After 20 years, actor Antonio Banderas is working with director Pedro Almodovar again. It was worth the wait, says Helen Barlow

FARMERS in OECD countries were more reliant on subsidies to augment their income in 2009 as prices for agricultural commodities declined.

ACADEMICS at one of the country’s biggest universities have rejected the Croke Park proposals on public services.

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan was accused of insulting principals last night after telling them they were lucky their jobs will continue to be filled when they retire while other management posts are left vacant.

SCHOOLS are not fully assessing risks of accidents for staff or students and fail to report all incidents, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) believes.

MICHELLE Mitchell’s chances of fulfilling her dream to study at third-level could be dashed unless a Government cutback is reversed.

HUNDREDS of third-level students are still awaiting a decision on grant support applications from a number of local authorities throughout Munster.

UP and coming business visionaries, whose projects may create jobs for themselves and for others, were honoured in Killarney last night.

THE governing body of University College Cork (UCC) wants the controversial €65 graduation fee scrapped, a prominent governor said.

THE authorities at University College Cork (UCC) have agreed to reexamine their books to see if a proposed €65 graduation fee can be reduced.

MORE than 9,000 students leave school before the Leaving Certificate every year, a study has shown.

THE president of University College Cork (UCC) is due to meet students leaders today as opposition mounts against controversial plans to introduce a €65 graduation fee.

A CORK secondary school that does not have parent and teacher representation on its board of management could be challenged legally on the issue.

THERE were strong calls yesterday for new teachers to be given more hours, amid fears that those struggling for work could suffer mental health problems while retired teachers take substitute classes.

TEACHERS are witnessing a sharp rise in violence, threats and serious assaults on school grounds against both them and their pupils as a direct result of vital support services being slashed.

ACTOR Colin Farrell has revealed his anger about the beatings his older brother Eamon got in school for being gay.

SCHOOLS need directly to address and offer guidance to gay and lesbian students to avoid them becoming suicide risks, the ASTI conference was told yesterday.

THE Central Executive Council of the ASTI will rubber-stamp the rejection of the pay deal at its meeting tomorrow, putting it out to a ballot of members with a recommendation that they vote against the agreement.

THE “smart economy” sought by Government is being seriously undermined by its own policies and education cutbacks.

THE Department of Education must immediately introduce strict new guidelines to protect physical education (PE) teachers who have to enter changing rooms with students from “accusations of inappropriate behaviour”.

TEACHERS’ leaders have described efforts by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan to allow schools worst affected by a ban on management promotions as piecemeal and insufficient.

SECONDARY school teachers angrily rejected the public sector pay deal, heralding a split within the trade union movement and the possibility of heightened industrial action in schools.

A BALLOT of 32,000 primary teachers on the public service pay deal will go ahead despite efforts to delay it until their union leaders could clarify the possible implications for members’ terms and conditions.

A YOUNG teacher has slammed the Government over a budget cut that will force her and around 60 others to join the dole queue this summer to save just €1 million a year.

SCHOOL principals need to stand next to teachers in opposing the recruitment ban which has left posts of responsibility unfilled in schools, according to delegates at the ASTI annual conference.

THE Tánaiste arrived into a dragon’s den of more than 700 angry primary teachers first thing yesterday but managed to escape without swords being drawn.

AS the teachers’ unions hold annual conferences around the country, the founding president of the University of Limerick has launched a blistering attack on teachers describing them as “a pampered group” who are “behaving like spoiled children”.

THE union representing more than 18,000 secondary schoolteachers is set to decide on Friday whether or not to reject the public service pay deal in a move which could lead to industrial action in schools.

TEACHERS must not be tricked into supporting a “con job” Government deal which “picks up the debts of banking executives” while slashing public sector salaries and essential school services.

THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has unanimously voted against the public service pay agreement and threatened potential strike action from September in response to the latest Cabinet cutbacks.

AS primary teachers narrowly backed their union leaders’ endorsement of the public service pay deal, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan yesterday promised she would not be “taking a machete” to teacher contracts.

PARENTS and students are being forced to pay for a significant chunk of education cutbacks through increased school donations and payments for regular school activities, a survey of second-level schools has found.

A UNION representing special needs assistants (SNA) has questioned Tánaiste Mary Coughlan’s assertion that more than 1,300 posts have been created in schools for children with disabilities.

GRACE Kearney was mixing well with her fellow pupils at her local primary school until her special needs support was cut to one-sixth its previous levels and she had to move schools.

TEACHERS are spending more than half their working time in activities outside the classroom, with average working weeks of up to 46 hours, a survey has found.

STUDENT leaders criticised the Government last night after a top university was forced to impose a €65 fee on students wishing to attend their graduation ceremony.

ONE-third of second-level schools may have to cut the teaching of science subjects because of education cutbacks, a survey has found.

THE unemployment crisis has prompted a 30% rise in college applications from mature students and other non-Leaving Certificate students.

THE Department of Education has acknowledged that up to 64 additional second-level classrooms will have to be built in the next five years to provide for a major population explosion adjacent to the Cork-Midleton railway line.

THE families of four sixth class pupils refused entry to a second-level school – just over the fence from their primary school – have appealed to have the decisions overturned.

MARY COUGHLAN’S direct Cabinet swap with Batt O’Keeffe may be seen as a demotion but her new job will not ease the Tánaiste’s political headaches.

THE possibility that a €19,000 bonus given in error by a state board may never be recovered from an ex-employee has been condemned by the head of the Oireachtas spending watchdog.

A YOUNG man has reaped a reward for foregoing an acting career to take on an engineering degree.

DOUBLING the number of foreign students in our colleges could reap an additional €900 million a year and create 6,000 jobs, according to Fine Gael plans announced yesterday.