IPPN

So-called free education will cost parents a lot more next year, new figures reveal.

The Teachers Union of Ireland, which compiled the figures, said the true burden of the education cuts was beginning to hit home as school management, teachers and parents examine the real impact on students and day-to-day school life.

Union General Secretary Peter MacMenamin said: "Effectively, families will be paying thousands extra for the education of their children as a result of these cuts. They will have a negative impact on the quality of our teaching and learning, and the life chances of the future generation."

The union gave an example of a family with two children in third-level and two in post-primary which is likely to bear an additional cost of around €1,998 next year because of increases in registration charges at third-level, school transport rises at second-level and the ending of various grants such as the books scheme for schools.

"A lone parent with three children, one in third-level and two in post-primary will have to find at least an additional €1,438 from an already stretched income. So much for 'free education', a phenomenon Ireland often brags about but which has little meaning at the moment," Mr MacMenamin added.

"To make matters worse, they are paying extra for a system that has been brutally asset-stripped."

The Children's Rights Alliance, a coalition of over 80 organisations working to secure the rights of children living in Ireland, backed the campaign to overturn education cuts.

It said that the 32 cuts were contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in breach of the Government's Towards 2016 commitments.

Jillian van Turnhout, chief executive of the alliance, said "read the small print in Budget 2009 and you will see that the Budget is about cutting children out of a future.

"Cuts to education will not save us from this financial crisis -- it will merely store-up more trouble for tomorrow's children. Investment in . . . education is about cultivating children -- our most important natural resource -- and ensuring that they don't, in the words of Barack Obama, 'begin the race of life behind the starting line'."

Meanwhile, Conradh na Gaeilge has warned that course fees for summer college in Gaeltacht areas will increase as a result of the decision to axe a teaching grant to the colleges.

Inequality

About 25,000 teenagers attend summer college in the Gaeltacht in Ireland every year, and more marks are going for the Irish oral in State examinations from 2012 onwards.

Conradh President Padraig Mac Fhearghusa said: "This means that students whose parents have the means to pay for a summer course in the Gaeltacht will have the advantage over students whose parents can't afford it, and the cutback will only exacerbate this inequality."

- John Walshe