Additional Funding For Anti-Bullying Training Programme

Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn TD, has made an additional €20,000 available for the Anti-Bullying Parent Training Programme for parents.

In is on top of the €40,000 announced for the programme last month.

The €60,000 is being allocated to the National Parents' Councils (Primary and Post-Primary) to provide training sessions for parents in how to deal with this serious issue.

The two-and-a-half hour sessions are designed to support parents and their children with issues of bullying and to inform them about new Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary schools published by the Department of Education and Skills in September.

The National Parents' Council (Primary and Post-Primary) initially planned to provide 70 training sessions between now and the end of the year, but due to the high demand from parents to the initiative, Minister Quinn has made further funds available for 15 of the training sessions.

Mr Quinn said: "I am delighted to make this additional funding available, to meet the high demand expressed by parents in this training.

"Whilst we are all aware of how constrained our national resources are at the moment, this is a fantastic example of how we can still reach out and really help students. Parents have a hugely important role to play in tackling bullying and these sessions will give them the tools they may need to do this."

The National Parents Council (Primary and Post Primary) is also developing an information leaflet for parents who attend the training sessions which will also be available on their websites.

(JP/IT)