More than 380 primary schools across the country are to get €4.2m in grants for high-tech equipment over the coming days as part of the Government's efforts to make technology an integral part of the learning process, according to the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeff

Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe, TD, today announced details of the student maintenance grant schemes for the coming academic year.

THE Church showed the first signs of bowing to public pressure when senior figures said the religious orders should pay more to compensate abuse victims.

DETAILS revealed today about the secretive 2002 deal agreed by the then Minister for Education and Science Dr Michael Woods with Catholic religious orders implicated in child abuse suggest that it is even more inequitable than was first imagined.

THE Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe TD, today announced the providers of the extra 1,500 Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) places from September as part of the Government’s response to the education and training needs of workers who face unemployment or who’ve lost their jobs.

I REFER to the recent statement by Minister for Education and Science Batt O’Keeffe that, prior to 2003, schools managed without any provision for substitution cover for short-term sick leave and school business and that this did not impede their capacity to participate in relevant activities or to run things properly.

The GAA confirmed this evening that a letter has been sent to the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe TD, requesting a meeting to discuss the revision of the rules on substitution cover for teachers in post-primary schools, proposed in last week’s budget.

IRELAND enjoyed a day yesterday that hundreds of millions across the world will never see.

EVERY child born in Ireland is to get a free book from the Government as part of its message that reading begins at home.

A CALL will today be made for the upcoming national pay talks to address the inequality in pay and pensions experienced by women in the workforce.

The BT Young Scientist of the Year 2008 is Emer Jones, a second year student from Presentation School, Tralee in Co Kerry.

ENTERPRISE Minister Micheál Martin yesterday described being “shocked, annoyed and outraged” on hearing it alleged on the radio news he had received a six-figure sum from Cork-based property developer Owen O’Callaghan.

Dozens of Irish firms are today expected to sign major business deals in the United Arab Emirates, which now has direct air links with Dublin.

SOMALIA-BORN Abdusalam Abubakar, who found a way to crack the encryption system used by banks and the military to keep information secure, is this year’s BT Young Scientist of the Year.

Cork dual star Briege Corkery is amongst the nominees for the Irish Times/Vhi Healthcare Sportswoman of the Year award for 2006.

More than 10,000 primary school places are to be delivered nationwide with the construction of 37 new school buildings, it was confirmed today.

THE retention of the University College Dublin (UCD) research farm at Lyons Estate in Straffan, Co Kildare, is being sought following confirmation that the college authorities are reviewing its future.

Disruptive behaviour in Irish secondary schools is at crisis point, a student representative admitted today.

Schools with serious discipline problems will not be labelled but supported, it emerged today.

WHY did the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, establish a task force on discipline in schools? The answer is because there is a crisis in discipline.

FIANNA FÁIL TD Billy Kelleher has said that he intends to canvass the Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin about putting Cork forward as a possible site for the planned European Institute of Technology (EIT).

IBEC’s Mid-West president Damien Clancy last night called on Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin to support a graduate-entry medical school for the University of Limerick.

THE construction industry in Ireland is set to increase by 20% to €39.5 billion over the next year.

A special service has gotten under way in the North in the last hour to mark the seven year anniversary of the Omagh bombing.

An extra 100 teaching posts for post leaving certificate courses will be provided for the coming academic year, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin announced today.

Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin and The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) have today announced the appointment of Professor Jane Grimson as chair of the council.

Funding of €17m is being allocated to primary schools to buy science materials for pupils.

TEACHERS are calling for the introduction of standardised testing into primary schools so that areas of academic difficulty can be highlighted from a young age.

AGHINA National School applied for refurbishment and an additional classroom in 1996. After inspecting the school, department officials state that the only viable option was to construct a new school building.

One in Four, a support group for victims of child abuse, has called on the Government to take all the necessary steps to save the life of a man on hunger strike outside the Dáil.

HAVING attended three YES (Your Education System) meetings so far, it is time to ask the Minister for Education and Science to waste no more of taxpayers' money and stop this farce.

THE shelves of the Department of Education and Science are groaning with expert reports, whose recommendations have not been implemented, despite the fact that they were commissioned at huge cost to the taxpayer.

IT would appear that the Minister for Education and Science, Noel Dempsey, has the same regard for teachers and the implementation of the new curriculum as he had for members of town councils and local democracy while Minister for the Environment.

THE campaign against the new graduate diploma in education has been going on for some months now in the form of letters to the national newspapers.

THE announcement by the Minister for Education and Science of the closure of St Catherine’s College for Education in Home Economics has shocked and saddened graduates of the college.

DEPARTMENT of Finance officials yesterday admitted that the deal struck between the Government and the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) on compensation payments to victims of residential abuse was in effect a blank cheque.

SCHOOL children had a lucky escape yesterday when part of the ceiling of their pre-fab classroom collapsed.

NOT for the first time, a Minister for Education and Science has decided to interfere in a democratic exercise being conducted