudsman for Education suggests a fear of accountability, a Fine Gael TD has claimed.

Schools that do more to drive down prices of uniforms and books for parents may get a bigger slice of any increases in Department of Education funding for their own running costs.

A decision on which funding model to recommend for third-level education is unlikely to issue, from an all-party committee of TDs and senators, until late summer at the earliest.

The money that could be raised for further and higher education from a proposed hike in employers’ contributions is €30m less than what two Government ministers have suggested.

Employers could see the amount they contribute to a national training fund almost double by 2020 in a Government plan to raise an extra €200m a year for third-level education.

A bill by the Labour Party that seeks to make it harder for schools to use religion to select pupils might benefit nobody but the legal profession, a Catholic schools’ body claims.

Taking over today, Patrick O’Shea discusses student funding, the arts and science, and how UCC benefits the community. He talks to Education Correspondent Niall Murray.

Fewer than one in 20 Catholic schools in Dublin are turning away children who have not been baptised.

Government plans to maintain the right of schools to reserve places for children of past pupils were the subject of strong political differences in the Dáil yesterday.

Teachers are preparing to present themselves as being in a ‘lockout’ situation next week, as talks to avert the closure of over 500 second-level schools have still not found a resolution to their pay dispute.