Irish Vocational Education Association

The exclusion of PLC colleges from the recently announced Smart Schools initiative is a matter of serious concern to the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA) and the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD).

PLC Colleges, which are post-primary schools managed by Vocational Education Committees (VECs), have been excluded from this latest funding initiative. This fund, which is being allocated on the basis of student numbers, will be distributed to schools with Junior Cert and Leaving Cert students. However, any PLC students enrolled in the same school will not be included. While schools with a mix of provision will get some reduced funding, there are a small number of dedicated PLC colleges which will be completely omitted.

According the Department of Education and Skills' own criteria for approval of PLC courses, it is a requirement to include an ICT module in all courses, making this exclusion even more baffling.

Commenting on the exclusion of PLC colleges from this ICT funding, Rory O'Sullivan, Principal of Killester College of Further Education and a member of the Adult and Further Education Committee of NAPD says:

According to the Department's own criteria, PLC courses may only be provided by post-primary schools. PLC Colleges are resourced and dealt with by the Department in the same way as every other post-primary school - student returns, teachers' salaries, and school building improvement grants. However, in the case of the ICT Grants initiative, PLC students are being disadvantaged. These students were included under the previous ICT grant for broadband to schools but excluded from the ICT grant for computer networks in schools. Not only is this inconsistency very frustrating for schools, it is particularly unacceptable to see some post-primary students being regarded by the Department as less worthy of support than others.

IVEA General Secretary Michael Moriarty says:

All second level schools should be treated equally by the Department of Education and Skills. The exclusion by the Department of PLC Colleges from this initiative by the Department is patently unfair, and the underlying rationale is hard to fathom, especially as PLC Colleges require the most modern ICT facilities in order to ensure that their students are skilled appropriately for the needs of the labour market. We are asking the Tánaiste to reconsider her Department's decision in the interest of fair play.

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© IVEA 2012