€1,500 student-services charge to increase to €2,000

The existing €1,500 student services charge for third-level pupils will be replaced with a flat-rate student contribution of €2,000 under the provisions of the four-year National Recovery Plan, Education Minister Mary Coughlan's department has confirmed.

The four-year plan shows that the gross allocation, including funding from the National Training Fund, for the Department of Education and Skills for 2011 will be €9.7bn.

The gross overall allocations for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 are set at €9.48bn, €9.4bn and €9.3bn respectively.

The savings being implemented in 2011 will be spread across the education and skills sector and include the school transport scheme, supervision and substitution, student supports and FÁS training allowances, a statement from Education Minister Mary Coughlan's office confirmed.

The specific details of the measures will be announced on Budget Day.

Medium term savings will be achieved through the impact of a 10% reduction in salary scales for new entrants to the public service, with all new entrants to start on the minimum point of the new scale, while there will also be savings through further reductions in public service numbers, including in the non-commercial State agencies under the aegis of the Department.

The overall number of teachers is due to increase over the period of the plan, but there will be some reduction in teacher numbers in 2011, while in general maintaining the existing basis for allocating classroom teachers to schools (ie. the general "pupil-teacher ratio").

There will also be a reduction in grants paid on a per capita or related basis to schools and VECs, including programme grants.

While there will be no reduction in numbers of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) over the period of the plan, the numbers will be capped at existing levels.

"This will require a new system of allocation to manage finite SNA resources in a more proactive manner" according to the statement.