Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IMPACT HAS CRITICISED the timing of today’s announcement on special needs assistant allocations for the 2014-2015 school year.
The union, which represents over 6,000 SNAs, said the late publication of the allocation figures means some assistants are unsure as to whether or not they’ll have work next September.
Impact’s assistant general secretary Dessie Robinson said: “The department has issued the figures after the end of the post-primary school year and just two days before the end of the primary school year.
This will inevitably mean some SNAs – and the children they support – will go into the summer uncertain about where they stand next September. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as last year, but it’s still not good enough.
“We are seeking a concrete commitment from the education department that it will protect whole-time positions,” Robinson stated.
The union cautiously welcomed the “slight” increase in the number of SNA post for the next academic year.
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has said there will be over 10,900 SNA posts in schools during the next academic year. The exact number will become clear when enrolment of students in mainstream schools are finalised in September.
There will be an additional 195 (or 3%) primary SNA posts and extra 68.5 (3.2%) post-primary posts.
This year, 29% of schools will have a greater level of SNA support next year with a further 51% of schools having no change to their level of SNA support. The remaining 20% will see a reduction.
Robinson said schools in several counties are losing out.
Despite a slight aggregate increase in the number of SNA posts, many schools will find that their allocation is down. This may well result in a reduction of service to certain children with special needs and it will certainly mean a reduction in paid working hours for many low-paid special needs assistants.
The following counties have lost SNA hours: Clare, Kilkenny, Laois (post-primary), Longford (primary), Monaghan (post-primary), Sligo (post-primary), Waterford (primary) and Westmeath (primary).
The NCSE noted that changes in the level of SNA posts in individual schools occur every year because students leave or change school and new students enrol. In addition, it said that as students become more independent, their need for SNA support can diminish.
At present, there are 6,347.15 SNA posts in primary schools, this will increase to 6,541.87 in September. There are currently 2,116.5 SNA posts in secondary schools, this will increase to 2,185 at the start of the new school term.
As of December 2013, 23,000 students were in receipt of SNA support.
Impact said that it has negotiated strengthened arrangements for the redeployment of redundant special needs assistants with the Department of Education.
Redundant SNAs are now placed on a redeployment panel from which schools are obliged to interview. They have to verify that they have followed the correct procedures within six weeks of making an appointment.
The panel is also open to SNAs who lost their posts at the end of the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years.
Today the NCSE also published the outcome of the appeals to its decisions concerning allocations of SNA and Resource Teaching posts during 2013.
Out of the 24,800 applications for such supports that were processed for the 2013-2014 school year, the body received a total of 155 appeals: 4 were upheld, 18 were withdrawn and 133 were not upheld.
Labour Senator Mary Moran welcomed today’s announcement, saying it was “vitally important … that all eligible students in need of SNA support are assured that this support will be in place from September”.
“I remain committed to actively engaging with all education partners, so that we provide the right supports and achieve the best outcomes for our children.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
It was nice of Kim to specify Irish time in his speech.
Congratulations to Comrade Kim on this outstanding achievement.
I knew there was a perfectly plausible reason for that haircut…he turned his back on the blast….
The UN prepares to take action
That is funny, I bet he’s bricking it
If the evidence isn’t consistent with his claims then why are the taking action.?
The recorded seismic reading could have been made from the frantic hum of printers. I heard Kim managed to pick up cheap printer ink from a sympathetic political party here in Ireland.
I heard they also were the first to put a man on the sun.
Sun ill Kum!!!
It was a highly successful mission. They sent him up at night. He qas hime the next morning. No other country had thought of sending someone to the sun at night.
Allegedly hydrogen bomb❗️
Don’t get ahead of yourself now Journal.
You will cause a media generated panic.
The earthquake was caused by Kim jong un falling out of bed, and the N.Korean propaganda machine invented this story to prevent embarrassment to there great leader!
Either that or he farted particularly hard.
Brilliant
Respond appropriately or in other words have a good laugh and do FA.
I wouldn’t underestimated this bucko, he could be the spark that lights the fire.
South Korea would hammer the north alone and China is a paper tiger. This is like Ireland testing a bomb.
Apparently North Koreas bomb was made using a Quix bottle and a can of Pepsi.
I made an identical one when I was about 12. Wasn’t a great success but at least I knew when to quit and I didn’t make tell the world and risk being ridiculed.
Poor ole’ Kim.
Maybe he’ll read this and learn something.
He does look like a lad who could be talked out of world war with a snackbox mind.
Except yer man in a nutter. At least Enda has all his marbles….I think
@ Ross he’s missing 5
If it wasn’t for America jumping in to save South Korea the last time there wouldn’t be a southern regime left.
Yep and yet again a totally unrelated article manages to be brought around to our politicians
@mcgoo – comment if the day!!!
Sure Dave ,china is a paper tiger….theres only 2 more powerful militaries in the world right now….china will eventually surpass russia in military might
And a pair of balls.
In other words Kim’s advisors have presented him with a bootleg copy of Independence Day II as a demonstration of his countries latest nuclear developments…
Someone needs to put that little tyrant runt to sleep and liberate those long suffering people from the nightmare of this brutal dictatorship
As the article says, it’s not likely the test was a successful hydrogen bomb, rather just a fission device (as Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
No question N Korea is a very opressive regime by any standard. However, one thing is clear.
If you do not wish to be threatened by external forces, by the favoured faux NGO, US funded and led political opposition, leading to financial coups d’etat, or failing that, covert or overt military invasion, then obtaining a nuclear weapon seems to be the only way to avoid US imperial aggression.
In other words, the aggressive US empire agenda, with an invasion or two in every decade since WWII, shares equal blame for the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Note, as another perfect example – Pakistan. Without a nuclear weapon, Pakistan would have been invaded, and at minimum the area adjacent to Afghanistan bombed to rubble.
should read-North Korea says it has detonated its first H2O bomb, Kim apparently start a water balloon fight with his advisors yesterday morning
No oil Paddy. It’ll never happen
They also have laser cannons and photon torpedoes.
Death star is also under constructon.
I heard they strapped the laser cannons to man eating sharks
Or dogs, or bees, or dogs with bees in their mouth, so when they bark they shoot bees at you?
All you decadent westerners wait until he realises the power of diet coke and mentos. Then you will come crawling on your bellies like the snakes you are, begging the exalted supreme one’s mercy…
He’s a good lookin fella in all fairness, and the hair, OMG the hair, it’s to die for!!
Quite literally to die for. My theory is he cut it himself and his inner circle are too frightened to tell him it looks shit, least they find themselves being executed by flamethrower and having their grandchildren abused by camp guards.
I’m surprised that he isn’t seen a lot more with the North Kardashians.
He could pass easily for an overweight Korean lesbian
That’s all we need…a mad boot boy with his finger on the button. His old man fancied himself as an Elvis impersonator, no wonder this guy is fvcked in the head.
The explosion took place is a secure bathroom in the state capital and was only witnessed by state experts and officials.
One of the experts deviated from the prescribed script describing the event, was promptly beheaded and thus unavailable for further comment.
All others who look like the state official will not also be executed!
Mad dangerous bast-ards have just become mad extremely dangerous bast-rads.
I wouldn’t believe a word of it until it’s confirmed by Western intelligence. The North Koreans claimed for years that they had atomic weapons but didn’t figure out how to make a viable weapon until recently.
They make a lot of claims about their military capabilities that are either totally false or gross exaggerations.
There not a real threat, they could kill some people but then will be hammered.
I feel sorry for the people governed by this nut, as much as we give out about Enda and western Democracy it could be worse.
People starving and the government spending everything pretending they are a superpower.
Dave, yes to a certain extent, but it only requires one Atomic bomb, need not even be a H-Bomb to be dropped over Seoul and we have the biggest single catastrophe in human history (wars, epidemics etc. being an accumulation of catastrophes).
Jason is correct and we need perspective over this. The Russians developed the H-Bomb in 1949. It doesn’t take away from the danger that the people of Japan and South Korea might face from North Korea but even with nuclear weapons taken into account; most military analysts believe that the South would comprehensively defeat the North in a conventional war even if North Korea utilised their nuclear arsenal. That’s not to say that nukes hitting Soeul or Tokyo wouldn’t be responsible for millions of deaths.
It’s not “an” H-bomb with my accent and I suspect I’m not alone.
That’s nothing compared to what i’m after doing to the toilet
“#danger” – that’s a bit broad isn’t it?
He also brought tears to Obamas eyes yesterday with that haircut and his karaoke version of “hello”.
I have to imagine that it was of the equivalence of a mini nuke in fallout.
Hope this wasn’t a demonstration for Isis before they drop their order..
They have also won the All Ireland Final.
That seismic signature was actually too SMALL for a Hydrogen bomb. A H-Bomb uses an atomic bomb as a detonator and is orders of magnitude more powerful than an atomic bomb.
.
It takes a Fission bomb to detonate a Fusion bomb.
.
(The most powerful Hydrogen bomb test ever,the Russian “Tsar Bomb” was 4,000 times more powerful than the bomb which destroyed Hiroshima).
There is NO WAY North Korea has such technology.
P.S.
Two entirely new Atomic elements were synthesized in the first Hydrogen bomb test in 1952.
They named them “Einsteinium” and “Fermium”.
Just this week 4 new Atomic elements were announced.
There may be a link…North Korea wants to be seen to be up there with “the big nuclear boys”.
North Korea won’t nuke anybody they won’t attack anybody they don’t care about other countries they have no reason to go near another country they are self sufficient if people leave them alone then there is no problem. They are probably the only country on earth not influenced by the US and Europe and that’s why these scaremongering stories keep popping up. If you’re worried about the world being wrecked then look up Israel’s “Samson option”
They’re self sufficient insofar as they don’t rely on the outside world, but it makes you seem like a fool if you’re suggesting that they’re a quiet little nation being bullied by Europe and the US.
They’re a brainwashed dictatorship with 19th century technology outside of Pyongyang and state sponsored murder is a regular occurrence. That’s why them being ‘left alone’ isn’t necessarily the best option.
They are a quiet nation the only things most people know about them is from outside propaganda.
have they ever attacked anyone?
Have they ever used a nuclear weapon?
How many people do the US and NATO kill a year?
Who is the only country to have ever used a nuclear weapon?
They’re not perfect no country is, but I won’t take lectures from America or the EU about another countries policies or actions THAT would make me a fool
They have attacked South Korea numerous times, kidnapped citizens of neighbouring countries, butchered and enslaved anyone and their entire families that have attempted to leave or in any way shown any form of dislike or resistance.
And as for being self-sufficient is that why most of their food is imported? Why they rely on China for practically everything they need to survive? Strange sort of “self sufficiency”.
Read the book dear leader by former party official and u might get an idea of how self sufficient the nutocracy is. You might alsocome to realise what kind of a danger N korea poses.
Not influenced?? who has the biggest collection of hollywpod films in the world? who kidnaps Hollywood directors to shoot films?
Every retort is straight out of the “gospel according to western propaganda”
Or have you seen his DVD collection?
How many sanctions are imposed on North Korea?
South Korea are apart of there country and vice-versa so they didn’t attack anybody.
Do you think other countries (US, European included) don’t crack down on dissenters?
RB85
You do know that millions have died there of starvation in the early 90s?
No, but your exhaustive whataboutery and apologism on behalf of the Kim dynasty suggests you’re a useful idiot.
You’ve got verified proof??? Or the headline of a North Korean opponents newspaper?
You need to look up what the Samson Option is. It is an “alleged” option that Israel “may” deploy “if” Israel is on the verge of annihilation and its people on the verge of extinction, and would be directed at the perpetrators. In other words, it’s not going to happen. However, the North Korean regime is so unstable that I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the detonated a nuclear warhead in Seoul, just for sh*ts and giggles.
RR South Korea is North not part of North Korea. That type of thinking lead to the Korean War which was begun by Kim the Elder. Korean unification would have to take place of a period of decades in which all traces of the Kim’s and their regime in North Korea had been erased utterly and with the assistance of the South Koreans slowly bringing the North up to the same living standards with the South and getting the North’s population used to real freedoms and democracy.
Bill Maher nails it, very funny;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpAO9HVrbYY&ab_channel=TheBMView
Is his barber from Rathkeale ? There’s a lot of lads down there with the same shtyle!
He’s just totally insane.
Everyone seems to want to sell KJU as some kind of dangerous megalomaniac but it just doesn’t convince. What sets this chubby little fella apart from all the other cheerful waving figureheads such as you might find in any of the world’s monarchies?
Looks like the mad despot has been getting tips off Mythbusters.
…it doesn’t matter a monkey’s whether it was a an H-bomb or A-bomb actually: either way, if one of them lands near you, you’re goosed. When you’re dead, you’re dead.
Strangely I was awoken at around that time by what felt like a very small rumbling. I thought at the time I wonder if it was an earthquake. Surely it couldn’t have been felt in Ireland??
Remains of the Christmas I’d say.
Tru dat
Lets not mention the number of nukes the rogue state of israel has. Look everyone, N Korea has bombs!
A miniaturised device fission , even if successful, is unlikely to show up on any seismic measurements. So, we are likely expected to take his word for it. It may be the new area of virtual nuclear threat.
This announcement is likely aimed primarily at the home market. International condemnation and the pride associated with supposed nuclear weapon capacity will reinforce and consolidate the maniac’s power at home.
I remain to be convinced.
Finally. NK is decades away from miniturising nuclear weapons.
A Hiroshima – sized bomb will show up on a seismic scale. Hell, a Madness concert in London showed up on a seismic meter. The explanation given that the second fusion stage failed to ignite seems pretty likely. The initial US and Soviet fusion tests required devices the size of buildings- info as to exactly how much of this was device, and how much was sensors, is obviously highly classified.
Just nuke them off the planet ….lpl
So he is not getting enough bang for his buck!!!
That fool hasn’t lost his marbles yet but there’s definitely a hole in the bag
Send in 007. He’ll sort them nuclear divils out.
And every right they have to create a hydrogen bomb. Although it is probably just a cannonball of sorts.
I didnt hear it
Kim Wrong’un
Went googling to find this… the Wangsan Fault and it is not stable…
So he gets loads of TNT and sticks it down a big hole probably dug by slave labout in order to get food aid from the U.S.
THIS FOOD AID TO FEED HIS ARMY OTHERWISE THERE WOULD BE A REBELLION AGAINST HIM and to hell with the farmers eating weeds in their fields to stay alive but really they own no land at all…
have your say