Claims cutbacks hitting critical school supports
- Published: 10 October 2008
By Juno McEnroe
CUTBACKS in school completion programmes have hit critical services supporting thousands of children around the country, it has been claimed.
Services being scaled back include homework clubs, holiday support schemes, attendance tracking programmes as well as breakfast clubs.
An Oireachtas committee is to consider asking Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe to review the cutbacks affecting the struggling children. The Department of Education wrote to school completion programmes in August asking them to make 3% cuts in payroll and other possible savings.
The IMPACT trade union claimed yesterday that cutbacks in school completion programmes had affected 89% of kids, or more than 22,000 children.
IMPACT official Niall Weldon told the Oireachtas Committee on Education about the harm the money saving efforts were having.
"I wish to put on record that the cutbacks currently being implemented and any future cuts will have a direct affect upon young people targeted for support under the programme."
While only €1 million is being scrapped from the group's €30m budget, the effects are significant, committee members were told.
According to IMPACT, the cuts have curtailed or cancelled homework programmes. From Dungarvan to Dundalk, clubs have been reduced. The clubs traditionally provide young people with a few extra hours a week in safe environments to concentrate on their work with expert help.
IMPACT claims holiday supports — vital to encouraging students to return to school — have also been affected. Cuts have also meant less children in some areas are able to avail of therapeutic supports, where emotional or behavioural difficulties might be impeding their school work.
The monitoring of truant students and breakfast club facilities have also been curtailed, claims the union.
Union officials work with programmes involving 25,000 children nationwide with some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged kids. IMPACT say 66% of its clubs have cancelled or curtailed breakfast clubs.
Committee chairman Paul Gogarty said if frontline services were affected, the concern needed to be addressed.
The committee will now consider asking the Education Minister to review the payroll cuts for school completion programmes.
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