Questions on … education
Posted by Anne Moore on Feb 13 2007 under Education & training, Questions on... |
Angela Boyle, Flax Foyer asks
How will the 16 hour rule be addressed for young people in full-time education? At present there is no housing benefit entitlement even when a young person is only in receipt of the EMA award. Does this not seem very unfair, especially when young people are under pressure to develop and train?
Jo Knock, Greenway Women’s Centre asks
What is going to happen with community education? After changes in DEL there is only provision for accredited courses. Have we turned our back on lifelong learning – what happens to vital non accredited training which can be the initial hook and also of great health benefit for older people?
Eileen Kelly, EGSA asks
It is clear that all parties are committed to the importance of education for our young people. Adult education is just as important. How will parties ensure that adults will continue to have access to education which is obviously related to the acquisition of skills but who could derive benefits from education which could, for example, help them to manage their finances, help their children with homework, reduce their dependence on medication?
Mary Fusco, Flax Foyer asks
When power is again devolved is there any proposal for mainstream funding for foyers? English foyers receive £1300 approx per client to use for training and staff if necessary. Foyers in NI get nothing.
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4 Responses to “Questions on … education”
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Will the candidates in this election commit themselves to supporting the Bain Review and its recognition that education has a social function in reconciling divisions by education Protestant and Catholic children together ?
great this would be an excellent question
Pam - I guess quite a few of us are not convinced about the merits of ‘twinning’ a review of the school estate with an exploration of how we can promote shared education. It obviously begs the question as to which issue is actually the real driver - not the best way of building confidence with regards to either aspiration.
There is a lot of commitment within both the controlled sector and CCMS to taking forward a shared education agenda. Ok, we can debate whether its via a top-down, centrally driven model or flexible, local schemes - but I think there needs to be some recognition that the 2 main sectors are very open to moving forward.
Not sure how relevant it is but … my daughter’s controlled primary school in Lisburn had to drop part of its EMU work because there are not enough maintained primary schools in the area to work in partnership with. Perhaps this indicates some of the wider demographic and logistical problems that will be faced when greater moves are made re: shared education.
The problem with seperating the review of school estate and the promotion of shared education is that it is encouraging schools to rationalise within their own sectors, rather than look at options for sharing on the area based model promoted by Bain.
We’ve seen this in Antrim recently with the closure of Masserene and kids being bused to Randalstown, rather than have a discussion with the parents group who are trying to establish a post primary integrated option, and in Londonderry a few years back where two controlled secondary schools merged rather than keep one of them open and allow a heavily oversubscribed Integrated College to increase its intake. Those are just two examples I can think off at the moment, but I know there are others.