HARD-UP families are seeking help from the St Vincent de Paul Society to buy schoolbooks.

TEACHERS were urged to support colleagues being bullied in schools.

THE Government may have a rethink on a controversial part of the Employment Equality Act, which a union leader claimed discriminates against people on religious grounds.

EDUCATION services may have to be severely cut as a result of the Croke Park deal’s protection of public service wages, Green Party TD Paul Gogarty has warned.

SCHOOL management bodies have been urged to draft a detailed policy document specifically addressing the growing threat of racism in Ireland’s schools.

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.

THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has rejected Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s suggestion that public service reforms which were close to being agreed last week could form the basis of further negotiations with unions next year.

THE principals of about 1,700 primary schools are to get a 31.5% increase in their allowances, but are the only large group to gain from benchmarking in the education sector.

The very notion that some schools are engaged in a form of apartheid towards children with special needs is so contemptible as to be intolerable.

CHILDREN with special needs, living in disadvantaged areas or from non-English speaking backgrounds will be the big winners from the extra €740 million secured for next year’s spending by the Department of Education.

A MAJOR report to Government endorsing the work of the further education sector strengthens the case for it to be restructured, teachers have claimed.

STRESSED and bullied teachers will have access to dedicated counsellors under a new service set up to help avoid a negative impact on their work in the classroom.

THE poor job prospects of early school-leavers highlight the need for paid educational leave from work, teachers have claimed.

AN EXTRA 400 primary teaching posts will be created over the next two years to help reduce class sizes, Education Minister Mary Hanafin promised yesterday.

POOR school funding and Government inaction have been blamed for half of students dropping out of some schools before completing their Leaving Certificate.

Niall Murray Education Correspondent

ONLY one Irish teacher - out of the country’s 50,000 - was sacked in the past four years for unsatisfactory teaching, according to recent figures.

IRISH should not be compulsory at Leaving Certificate level because thousands of students who do badly in it take an extra subject to make up points for college, a parents group said last night.