The North/South institutions of the Good Friday Agreement
North/South Ministerial Council and Implementation Bodies
53. EDUCATION: Education for children with special needs; educational under-achievement; teacher qualifications; school, youth and teacher exchanges.
Lead Ministers in the NSMC:
Northern Ireland Executive: Mr Martin McGuinness, MLA, Minister of Education
Irish Government: Mr Michael Woods, TD, Minister for Education and Science
54. To date, the Council in this Sector has:
· approved updated arrangements for taking forward the Programme of Work
of the
Sector;
· agreed a range of cross-border related actions to be supported in response
to the
new PEACE II Operational Programme on education and youth services sectors;
· agreed to organise a joint conference in the area of Language Learning
and to
repeat the "Doors" project, a successful joint venture which involved live
performance by young people, North and South; and
· approved a study by the Centre for Cross-Border Studies in Armagh on youth
and
teacher exchanges.
55. Under the programme of activity ahead in this Sector, Joint Working
Groups of Officials from the two Departments of Education, which have been
established, are in the course of bringing forward concrete proposals for
action on the following four areas:
Special Education Needs Provision
Educational Underachievement (Three Groups, covering Pupil Attendance/ Retention;
Literacy/Numeracy; Child Protection)
Teacher Qualifications
School, Youth and Teacher Exchanges
and they will be making recommendations for putting into place delivery
measures
and projected timescales for addressing and reporting on these tasks.
Encouragement and support too is planned in the form of conferences, study groups and study visits aimed at sharing expertise and building more effective networks of education professionals, North and South.
56. In addition, work will proceed on the organisation of a Language Learning Conference and a repeat of the highly successful North/South "Doors" project.
57. HEALTH: Accident and emergency planning; co-operation on high technology equipment; cancer research; health promotion.
Lead Ministers in the NSMC:
Northern Ireland Executive: Ms Bairbre de Brún, MLA, Minister of Health,
Social Services and Public Safety
Irish Government: Mr Micheál Martin, TD, Minister for Health and Children
58. Under the direction of the Council in this Sector, Joint Working Groups of officials of the two Departments of Health have been established and will bring forward concrete proposals for action on the following five areas:
· Cancer Research (in tandem with US National Cancer Institute - this is
major area of focus);
· Health Promotion - major potential and significant co-operation in this
area; also
· High Technology;
· Accident and Emergency Services; and
· Major Emergencies
59. The Ministers agreed to commission the preparation of a paper, making proposals for further developing the local collaborative projects commissioned by the Council on inter-hospital co-operation. They also commissioned the current ad hoc Regional Services Group to initiate work on scoping the development of collaboration arrangements covering renal services and radiotherapy services.
60. In addition, the Ministers endorsed the establishment of the Working
Groups on Ambulance Services and on Emergency Planning. The Council is working
closely with the all-island Institute of Public Health which was established
in 1998 as a forum for taking forward public health issues on a North/South
basis - the Director, Dr. Jane Wilde, made an interesting presentation at
a NSMC meeting in July 2000. |
