Education is a human right which appears to have no place in the balance sheet of Ireland’s financiers, a union said today.

A RESTRUCTURED apprenticeship system is urgently needed to ensure thousands of partly-trained tradespeople can finish their qualifications and help the return to economic growth, a teachers’ union has said.

THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has taken the controversial decision to wait until after the election to ballot members on proposed work reforms in schools and colleges.

THE most vulnerable students will suffer the hardest from the latest round of education cutbacks detailed in the Government’s four-year national recovery plan, it has been claimed.

THE increase in student college charges — starting with an extra €500 next year — will leave thousands without a chance of higher education and force many to emigrate, according to the Union of Students in Ireland.

THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) is set to enter talks on the Croke Park public service pay agreement after members have voted to lift industrial action in schools and colleges.

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.

IRELAND’S failure to increase its spend on education, in line with the wealth generated by the Celtic Tiger, has raised strong criticism.

THE former chief executive of the Irish Courts Service PJ Fitzpatrick is to chair the implementation body which will oversee the Croke Park deal on public service pay and reform.

THE ratification of the Croke Park public service pay and reform deal still looks uncertain after more than 51,000 teachers were split in their vote on support for the agreement reached in April.

AFTER taking a tentative step onto union turf for the second day running and reaching the podium intact, Mary Coughlan was getting used to facing down crowds seething with rage.

THE crucial views of teacher union members on the public service pay deal will emerge today after a week in which their leaders have voiced clear differences.

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.

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.

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.

PUBLIC sector unions have said social partnership is dead and told their members to prepare themselves for strikes.

The Teachers Union of Ireland has said that the Government is "hell-bent on demoralising State workers" after today's Budget.

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 Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has responded to comments attributed to Minister Batt O’Keeffe that elements of a deal related to public service reform almost agreed last week could form the basis for talks next year.

TEACHER unions have warned of inevitable industrial unrest, with one leader accusing the Government of lacking moral courage to reach agreement on public service pay savings.

TUI General Secretary Peter MacMenamin has said that the Government lacked "the moral courage" to proceed with negotiations with the public sector unions over pay talks.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) today stated that any changes to the Junior Certificate programme should only be for reasons that would benefit students rather than to generate savings to the Exchequer.

The Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) says student numbers will increase by almost 100,000 in the coming years and investment will be needed to cope with the additional pressures.

STUDENT drop-out numbers will soar if the Government does not start investing to cater for a spiralling student population, a teachers’ union leader will warn today.

ANY cuts to teachers’ pay or further education cutbacks look almost certain to trigger industrial action by 15,000 members of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI), who are to be balloted for possible strikes.

The executive committee of the Teacher’s Union of Ireland (TUI) has this afternoon decided to ballot members on industrial action.

IRELAND’S poor investment in education relative to other countries is actually worse than was suggested in a major comparison of international statistics published yesterday, teacher unions have claimed.

TENSIONS have started to rise between teachers, the Government and school managers after claims that a union has told members to walk out on overcrowded classes.

THE cost of school books and accusations about unnecessary new editions pushing up costs have been the subject of debate, radio discussions and pub talk in recent days, as parents do the last of their back-to-school shopping.

Hundreds of students around the country will attend classes without school books next week, according to the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI).

SECOND-level teachers and managers have rejected Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s assertion that only 240 teaching posts will be lost in their schools this autumn after provisional figures showed 3,600 fewer jobs.

CHILDREN who are victims of the Ggovernment’s education cutbacks will be less employable, suffer longer periods of joblessness and be a long-term cost to the State, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has warned.

SECOND-LEVEL teachers spend an average of 25 hours on non-teaching work every week.

THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland has claimed that for every group of students that starts secondary school each year, the number who do not complete the Leaving Certificate will end up costing the State €4bn over a 40-year working life, or €100m per year.

STUDENTS in up to half the country’s second-level schools may have no option to take transition year or alternative Leaving Certificate programmes because of Government cutbacks, a survey has found.

THIRD-level college bosses have warned of further reductions in student services after the sector was hit by another €20 million cut in the supplementary budget.

PROSPECTIVE college students will have to wait until after next week’s budget to find out if they must pay some type of fees from next year.

MORE than 25,000 second level teachers will refuse to take part in parent-teacher meetings after school hours as part of their union’s action against the pension levy and education cutbacks.

STRIKE action by more than 60,000 teachers can be avoided if the Government restarts talks with the union movement, their leaders said at the weekend.

MORE than 60,000 teachers are set to take industrial action in the coming weeks after ballots of their three unions all resulted in backing of the move in protest at the Government’s handling of the economic crisis.

THE number of teaching jobs which will be lost because of budget cuts will be less than the 400 originally expected, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe predicted yesterday.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has recommended that members approve industrial action when they vote on the motion this week.

TEACHERS and lecturers in one of the country’s largest unions are being asked not to co-operate with school inspections or performance assessments just days after having a pension levy imposed on them by the Government.

THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) said it was regrettable that just as it was making its case for the education sector getting most of the 51,000 extra training places for the newly unemployed yesterday, news broke that FÁS was to get all of them.