A Government decision not to accept a report on small schools is good news for rural Ireland but its political handling is bad administration, says Education Correspondent Niall Murray

More than 20 primary schools will be asked to consider amalgamation or closure as part of a new procedure being finalised on the future of one-teacher schools.

Ahead of next week’s planned one-day strike, second-level teaching unions have said they are willing to enter talks on the Junior Cycle — but only if their concerns about training and resource levels and the requirement to assess their own students are addressed.

School boards are a law unto themselves with nowhere for parents to have complaints against management properly dealt with, a Fine Gael TD and former primary principal has claimed.

A small number of Catholic schools may transfer to new patrons later this year but the Department of Education expects others to follow suit in greater numbers over the next few years.

Joe Lyons could not have been more pleased to hear about a school maintenance fund being restored after discovering a leaking roof when pupils returned from their mid-term break this week at Ballybrown National School outside Limerick City.

An umbrella organisation representing the country’s primary school boards of management has claimed cuts proposed under Croke Park II will have a “high and long-lasting cost” on children’s education.

Small local suppliers of stationery, computer equipment, and other goods for schools fear new rules on centralised buying could costs hundreds of jobs.

A new generation of hi-tech infants is starting school more familiar with smartphones and tablet computers than with books, say school managers.

SCHOOLS are being urged by Education Minister Mary Coughlan to give substitution work to unemployed teachers, after it emerged one-in-10 primary teachers paid for substitute work in September were already retired.

EXPENSIVE specialised uniforms can defeat the aim of dress codes designed to put all pupils on the same level at school, a parents’ leader claims.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe was tonight accused of a humiliating u-turn after ordering a nationwide school closure only to reverse it on the first day of the shutdown.

The Green Party tonight backed Government cuts in the education sector but said it wanted future changes in how schools are funded.

Ten organisations involved in the country’s primary schools today joined forces to demand education cuts in the Budget be withdrawn.

SCHOOL management bodies yesterday warned the Government that dozens of primary schools face closure because of the State’s failure to adequately fund education.

PAYMENTS for water charges have trebled in some schools following the Government’s introduction of a flat rate charge aimed at reducing bills for cash-strapped schools.

A CASH-STRAPPED secondary school in Cork city owes a mammoth bill of €53,000 for water charges, despite paying €2,000 every year to the local authority, it has emerged.

SCHOOL board officers should be paid expenses for their voluntary work, a school management leader claimed yesterday.

PRIMARY schools could and probably will be run in the future by Vocational Education Committees (VECs), the head of their umbrella organisation suggested yesterday.