Workshops will set out to define framed partnership

FUNDING facilities, psychological and remedial services, transport and class size will be "hot issues" for debate, amongst others, in Kilkenny this weekend.

The National Parents' Council (Primary) will meet for its 11th annual delegate conference over three days and the parents of children at primary schools around the State will gather to look at the range of issues that impact on their children's school lives.

Partnership in education will be the thematic thrust of the annual conference. Ten separate workshops will address different aspects of this issue and form a core part of the conference. Albert O Ceallaigh, chief executive of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) will give the keynote address on the subject of partnership in curriculum planning.

As the Education Bill goes through, the sense of partnership and consensus has become strained in recent weeks, according to Brian Foy, chairman of the National Parents' Council (Primary). However, he is confident that this tension will be resolved to a large extent through debate and argument at the conference. To this end, the Minister for Education will address the conference on its opening night.

The resources put aside each year to support the education system will be a big area of discussion and debate, Foy says. In particular, parents will want to address the funding of remedial education, the psychological services and special education. "The motions will certainly create a lot of tensions and argument and discussions."

Up to 250 delegates are expected to attend this NPC

conference.

"We have developed all the workshops around the conference theme," Foy says.

Pat Diggins, director of the education centre at Drumcondra, Dublin, will conduct a workshop entitled "planning with parents for partnership in the school". Sean Delaney, from the Kilkenny School Project, a multi denominational school in the city, will conduct a workshop on partnership at class level.

Mary O'Neill of the INTO will direct another workshop, looking at the professional role of the teacher and the role of the parent as the primary educator. Concepta Conaty, coordinator of the Department of Education's home school liaison scheme, will conduct a workshop looking at how partnership with disadvantaged communities can work.

A total of 90 different motions will be put, under 16 headings. One will spark debate on the Early Start preschool programme. Another motion puts forward the idea that rural schools should have equal status with urban schools to qualify under the disadvantage scheme. Another motion will debate whether the NPC

should call on to National Roads Authority and the Department to install rumble strips, safety measures or speed control devices where national schools are located along a major primary route.

Another motion proposes that guidelines he established regarding the use of educational videos and television in classrooms, particularly in relation to the time allocated to such educational devices and their content.