A new helpline will provide additional support to Ukrainians, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris has announced.
"Launching next week, this will be a new, centralised, one-stop shop for any Ukrainian student who comes here, and will support students and academics who wish to continue their research," Mr Harris told delegates on the first day of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) annual conference in Wexford.
The initiative will be hosted by Maynooth University and staffed by six admission experts from across the higher education sector, as well as guidance counsellors.
Addressing delegates at the conference, TUI general secretary Michael Gillespie said the education system must strategically plan for the number of Ukrainian students who would be starting in education this coming September.
‘I don’t see myself ever being able to afford a home’: Teachers struggle with cost of living
Primary pupils beset by ‘anxiety and mental health problems’
Teachers’ pay: Foley says talks over new public sector pay deal to begin shortly
Irish primary school pupils could be taught Ukrainian under languages initiative
Mr Harris acknowledged there were additional pressures facing the education system as a result of the number of displaced people arriving in Ireland.
“But these are pressures that we are bound to embrace, in solidarity with our Ukrainian neighbours at this time of crisis,” Mr Harris said.
Speaking about technological universities, the Minister said he would put in place a proper funding system that would see an equal approach between the TUs and traditional universities, with a new borrowing framework which would allow TUs to borrow from non-exchequer funded sources.
Mr Gillespie said this new funding model needed to allocate more resources to the third-level sector.
“The intention for a ‘one-pot’ third-level funding model which would be equitable for students whether enrolled in a TU, IoT or legacy university needs to be substantially bigger than the two pots it replaces.”
Mr Harris added that the Government would provide “a new and ground-breaking type of academic contract”, and this contract would be negotiated, rather than imposed.
Mr Gillespie also said the ratio of lecturers to students had risen, and needed to fall, an aim that Mr Harris said was one of his key goals as Minister.
Senior reform
Addressing proposed changes to the Leaving Cert, Mr Gillespie said teachers welcomed many proposed elements of senior cycle reform including changes to the Leaving Cert Applied programme and wider access to Transition Year.
He said, however, these changes would require additional resources and continuous assessment should be externally assessed.
“We are opposed to the Minister’s suggestion that second components of assessment should be marked by the students’ own teachers at school level, with the role of the State Examinations Commission reduced to moderation. TUI is opposed to the dilution of objectivity and the compromised standards that this would involve,” said Mr Gillespie.
Delegates at the conference overwhelmingly supported a call for additional Covid-19 mitigation measures in schools.
Bernadette O’Farrell, a delegate from Co Cork, said contact tracing and PCR testing should be reintroduced in classrooms, as well as social distancing measures and HEPA air filtration in every room.
“The pandemic is not done with us yet,” said Ms O’Farrell. “Experts were urging ventilation in schools this time last year, but the Government has failed to make sufficient progress.”
Also at the conference, delegates heard from adult education and literacy tutors who are rendered unemployed outside term time.
Daniel Cronin, an adult literacy and adult educator in east Galway, said he had been working in the sector for 10 years.
“Our learners are primarily on levels one to three on the QQI framework, so while they don’t necessarily get high-level qualifications, this type of learning can really boost confidence and encourage a return to education. Our work supports some of the most vulnerable learners, but the system requires us to lodge our hours every week – meaning we don’t get paid outside term time. So we sign on during the summer or have to work second jobs. We’ve been asking for change for over 10 years, but we are hopeful that this Minister [Simon Harris] will hear us.”
