Press Release – Mary Hanafin, Minister for Education and Science, 6th Dec 2007
Extra investment in teachers, classrooms, school funding & higher education
“Extra investment of more than €690 million in education next year will enable us to put about 1,200 extra teachers in place, to deliver improvements in school buildings, and to increase day-to-day funding for schools” Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin T.D. said today. “It will also allow for significant improvements in funding for higher education.”
Overall, more than €9.3 billion will be invested in education at all levels next year.
Key measures to be supported by this funding include –
€600m for School Building Projects
With an extra €95 million for primary school buildings, investment in the school building programme will reach almost €600million in 2008.
This will enable The completion of construction of up to 200 projects currently underway to deliver 8,000 additional school places;
The rollout to construction of a further 350 projects over the next 15 months to provide another 12,000 additional places
The purchase of sites, particularly in rapidly developing areas; and
The progression of projects through the architectural planning and design stages which can then go to construction in later years.
The provision of €4.5billion for school building projects under the National Development Plan will ensure that there is a continuous rollout of projects across the country in the coming years.
According to Minister Hanafin “while there will continue to be a focus next year on providing extra places in developing areas, we will also be delivering improvements in the quality of existing school accommodation throughout the country. With 3,500 small projects having been completed in the past few years, the emphasis in 2008 will be on new schools, extensions and major refurbishments to deliver the most places.”
Planning for 1,200 More Teachers In 2008
Expenditure on teachers’ pay and pensions will increase by over €380million next year to €4.6billion. This will cover the cost of approximately 1,100 extra primary and post primary teachers that have been put in place this year. We are also planning for an additional 1,200 teachers for the next school year.
€1.7billion targeted at Special Needs and Disadvantage programmes
Investment in special education will increase by €80 million next year to €900million.
This will cover the cost of
· The 17,000 staff already working in the area of special education;
A further 900 staff to be put in place next year;
· Over 275 special classes for children with autism;
· An increase in number of NEPS psychologist’s to 169 in the coming year; and
· Investment in training for special education training for teachers.
More than €800million will be targeted at combating educational disadvantage at all levels. Minister Hanafin said “this will support a wide range of valuable services – including pre-school interventions, early literacy initiatives, and measures to improve school attendance and tackle early school leaving.” It will also allow for a significant increase in access to ‘second chance education’ said Minister of State Séan Haughey T.D. “with 100 extra places in Youthreach, 500 more in the Back to Education Initiatives and 500 more adult literacy places. This will bring the number of places in the main Further and Adult Education programmes to over 65,000.”
Day to Day Funding Increases For Schools
Day-to-funding for primary schools will increase by €21 to €330 per pupil. As a result, a primary school with 300 pupils will receive almost €100,000 to meet their running costs.
Second level schools will benefit from an extra €20 per student in day-to-day funding, with voluntary schools receiving €535 per student. There is also a €10 per student increase in equalisation measures for voluntary secondary schools. A typical 500 student secondary school will get almost €268,000 to meet day to day running costs.
The budget for school transport will increase by 6% to over €175million which ensures that over 135,000 pupils are transported to schools throughout the country, including some 8,000 pupils with special educational needs.
Funding for Higher Education will reach almost €1.9bn in 2008.
Increased investment in higher education will build on the significant improvements in support for our universities and institutes of technology in recent years.
Capital investment in the higher education colleges will increase by more than 20%, to €190 million, while core funding for Universities and Institutes of Technology will increase by €61million. Funding the full year costs of the improvements made this year in third level maintenance grants is provided for with a 9% increase.
€40million is allocated to the Strategic Innovation Fund, while an additional €12million is being provided for research in third level institutions to enable the continued roll out of the Strategy for Science Technology and Innovation.
Minister Hanafin said “the major investment across all sectors of our education system will enable us to continue to enhance the services being provided to around one million students throughout the country. The fact that the education sector is such a major employer is reflected in the reality that the greatest portion of our €9.3billion funding is devoted to delivering frontline services each and every day.”
ENDS
BUDGET 2008 – EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Education Infrastructure
Total expenditure on education in 2008 will be €9.3 billion including €828 million for capital investment. Over the last three years alone, over €2 billion has been invested in educational infrastructure. With this funding we have delivered 28 new schools, with construction underway at a further 16 new schools. We have delivered 77 large-scale refurbishments or extensions of existing schools, with construction in progress at a further 44 schools. This is in addition to over 1,300 small scale projects delivered in 2006 and over 1,500 in 2007. Construction work this year alone will deliver over 700 classrooms to provide permanent accommodation for over 17,500 pupils. Given that there are 4,000 schools and that 9,000 building projects have been funded in these schools since 2000, the Government is proud that the existing building stock has been substantially renewed.
However, the next challenge, and I believe the first priority for educational expenditure in 2008, must be to provide additional new accommodation to cater for the 13,000 additional children who will be seeking a school place next year. This rate of increase in enrolments poses a major challenge for the education system. Accordingly, I am allocating an additional €95 million in capital funding for the Primary School Building Programme in 2008. This will bring to €594 million the total budget that will be available for infrastructural investment in schools next year.
Other capital funding for education includes €184 million for infrastructural investment at third level and €50 million for various smaller programmes.
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
In 2008, I am increasing the capital provision by €36.5 million to a total of almost €300 million for continued investment in basic research in Centres for Science and Technology and Engineering, and in Strategic Research Clusters. R&D activity, innovation management, and collaborative effort between industry and the third level sector will attract significant support next year. This will be matched on the current side by an additional €12 million for higher education research, bringing the total STI expenditure on the current side to €133 million in 2008.