IPPN

Published: 18 October 2008

Irish Times

A series of 32 Budget cuts in education may have slipped below the radar because of the medical card dispute, writes Seán Flynn Education Editor

WHEN THE dust settles on the medical card dispute, it seems certain the cuts in education will be the next battleground for the Government. In all, Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe has imposed 32 separate cuts across the education sector. They have gained scant media attention because of the focus on the medical card issue, but they carry the potential to seriously damage the Government.

There are two reasons for this. The education cuts could generate chaos in schools and see children sent home. And there is a mean- spiritedness about some of these cuts - especially those affecting the disadvantaged, special needs pupils, Travellers and foreign nationals - which make them very difficult to defend.

When he gave details of the education budget to reporters on Tuesday evening, the Minister appeared well satisfied with his work. He had secured a 3 per cent overall increase in education funding and an increase in the school-building programme.

But the devil was in the detail. Lurking inside a five-page briefing document was a plethora of cuts. The Minister was unapologetic. "Sometimes," he said, "you have to take one step backward to take two steps forward."

Reaction to the education cuts was something of a slow burner. But by Wednesday afternoon the phones were hopping in the offices of the teacher unions and the school management groups. One school manager said: "I have never experienced anything like it. There was seething anger out there."

It was the changes in substitution cover that most exercised school principals and teachers. In the past, substitution was done on a voluntary basis by teachers, with no extra money and often less thanks.

But after the ASTI dispute in 2003 the department moved belatedly to introduce a proper, professional structure for substitute work. Broadly, each school has a built-in allowance for substitute work. But critically, school principals can also employ substitute teachers for uncertified sick leave for up to three days. Substitute cover is also provided for teachers on official school business.

All of this changed in the Budget. The Minister has withdrawn substitute cover for all uncertified sick leave and for teachers on official school business at second level from January. In practice, school principals say there will not be sufficient substitute cover if several teachers are ill. There will also be insufficient cover if teachers are taking pupils on field trips during school hours.

Yesterday, John Carr of the usually moderate INTO said the decision would leave primary schools with no alternative but to send children home. He said the move by Mr O'Keeffe would heap huge hardship on parents who could be forced to find childminding services at short notice.

John White of the ASTI said school principals have also advised the union that pupils will have to be sent home.

School managers also say there is a distinct prospect of children being sent home in January. One said yesterday: "The Budget cuts in substitution cover reveal an astonishing lack of awareness of how schools function. But it will all begin to unravel when kids are sent home and Mam is on Joe Duffy."

In another move which surprised and dismayed the education sector, the Budget has moved to increase class size from 27 to 28 at primary and 18 to 19 at second level. The Minister admits there will be 400 fewer teachers in the system, but teacher unions and school principals say this is a gross underestimate.

Yesterday, the ASTI was inundated with calls from schools stating that the service they can offer to their pupils will shrink to the levels offered in the 1950s.

The union was contacted by a school in Ennis which will lose five teachers, a school in Clonmel which will lose three teachers and a community school in Dublin which will lose three teachers.

At primary level - where pupil numbers are projected to rise by more than 100,000 in the next decade, the INTO says 1,000 jobs will be taken out of the system next year.

If all of this were not enough, the Budget imposed a series of cuts which leave the Government open to the charge that it has targeted the weak and the disadvantaged. These include:

• A limit of two language support teachers for schools - and only unspecified additional help for students with a high concentration of foreign pupils;
• The decision to defer implementation of the Education for Pupils with Special Needs Act, which confers new rights on special needs pupils and their parents;
• A €7.5 million cut in school book funds for disadvantaged schools;
• New cuts in supports for Travellers in education.

Yesterday, the various teacher unions were cranking up their machines as the battle against this wave of education cutbacks began. The INTO will write to more than 500,000 parents to explain the impact of the cuts on their children, the first salvo in what will be a long battle.

Yesterday, it appeared confident the latest cuts could be reversed. A spokesman said: "Once parents realise the impact on schools, the Government will be under intense pressure."