THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) views the recent report of the public service benchmarking body with extreme disappointment.

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 bulk of the small spending increase in education will be set aside to provide space for the rising pupil numbers in primary schools.

IRISH teenagers are performing above average on science tests, but may need to improve if the country is to avoid losing hi-tech jobs, international research suggests.

A TEACHERS’ union has called for the €80 million spent by the Government each year for running costs at fee-paying schools to be used for special needs and tackling bad behaviour.

THE popularity of YouTube, Bebo and Facebook has been harnessed by one Irish college to market its third-level courses.

THE percentage of students completing second-level education has not increased in the past 15 years, a major survey has revealed.

PROPOSALS to have teacher competency assessed by school principals rather than inspectors have been firmly rejected by a union leader.

LESS of the country’s wealth is being spent on schools and colleges than a decade ago, a major report reveals.

THE number of subjects taken for the Junior Certificate should be examined as a possible way to reduce pressures leading students to drop out of school, a teachers’ leader has suggested.

PLANS by Education Minister Mary Hanafin to hold the first written Leaving Certificate exam on a Saturday in May, from next year, are facing opposition from teachers it emerged yesterday.

STUDENTS have been given a boost before the Leaving Certificate exams, which start next week.

PROPER PE funding would tackle our ‘obesity epidemic’, claim the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI).

TEACHERS have warned Ireland’s ambitions to be a knowledge society will be set back enormously without significant Government investment in computers and technology in schools.

THE Government has been accused of meaningless commitments to Ireland’s knowledge-based economy as long as it fails to appoint lab technicians to help science teachers.

THE State’s language support for foreign national pupils is “racism at its worst”, according to a teachers’ union representative.

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.

THE teaching union representing 70 part-time teachers who face being made to pay back thousands of euro which was wrongly paid to them has demanded an independent body examine exactly how much money is owed.

ONLY a small number of arrests were made on Wednesday night as 58,000 students celebrated their Junior Certificate results.

THE marked improvement in science grades following the introduction of a new Junior Certificate syllabus was welcomed yesterday.

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

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin has advised students to avail of the support of teachers by collecting their Leaving Certificate results at school today.

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.

BIG, flat and beautiful, is the short story on Scorduff Farm, at Brosna, Co Offaly, which has hit the market with a fanfare.

LEAVING Certificate French was examined yesterday and ASTI’s Máire Ní Chiarba said the listening exam was very clear and related questions were appropriate.

AS Leaving Certificate students reach the optional subjects at this stage in the exams, around 31,000 sat French papers yesterday morning.

AS with the first exam in the new senior cycle home economics syllabus last Friday, there were criticisms of the first test of the new biology course yesterday.

MANY biology teachers felt that higher-level students were given a rough exam after the controversy surrounding the same subject this time last year.