Most Cavan schools missed out on a round of funding from the Department of Education to roll-out a new compulsory STEM curriculum. Only two post-primary schools and seven national schools in the county received the new funding.
Cavan County Councillor Brendan Fay says he has spoken to over 10 Cavan principals and teachers who all complained of the "lottery" method used by the Department to select schools for the money although the Government has made the STEM curriculum compulsory in every school in the country.
Councillor Fay said local principals told him how they have to use "cornflake boxes and lollipop sticks" to teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Councillor Fay has now asked Cavan County Council to write the Department to highlight the problems with the system and to call for every school in the Cavan area to be allocated some funding.
"My motion was to write to the Minister for Education to ask why this vital STEM curriculum, that is being rolled out by the Government, was put into a lottery and to ask for them to come back and say that every school should be given this very, very vital source of money," Councillor Fay told Northern Sound.
